This date in 1971 by a man named john dean, when john dean was working as white House Counsel to president Richard Nixon. The job don mcgahn has right now for donald trump john dean had that job for richard knox on. In that capacity, he wrote this confidential memorandum. Quote, this memorandum address the matter how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our administration. Stated a bit more bluntly, how can we use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies. That is not me giving you a snark can i snarky modern paraphrase that appears more elegantly in this 47 year document. Thats literally what john dean wrote in this white house memo. How can we use the available machinery to screw our political enemies. Then, he has a proposal. After reviewing this matter with a number of persons possessed of expertise in this field really i have concluded we do not need an elaborate mechanism or game plan, rather, we need a good project coordinator and full support for the project and in brief, the system would work as follows. Then theres three bullet points. Number one, key member of the staff and then he gives some examples including our old friend pat buchanan should be requested to inform us who they feel we should be giving a hard time. Wow. Number two. The project coordinator should then determine what sorts of dealings these individuals have with the federal government and how we can best screw them. Forgive me but thats literally what he says, how we can best screw them. For example, grant availability, if they have contracts, litigation, prosecution, et cetera. Number three, the project coordinator then should have access to and the full support of the top officials of the agency or department in proceeding to deal with the individuals. This was the first term of the Richard Nixon administration. This also ended up being part and parcel of the Reelection Campaign effort in 1972. This white house operation eventually turned toward democrats running for congress in the senate and People Associated with democratic president ial campaigns in addition to the enemies who they identified as people just critical of the administration in general. This wasnt a vague concept or state of mind they had as the president ial administration, this was a concrete plan with people assigned their parts in helping to carry it out, including specific named people in the administration charged with keeping up the target list up to date, keeping it constantly updated, so the Nixon Administration could maximize the fact of our incumbency, maximize the fact they controlled the federal government and the presidency to hurt persons known to be active in their opposition to our administration. John dean wrote that memo at the white house on tomorrows date in 1971. Less than two years later in the summer of 1973, john dean decided he was going to let the whole world know about that. Not only the plan in general but specifically the constantly updated lists of enemies. I do, of course, know and as i have submitted in documents other agencies were involved in seeking politically embarrassing information on individuals who were thought to be enemies of the white house. I might also add in my possession is a rather very much down the lines of what youre talking about, is a memorandum that was requested by me to prepare a means to attack the enemies of the white house. There was also maintained what was called an enemies list which was rather extensive and continually being updated. Im not going to ask who was on it. [ laughter ] im afraid you might answer. I wonder, are these documents in the possession of the committee . No. But id be happy to submit them to the committee. They didnt fit within the request that i had with counsel as to the documents he wished to have produced. If the committee does wish them ill be happy to submit them. Mr. Chairman, i think the committee would like very much to have a copy of that memorandum. All right, sir. All right, sir. Theres john dean, nixons white House Counsel saying, hey, nobody asked me about this. If youre interested in this abuse of power stuff, do you want to know about the enemies list weve been continually updating at the white house and the ways we have both been scheming to and weve been using the power of the presidency to go after people who we considered to be the president s political enemies . Because have i that. Would you like that . You hear the gasps in the Committee Room when he announces it and everybodys looking around and they dont know whether to laugh or barf or what. John dean did end up handing those documents to the Watergate Committee and that whole scheme became part of the basis of the impeachment against president nixon, abuse of power. Nixon got caught red handed with that. Not only to screw with his political enemies but plotting overtly to do that, at least plotting covertly to do that, plotting among themselves. Writing confidential memorandums, talking about it in these terms within the white house staff. Committing it to writing. Eventually it became a perverse point of pride for people who ended up on those nixon enemies lists, it meant you were important enough to have attracted the president s attention if not affection. The opposite of love is not hate, indifference. Sort of like, i didnt know you cared aspect to being proud ending up on one of those enemies list. It meant you were important enough to bother the president enough that he decided to use the power of his office to come after you. A point of pride in the end. Il venture thats how it happens a Second Time Around now that were living through a new iteration of this story in 2018. Tonight, the white house announced it would strip former cia director, john brennan, of his security clearance. Turns out this is not a john brennan story today. Turns out there is a whole list from this white house. John brennan happens to be the first man on the list. Good afternoon. Id like to begin by reading a statement from the president. Ive decided to revoke the security clearance of john brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence agency. I am evaluating action with respect to the following individuals, james clapper, james comey, michael hayden, sally yates, susan rice, andrew mccabe, peter stzok, lisa page and bruce orr. Security clearances for those who still have them may be revoked and those who have already lost their security clearance may not be able to have it reinstated. To be clear, there are no specific allegations from the white house about the mishandling of classified information or leaking of classified information or anything else like that. Mishandling or leaking classified information is a crime. This announcement from the white house today was not a criminal accusati accusation. It was just announcement of people that the president wants to go after. The white house has a new list. How does one get so lucky as to get on this list . The first time the white house floated this idea also in the White House Briefing room a few weeks ago they were actually pretty explicit what you have to do to get on this list. Not only is the president looking to take away brennans security clearance, hes also looking into the clearances of comey, clapper, hayden, rice and mccabe, making baseless accusations of improper contact with russia or being influenced by russia against the president is extremely inappropriate and the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides illegitimacy to accusations without evidence. There is no accusation from the white house anybody is mishandling classified information or misusing their security clearance in some other way youre not allowed to do with a security clearance. The white house is now making clear, you criticize the president specifically with regard to russia intervening to help him in his election, they will use the power of the presidency to hurt you. They will strip your security clearance to try to discredit you as a critic of the president on russia. At least when the Nixon White House did it they had the decency to write confidential on top of their discussions of these sorts of things. We are not blessed in our era with the same sort of subtlety or shame. Security clearances are a real thing. The cia and all the other agencies who grant them or oversee them. In fact, they have fullfledged well established procedures to strip security clearances from people for cause when there is cause to do so. None of those procedures were engaged here. Those procedures were not followed here. Those agencies were not involved. This was directed personally from the white house from the president himself who is being hands on here in the way that nixon was, in a way that ended up being a real problem for president nixon 40 plus years ago. You might remember from the nixon tapes from the Oval Office Tapes how nixon talked about what he was looking for in an irs commissioner, when he wanted that irs commissioner to be willing to do things to his enemies and not do things to his friends. The president being so hands on on these kinds of punishment actions from the white house, this is part of what got nixon the second article of impeachment. I want to be sure hes a ruthless son of a bitch. That he will do what hes told. That every income tax return i want to see i see. That hell go after our enemies and not go after our friends. Its as simple as that. If he isnt, he doesnt get the job. I want to be sure hes a ruthless son of a that will do what hes told. Hell go after our enemies and not go after our friends, as simple as that. If he doesnt he doesnt get the job. Nixon 45 years ago was hands on, directly involved, directly in control of coordinated efforts inside his white house to make sure he was using the power of the presidency in an illegal way. He was using the power of the federal government what did dean call it . The fact of our incumbency, using his control of the white house and of the federal government to go after our enemies and to not go after our friends. This Statement Today about stripping security clearances from people specifically because they have criticized the president or the administration, this Statement Today remarkably, was issued very specifically in the president s name, in a way that is unusual for this white house or for any other. The president s press secretary did not go out there and announce in her own words this new policy or action by the administration. She went to the podium and announced she was reading a statement from the president. The white house then released this pdf document explicitly distributed as a statement from the president written in the first person and ascribed to the president himself and only. This statement from the president obviously becomes an instant historical document. I have to admit i kind of wish they had waited until tomorrow to release it on august 16th instead of august 15th so the parallel would have been all the more perfect in terms of that august 16th enemies list memo from john dean back in 1971. A day or so either side of the historical parallel i will still take it. The Statement Today does offer one very specific, very obvious, very black and white clue for us today as to what just happened here and why. Not only did the statement from the white house say right at the top, statement from the president , the statement from the president today was also dated, and weirdly, since today is august 15th, the date at the top of this Statement Today was july 26th. Thats not today. That was three weeks or so ago. What this implies is that this announcement about stripping security clearances for people who have criticized the president , it appears that, at least implied this was drawn up several weeks ago and has been sitting in a drawer ready to go ever since, just waiting for the right time for it to be launched. Why was today the right time . They have apparently had this thing cooked 3 1 2 weeks. Why was today the day they decided to put it out there. One dollars to donuts bet says we will find out somewhere along the line in some sweaty Committee Room hearing much like the one that gasped at john deans enemies list revelation 40 odd years ago this summer. The weird means the way the white house announced this new policy today suggests nobody other than the president himself was particularly comfortable being associated with this decision or having his or her naum associated with it in print. When you wrap other people in schemes like this, even if theyre willing to go along with it for a time, history shows that oftentimes down the road, people have regrets or they change their minds whether or not they want this to be part of their own historical record in addition to the president s. Meanwhile, our best guess why they took this thing out of the desk drawer today and decided to deploy it today after kicking it around 3 1 2 weeks, our best guess because they wanted to use this to change the news narrative. They wanted to distract from Something Else going on in the news. Theres a lot going on in the news but hard not to notice today is the day close arguments wrapped up in the criminal felony trial against the president s Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort. We have been waiting to get the transcript all day. As of me getting on the air, we still did not have it. Although im noticing people scurrying around in the newsroom that makes me wonder if it came in as soon as i started talking. I will check it out in the commercial break and let you know. It might meanwhile the jury is deliberating youll be treated with me acting out the closing argues in court with me playing all the parts. I know it is terrible but i cant help myself. Well see when we get the transcript. From a lot of excellent courtroom reporting today, we do know it appears that whatever happened a few days ago in the manafort trial, where there was a whole day of long mysterious recesses and closed hearings and sealed motions, a lot of people had speculated at the time it might have meant there was some sort of issue with the jury. Maybe a juror had been exposed to Media Coverage about the case or had spoken to someone about the case or maybe a juror had done Something Else that might require them to be replaced by one of the alternates. That had been a lot of the informed speculation about that day of mystery a few days ago in the trial. We now know today if it was something to do with a juror, any danger there appears to have passed. There were four alternate jurors who have been sitting in the courtroom every day of the trial watching everything in case they needed to be swapped onto the jury because a juror had to be removed. Well today, the four alternates, the four alternate jurors were sent home by the judge. What that tells us is that the 12 jurors who will be deliberating Paul Manaforts fate, its the original 12 jurors. That means that none of them appears to have been replaced. Part of the reason a lot of people believed that strange day of closed hearings a few days ago might have been a juror related issue, particularly maybe an issue with a juror being exposed to media about the case is because the outspoken judge in this case has been so emphatic, doubling and tripling down on his admonitions to the jury, they need to avoid all discussions about the case and particularly any media reports that might mention the case, that was part of why people thought maybe thats becoming an issue with this jury. Apparently there wasnt a serious issue with the jury because its all the original jurors doing the deliberating. That history where weve seen that going, weve seen the judge overtly worry over this issue and keep going back to this issue of staying away from the media, that made it very striking today on closing arguments day, when the judge at one point, started referencing himself, what the Media Coverage of this trial has been like. Oh, really . How do you know . While discussing in court today whether or not the jury would get a specific instruction about manaforts loans from that little bank in check where he had offered the ceo of the bank a job running the u. S. Army, theyre discussing that today when theyre setting up what the instructions to the jury are going to be. The judge noted in open court hed sided with prosecutors, sided with the prosecution in terms of the way they thought the jury should be instructed to deliberate about the loans in that part of the case. The judge notes out loud hes siding with the prosecution on that one jury instruction. The judge said, if you read the newspapers, though, its otherwise. He points at the defense and said, they win everything. He pointed at the prosecution, he said, and you lose everything. So the judge today in open court appeared to indicate hes been reading newspaper coverage of his own trial and he thinks the newspaper coverage makes it seem like the defense is winning everything and the prosecution is losing everything. Thats interesting. But the judge has repeatedly insisted in court he himself has not been paying any attention to any Media Coverage of the trial. I dont actually think its improper for judges themselves to watch or read Media Coverage about their own trials. Its not improper in the same way it would be for somebody on the jury, but if it is the case judge ellis has been secretly monitoring Media Coverage of his own trial i just want to say, hi, judge. Happy to have you here, judge ellis. Somebody send that man a nielsen box. There does appear to have been one point of somewhat significant drama in the closing arguments today when Paul Manaforts defense team strayed into a few areas of argument they were expressly prohibited from bringing up in front of the jury. One of these was about, again, that little bank in chicago with the loans to manafort. There was a question whether or not they could talk before the jury whether the bank made or lost money on those loans. They were not supposed to talk about that in front of the jury. They brought it