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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWH lawyer moved transcript of Trump call to classified server after Ukraine adviser raised alarm
By Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger and Greg Miller
Oct. 30, 2019 at 10:50 p.m. EDT
Moments after President Trump ended his phone call with Ukraines president on July 25, an unsettled national security aide rushed to the office of White House lawyer John Eisenberg.
Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine adviser at the White House, had been listening to the call and was disturbed by the pressure Trump had applied to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rivals, according to people familiar with Vindmans testimony to lawmakers this week.
Vindman told Eisenberg, the White Houses legal adviser on national security issues, that what the president did was wrong, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
Scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad, Eisenberg proposed a step that other officials have said is at odds with long-standing White House protocol: moving a transcript of the call to a highly classified server and restricting access to it, according to two people familiar with Vindmans account.
The details of how the White House clamped down on information about the controversial call comes as the House impeachment inquiry turns its focus to the role of Eisenberg, who has served as deputy White House counsel since the start of Trumps administration. House impeachment investigators on Wednesday evening announced they have asked Eisenberg and a fellow White House lawyer, Mike Ellis, to testify Monday.
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C_U_L8R
(45,019 posts)The evidence is piling up.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)who, contrary to established protocol, hid that transcript in the secret server as fast as he could after Vindman told him about it. They need to haul his ass before the committees, though he'll probably claim executive privilege like the rest of those crooks.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)He will claim attorney client privilege. The problem is that if he directed improper classification of that material, then he was not simply rendering counsel.
Attempting to use ones role as an attorney to facilitate a crime is not a good look.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)because Dean wasn't Nixon's lawyer; he was WH counsel. Who was Eisenberg representing? Also, the privilege only protects legal advice, and although Vindman sought Eisenberg's advice, Eisenberg's hiding the transcript in the server wasn't advice; it was a decision and an action he took in response to information Vindman gave him.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Compounding a problem by attempting to cover it up is not a good plan for a lawyer to propose.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)and one day I see the boss shoot somebody in his office. He goes out to lunch and leaves the body on the floor. I'm not sure what to do so I drag the body to the office of Acme's general counsel - you. I ask you what to do because the boss has done this really bad thing and here's the evidence. You tell me not to worry; it will be fine and you'll take care of everything. I go back to my office and you drag the body to your car, stuff it in the trunk and drive out to the woods, where you bury the body in a shallow grave. But soon the boss is arrested for the murder, and you and I are both asked to testify against him.
Who, if anybody, can claim attorney-client privilege, and for what?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)I think youre going to be okay, though. You did the right thing.
I buried him in a shallow grave for safekeeping, and I will go dig him up, place him in a sealed envelope, and place that envelope in the custody of the court.
You make it sound as if my effort to safeguard the evidence was some sort of sinister plan.
Leghorn21
(13,526 posts)We been lookin for you
Everybody mentions you in their depositions, so come on in, take off your shoes, and tell us whatall you been up to
seriously
California_Republic
(1,826 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)on Monday. Can't recall if I heard this on MSNBC or CNN within the last hour or so.
triron
(22,019 posts)NBachers
(17,135 posts)crickets
(25,982 posts)Poiuyt
(18,130 posts)At this point, it must be obvious that trump is going down. Why would anyone go down with that ship if they didn't have to?