What I Learned From Briefing Robert Mueller

[Dill]

(04-13-2018, 09:33 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: An interesting read that popped up on my Twitter feed, this morning.

What I Learned From Briefing Robert Mueller

I discovered the hard way that when my presentation casually offered judgments lacking robust sourcing or logic, Mueller would ask me about the substantiation or argumentation until either my desperate searching through background materials could satisfy him or—more often in those first few months—I admitted that I’d have to get back to him after talking to the experts on that issue.


He wasn’t sending me down rabbit holes for the joy of doing so; he simply didn’t seem to trust analysis anchored to weak evidence or unclear reasoning. Inevitably, my follow-up on his questions resulted in either a quick nod of thanks or, particularly during the early briefings, another set of questions sending me back for more. Never did I feel that I’d been sent on a fishing expedition. Anything that initially appeared to be a tangent ended up having a purpose, usually to help him bring into focus one of the many pictures we were puzzling over.

This is how it is supposed to work. Mueller no doubt remembers Cheney's Office of Special Plans.

What happens when you get a critical mass of NSC staff who don't do it that way, led by a president who doesn't?
Or gets his intel from partisan and unprofessional sources?