The level of his authority within the campaign really isn’t particularly important. The devil is going to be in the details. Who was he communicating with? What did he say and do? To what extent was he connected with people who were higher up? And, even if he had little or no power within the campaign, what might he know about the people who were in positions of authority, and their dealings? I don’t think that Mueller start with Papadopoulos because he believed that he was the guy calling the shots.
As one pundit noted on one of the cable news shows this morning, the guys who broke into the Watergate didn’t have any real authority in the Nixon campaign either.
On the whole, I agree with this. But what it amounts to is saying that additional facts could emerge incriminating the more important people. Absolutely. What the “GP was a relative nobody” argument is about is that what’s emerged until now is not about a guy with significant authority.
His authority-level is irrelevant. He’s the messenger. He’s the go-between. He’s the guy who talks to everyone and tries to set up meetings and schedule sit-downs.
If Papdopulous is really just the guy who sat at the table with the important guys and poured their coffee - he’s a serious witness.
And we know from his indictment that he’s been acting as a “pro-active” witness for the last couple months. He’s been actively gathering information from the important guys at the table.
It doesn’t matter what Papadopoulos’ job title in the administration was. It matters which meetings he attended and what was discussed in his hearing.
This WaPo article runs down who is who, when it is known.
“The Campaign Supervisor”: Trump campaign national co-chairman Sam Clovis
“High-Ranking Campaign Official”: Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski
“Another high-ranking campaign official”: Campaign chairman Paul Manafort
“Another campaign official”: Manafort deputy Rick Gates
“Senior Policy Advisor”: Unknown
“The Professor”: Joseph Mifsud, director of the London Academy of Diplomacy
“The Female Russian National”: Unknown
“A Russian National Connected to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs”: Ivan Timofeev
And also, knowledge about what others in higher up positions **with **authority did, and who they communicated with.
As has been pointed out (and is rather obvious), Mueller is following the playbook; Get the small fish, wring the information out of them and then move on to the inner circles.
Right. But at this point we don’t know any of that. What I’m discussing is how incriminating what’s already known is. What might become known at some point in the future is speculation.
I don’t think much of Trump or his tweet(s), but I don’t get that particular counterargument. It’s not like GP was falling on his sword for the Trumpians. He was trying to exonerate himself. (And especially if he later wore a wire as is being widely speculated, I don’t see Trump owing him anything.)
[OTOH, I also don’t know what Trump might be saying either. AFAICT, the incriminating facts that GP pleaded to are mostly documented in emails, and very little is resting on his veracity at this point. But in general, I’m not inclined to pay attention to Trump tweets.]
What’s known right now is that some three months ago, Mueller busted a low level staffer who had knowledge of Russian involvement with the Trump campaign. Mueller kept this arrest secret, and used this staffer as a “Proactive Cooperator” for the past three months.
We know that Mueller has chosen this moment to reveal that he has used this staffer.
So sure. Maybe it’s all bluff. Maybe Mueller has nothing, and this whole investigation ends now. But that’s not very likely, is it?