Spice World

Paging Bob Mueller: Sean Spicer “Documented Everything” He Heard in the White House

“People are going to wish they'd been nicer to Sean.”
Sean Spicer in the East Room of the White House June 23 2017.
By Cheriss May/NurPhoto/Getty Images.

News networks reportedly passed on recent free agent Sean Spicer, but the former White House press secretary may yet get a starring turn in Robert Mueller’s Russia melodrama. According to former colleagues, Spicer filled “notebook after notebook” with notes about his meetings during the Trump campaign and while he was in the White House, Mike Allen reported Thursday morning. The note-taking was so conspicuous that “underlings joked about him writing a tell-all” one day. “Sean documented everything,” one source told Allen, saying that it helped Spicer do his job more efficiently.

The note-taking may have helped Spicer’s job performance, but as any lawyer (or Baltimore drug dealer) is aware, notes can easily be subpoenaed by lawyers fishing for evidence. Especially when you may have had a front-row seat to a grand conspiracy to collude with agents of a foreign government to interfere in a presidential election, as Mueller’s team is investigating. “Think about your own profession and what some smart-ass—excuse me, lawyer—can do with your notes,” Stan Brand, who served as former White House aide George Stephanopoulous’s lawyer during the Whitewater scandal, told Vanity Fair back in 1996. (And Brand would know: several aides and staffers in the Clinton administration were done in by their own note-taking habits during the scandal, leading to a general practice of White House staffers intentionally taking as few notes as possible.)

Spicer’s black books, however, may be more damaging to the Trump administration: The New York Times reported that Mueller’s team has subpoenaed the Trump administration for documents related to a vast array of matters, including the firing of James Comey and the drafting of a statement about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer. All those conversations, and more, will certainly be of interest to Mueller’s prosecutors when they interview Spicer about his time in the white house—which means other members of the Trump administration might have reason to be nervous. “People are going to wish they'd been nicer to Sean. . . . He was in a lot of meetings,” one White House official told Allen.

Spicer, fresh off a controversial celebrity cameo at the Emmys, seemed unusually shaken when Allen interrupted his comeback tour to ask for a comment. “Mike, please stop texting/emailing me unsolicited anymore,” he replied. Allen was perplexed:

When I replied with a "?" (I have known Spicer and his wife for more than a dozen years), he answered: "Not sure what that means. From a legal standpoint I want to be clear: Do not email or text me again. Should you do again I will report to the appropriate authorities."

About an hour later, Allen said, Spicer responded to his e-mail with another message threatening to “contact the appropriate legal authorities to address your harassment” if the communications continued.

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It all amounts to another dramatic turn in the Spicer Saga, which has recently seen Trump’s erstwhile Baghdad Bob attempting to ingratiate himself back into polite society. Spicer recently signed onto the speaking circuit, where he is expected to be well-compensated for speeches deciphering Trump’s inanity for trade groups and corporations. He turned down an offer to be on Dancing with the Stars. And he was apparently rebuffed by news executives for a paid contributor gig, with network insiders saying Spicer has a “lack of credibility.” While a Scott McClellan-esque tell-all is apparently not in the cards for Spicer, the disgraced Trump flack may yet get to see his thoughts and feelings published in newspapers across the country—if and when his private diary makes its way into Mueller’s hands.