Michael S. Schmidt > Quotes

“But it would not be a fair fight. Barr was as vibrant, smart, funny, and cunning as he had ever been. But Mueller seemed to be a shell of his former self. As he spoke in the meeting, his voice trembled, his hands shook, and he seemed at times confused. To Barr, it was sad to see what had happened to Mueller. But this was not the time for sentimentality for his old colleague and friend. Barr controlled how the report would be released, giving him some ability to sculpt the narrative’s findings, influence how its conclusions would be interpreted and understood, and shape the ultimate outcome for Trump.”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“intensified public interest in stories”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“McGahn then made another mistake. Instead of pressing Yates for more details, he asked few other follow-ups, leaving him with only a loose grasp of the facts when he would need to explain this to Trump later in the afternoon. He would later admit to colleagues that he had mishandled the situation. “There’s no way I should have allowed her to leave this shit burger on me,” he would say. “I should have said, ‘Sally, you’re the acting attorney general and you’re not leaving my office until you give me some counsel on what to do, and you know a hell of a lot more than I do because you’re overseeing the FBI.”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“Adding to the peculiarity, on three separate occasions in the span of the interview, Flynn looked out a window into midday brightness and said, “What a beautiful black sky.”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“in St. Petersburg, Russia, a company—known as the Internet Research Agency, or IRA—devised a canny and comprehensive attack on American society. Masquerading as Americans on social media, the Russians designed a plan to exploit the fissures of American society by polluting the American information ecosystem with unprecedented levels of disinformation, weakening American democracy.”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“This is terrible, Jeff,” Trump said. “It’s all because you recused. Kennedy appointed his brother. Obama appointed Holder. I appointed you and you recused yourself. You left me on an island. I can’t do anything.”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“When I did start calling around about Clinton’s emails, the reaction from my sources revealed that I had hit on something highly consequential. On March 2, I broke the story that Clinton had relied exclusively on a personal email account when she was secretary of state. For most politicians, the use of a personal email account wouldn’t be a big deal. But the revelation reignited familiar unease about the Clintons among Democrats and fit into the narrative—pushed mercilessly by Clinton’s critics—that she and her husband felt they could play by their own rules without consequence.”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“As they were served courses of salad, shrimp scampi, chicken Parmesan, and vanilla ice cream, Trump gave Comey a tour of his mind, expounding on his appreciation of the White House’s luxuries, his media savvy, his son’s height,”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President

“But he also laid out the protocols for contacts between the White House and the FBI, telling Priebus that going forward, this was the type of question that the Justice Department should only be answering in direct communication with the White House counsel’s office. Comey talking about the contact policy was rich. Just two weeks earlier he had flagrantly disregarded that very policy and sent his FBI agents into the White House to interview Flynn.”
― Michael S. Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President