'Highly irregular': Conway dissects Trump DOJ’s 'unusual' lack of note-takers at Maxwell interview

01 August

George Conway (MSNBC)

Attorney and frequent President Donald Trump critic George Conway said it was suspicious that officials of Trump’s Department of Justice appeared to have met with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell without the presence of FBI agents or note-takers.

“They met seemingly without anybody else present,” said Bulwark editor Jonathan Last on Conway’s show ‘George Conway Explains it All’. “Is it common for the government to show up with just one guy and not to take notes?”

“It would be highly irregular … if you were conducting a legitimate federal investigation into something, as opposed to trying to make sure that your orange boss isn’t embarrassed because he hung out with a sex predator years ago,” Comey said.

“I’ve been interviewed by the FBI and they don’t seem to travel alone … and they take copious notes,” said Conway, explaining that interviews he’s had with FBI agents always result in notes that can serve as court record. “I’m sure I could request a copy of an FBI 302, which is what they call their memos to the files of witness interviews.”

Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, now serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for her role in Epstein's crimes, met with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche in late July — fueling speculation of a possible reduction in her sentence or even a full presidential pardon. Maxwell's attorneys are also appealing her conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court in the hope of getting the conviction overturned.

“The notion that the deputy attorney general, who knows nothing about the case, assisted by nobody who knows anything about the case — including the woman they recently fired, Maureen Comey, who’s name you might recognize … it’s just highly unusual for that to happen,” said Comey, “especially if there were no note takers … or FBI agents. Because they’re the ones who write down these things when you interview witnesses and you’re a federal prosecutor.”

Last cited an incident in the first Trump administration when the president berated White House counsel Don McGahn for taking notes on a matter involving White House correspondence.

“Why do you take notes?” Trump asked, according to the Mueller report. “Lawyers don’t take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes.”

“And McGahn’s response was ‘that’s because you’ve only ever been with mob lawyers,' or something like that.” Last said.

“Lawyers take notes. We take copious notes,” Conway said. “… [B]ecause we want to make sure it’s accurate and the witness’s testimony is consistent with the facts. … We don’t want to present perjured testimony to a court, for one thing. That’s what you do when you’re not afraid you’re doing something wrong.”

Comey added that ordering someone to stop taking notes or collecting the other side’s notes could amount to “destroying evidence in the event of a future inquiry — and it gets you into trouble.”

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