HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021129.jpg
3.03 MB
Extraction Summary
8
People
4
Organizations
3
Locations
3
Events
3
Relationships
5
Quotes
Document Information
Type:
Book excerpt (pages 10-11 of 'siege' by michael wolff)
File Size:
3.03 MB
Summary
This document is an excerpt from Michael Wolff's book 'Siege' (pages 10-11), bearing a House Oversight watermark. It details the resignations of Hope Hicks and Josh Raffel from the Trump White House, linking their departures to the Mueller investigation and their involvement in drafting a false statement aboard Air Force One regarding the Trump Tower meeting. The text also characterizes President Trump's dismissive attitude toward the Special Counsel's inquiry, portraying him as confident in his ability to survive the investigation through 'playing the game' and labeling it a 'witch hunt.'
People (8)
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Hope Hicks | White House communications director |
Resigned abruptly; aided in the Trump Tower meeting cover-up; described as the person closest to the president.
|
| Josh Raffel | Deputy to Hope Hicks |
Resigned abruptly; aided in the Trump Tower meeting cover-up.
|
| Donald Trump | President of the United States |
Subject of the Mueller investigation; dismissive of legal threats; focused on 'playing the game.'
|
| Donald Trump Jr. | Son of the President |
Mentioned regarding his meeting in Trump Tower with Russians.
|
| Hillary Clinton | Former Presidential Candidate |
Mentioned as the target of 'dirt' offered by Russian go-betweens.
|
| John Dowd | Attorney |
Reluctant to give Trump bad news; understood the danger of the prosecutor.
|
| Robert Mueller | Special Counsel |
Leading the investigation into the Trump campaign.
|
| Michael Wolff | Author |
Author of the book 'Siege' from which this text is taken.
|
Organizations (4)
| Name | Type | Context |
|---|---|---|
| White House |
Place of employment for Hicks and Raffel.
|
|
| Axios |
Media outlet that reported on Raffel's departure.
|
|
| United States Department of Justice |
Investigating body mentioned in relation to resources and thoroughness.
|
|
| Russian Government |
Mentioned via go-betweens offering dirt on Clinton.
|
Timeline (3 events)
July 2017
Flight on Air Force One back from G20 Summit where Trump, Hicks, and Raffel drafted a cover story for the Trump Tower meeting.
Air Force One / En route from Germany
Locations (3)
| Location | Context |
|---|---|
|
Site of the meeting between Trump Jr. and Russians.
|
|
|
Location of the G20 summit.
|
|
|
Destination of flight from G20.
|
Relationships (3)
Raffel was Hicks's number two; both resigned around the same time.
She was the person closest to the president; he moped about her absence asking 'Where's my Hope-y?'
Dowd provided reports of the investigation; reluctant to give client bad news.
Key Quotes (5)
"Where's my Hope-y?"Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021129.jpg
Quote #1
"Boring. Confusion for everybody"Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021129.jpg
Quote #2
"You can't follow any of this. No hook."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021129.jpg
Quote #3
"It's playing the game... I'm good at the game. Maybe I'm the best. Really, I could be the best. I think I am the best. I'm very good. Very cool. Most people are afraid that the worst might happen. But it doesn't, unless you're stupid. And I'm not stupid."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021129.jpg
Quote #4
"what doesn't kill me strengthens me."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021129.jpg
Quote #5
Full Extracted Text
Complete text extracted from the document (4,641 characters)
10 MICHAEL WOLFF
Hicks had been elevated to White House communications director, with Raffel as her number two.
The trouble had arisen the previous summer. Both Hicks and Raffel had been on Air Force One in July 2017 as the news broke about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting in Trump Tower during the campaign with Russian government go-betweens offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. During the flight back to the United States after the G20 summit in Germany, Hicks and Raffel aided the president in his efforts to issue a largely false story about the Trump Tower meeting, thus becoming part of the cover-up.
Even though Raffel had been at the White House for a little more than nine months, the Axios report said that his departure had been under discussion for several months. That was untrue. It was an abrupt exit.
The next day, just as abruptly, Hope Hicks—the person in the White House closest to the president—resigned as well.
The one person who perhaps knew more than anyone else about the workings of the Trump campaign and the Trump White House was suddenly out the door. The profound concern inside the White House was the reasonable supposition that Hicks and Raffel, both witnesses to and participants in the president's efforts to cover up the details of his son and son-in-law's meeting with the Russians, were subjects or targets of the Mueller investigation—or, worse, had already cut a deal.
The president, effusive in his public praise for Hicks, did not try to talk her out of leaving. In the weeks to come he would mope about her absence—"Where's my Hope-y?"—but, in fact, as soon as he got wind that she might be talking, he wanted to cut her loose and began, in a significant rewrite, downgrading her status and importance on the campaign and in the White House.
Yet here, from Trump's point of view, was a hopeful point about Hicks: as central as she was to his presidency, her duties really only consisted of pleasing him. She was an unlikely agent of grand strategy and great conspiracies. Trump's team was made up of only bit players.
* * *
John Dowd may have been reluctant to give his client bad news, but he well understood the danger of a thorough prosecutor with virtually
SIEGE
unlimited resources. The more a determined team of G-men sifts, strips and inspects, the greater the chance that both methodical and casual crimes will be revealed. The more comprehensive the search, the more inevitable the outcome. The case of Donald Trump—with his history of bankruptcies, financial legerdemain, dubious associations, and general sense of impunity—certainly seemed to offer prosecutors something of an embarrassment of riches.
For his part, however, Donald Trump yet seemed to believe that his skills and instincts were at least a match for all the thoroughness and resources of the United States Department of Justice. He even believed their exhaustive approach would work in his favor. "Boring. Confusion for everybody," he said, dismissing the reports of the investigation provided by Dowd and others. "You can't follow any of this. No hook."
One of the many odd aspects of Trump's presidency was that he did not see being president, either the responsibilities or the exposure, as being all that different from his pre-presidential life. He had endured almost countless investigations in his long career. He had been involved in various kinds of litigation for the better part of forty-five years. He was a fighter who, with brazenness and aggression, got out of fixes that would have ruined a weaker, less wily player. That was his essential business strategy: what doesn't kill me strengthens me. Though he was wounded again and again, he never bled out.
"It's playing the game," he explained in one of his frequent monologues about his own superiority and everyone else's stupidity. "I'm good at the game. Maybe I'm the best. Really, I could be the best. I think I am the best. I'm very good. Very cool. Most people are afraid that the worst might happen. But it doesn't, unless you're stupid. And I'm not stupid."
In the weeks after his first anniversary in office, with the Mueller investigation in its eighth month, Trump continued to regard the special counsel's inquiry as a contest of wills. He did not see it as a war of attrition—a gradual reduction of the strength and credibility of the target through sustained scrutiny and increasing pressure. Instead, he saw a situation to confront, a spurious government undertaking that was vulnerable to his attacks. He was confident he could jawbone this "witch hunt"—often tweeted in all-caps—to at least a partisan draw.
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021129
Discussion 0
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this epstein document