This week on the NYR Daily

On the NYR Daily this week, investigative reporter Murray Waas published a story revealing what he called [“the most compelling evidence we yet know of that Donald Trump may have obstructed justice.”]( Trump’s lawyers have argued that the president was unaware Michael Flynn was under criminal investigation when he pressured FBI director James Comey to “see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” and thus he could not have broken the law. But confidential White House documents, which Waas has seen, show that Trump did in fact know Flynn was under investigation. The night our story broke, Lawrence O’Donnell [opened his program on MSNBC with a segment]( on Waas’s story, and the following day, Trump [tweeted furiously]( demanding that Attorney General Jeff Sessions end “this Rigged Witch Hunt,” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Waas, a veteran journalist who also covered the Bush administration’s push for war in Iraq, is understandably reluctant to reveal too much about his sources or how he reported his latest story, but I asked him why the current administration leaks so much to the press. “There is no loyalty in this White House,” he told me. “And there’s also less idealism. Compare this administration to say that of Barack Obama, where most of the staff loved the president, and if they didn't, they at least respected him and believed in their mission. There isn't much of that in this White House. So they talk to reporters. And then there’s the fact that they work for a president who will throw them under the bus, and not think twice about doing it. Former New York Times editor Howell Raines said the Trump administration is ‘a hospice where reputations go to die.’ So I'm sure that some of them talk for reasons of survival, too. There’s a great piece in [Axios]( about this, where one leaker says, ‘To cover my tracks, I usually pay attention to other staffers’ idioms and use that in my background quotes. That throws the scent off me.’” As a child, Waas was fascinated by Watergate. “I couldn't get enough of it,” he says. “I would race to the 7-Eleven on my bike, come back home with supplies, gum and beef jerky and sodas, and then just watch the hearings all day. My father actually knew Sam Dash, who was chief counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee, and was a star of the televised hearings. They knew each other since Dash was an assistant District of Attorney in Philadelphia, where I grew up.” “Later, as a college student, I would have lunch with Sam and he would have these amazing stories and recollections about Watergate. And I just remembering thinking to myself that I wanted to be part of something like that.” I asked Waas what it felt like to break a story like this one. “To sound idealistic for a moment, the rule of law is the foundation for any democracy” he said. “If that erodes over time, so does democracy itself. There are two types of stories I value most: stories that can save lives, which are exceedingly rare, and stories that play some small role in sustaining the rule of law. So when there is a constitutional crisis, I want in.” Thanks as always for reading. Lucy McKeon Associate Editor, NYR Daily You are receiving this message because you signed up for email newsletters from The New York Review. [Update preferences]( The New York Review of Books 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](