About that Grand Jury leak

On Tuesday, the New York Post published an extraordinary leak about the grand jury impaneled by Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential collusion with Russia.

The piece — written by Richard Johnson, a Page Six gossip columnist — quoted a source discussing the nature of the jury.

[...]

“The grand jury room looks like a Bernie Sanders rally,” my source said. “Maybe they found these jurors in central casting, or at a Black Lives Matter rally in Berkeley [Calif.]” Of the 20 jurors, 11 are African-Americans and two were wearing “peace T-shirts,” the witness said. “There was only one white male in the room, and he was a prosecutor.” Mueller was not present.

[...]

The most telling aspect of the anonymous quote provided to the New York Post is the source’s use of the term “central casting.”

This term, which originated in the entertainment industry to describe someone whose appearance matches the stereotypes associated with an acting role, is a favorite phrase of Trump’s.

“[Pence] has been so wonderful to work with. He’s a real talent, a real guy. And he is central casting, do we agree? Central casting,” Trump told the National Governor’s Association in February in reference to his vice president.

“This is central casting. If I was doing a movie, I pick you, general,” Trump said of his Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, last January.

[...]

“But, you know, they want you to look at a woman who’s in a wheelchair, that’s 88 years old, and barely making it, and let’s say, comes out of Sweden. She’s supposed to be treated the same way as a guy that looks just like the guy that just got captured, who is central casting for profiling,” Trump said in September 2016.

Trump’s use of the phrase “central casting” is so pervasive that multiple articles have been written on the subject over the past year.

MSNBC took on the topic last February, reporting that the president is “preoccupied” with the term.

[...]

In addition to the Trumpian speech patterns in the anonymous quote, it was also published by a reporter who has deep ties to Donald Trump.

Although Richard Johnson is now a columnist, he served as editor for Page Six from 1993 to 2010 — a publication that is famously revered by Trump. Susan Mulcahy, who served as Page Six editor in the 1980s, wrote last June that Trump “loves Page Six and used to have it brought it to him the moment it arrived in his office.”

[...]

Johnson is on record about his close relationship to Trump. Last month, he detailed their connections in a column entitled “Richard Johnson’s life with the Donald.”

[...]

Trump has a history of being an anonymous source for stories. For years, a spokesman named John Barron would defend Trump in various news outlets. It was later revealed that Barron was actually Trump himself.

  Think Progress

Okay. You convinced me.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.