...
During the nine-minute, 35-second call, Wohl and Burkman do not cover themselves in glory. They hector Andrade when she says she's feeling paranoid and wants reassurance that everything's fine.
"What could be wrong, Diana?" Wohl asks. "You did a good job, you got paid. What's the problem? What seems to be the issue? You're freaking out. You're texting me late at night. What's the issue?"
"What's the problem? What's your problem?" echoes Burkman. "Tell me what the problem is? What's your problem?"
She says she's uncomfortable with the money they gave her, some guy showing up, claiming to be a lawyer, with his face hidden by a cap.
"Is he even a real lawyer?" she asks. "I looked him up."
"Yeah, he's a real lawyer," Wohl says. "He's a good lawyer," and then goes on to brag about that lawyer's White House connections.
It's possible that a White House–connected lawyer might have hand-delivered five figures in cash to Andrade in Los Angeles. It's also possible Wohl made up the whole thing. But she says she did get the money, and Wohl and Burkman are clearly eager to imply that they are intimate with Team Trump.
The cloaks and daggers might have been discomfiting, but ultimately were a distraction from what Andrade wanted on tape. She proposes she give back the cash and instead receive a wire transfer (thus creating a trace), a proposition Burkman shoots down. ("Cash is best," he tells her. "We don't want any records of this nonsense.") She wants the men to admit they are trying to bring down a person who in no part deserves it.
"Let me tell you something, Diana," says Burkman. "This guy shut the country down. He put 40 million people out of work. In a situation like that, you have to make up whatever you have to make up to stop that train and that's the way life works, okay? That's the way it goes."
Andrade counters that he and Wohl are not taking COVID-19 seriously. "It's not just any virus. I mean, it's a huge deal….I think you guys think it's something made up, and it's not."
"Mother Nature has to clean the barn every so often," Burkman counters. "How real is it? Who knows? So what if 1 percent of the population goes? So what if you lose 400,000 people? 200,000 were elderly, the other 200,000 are the bottom of society. You got to clean out the barn. If it's real, it's a positive thing, for God's sake."
"So, what? Survival of the fittest?" Andrade asks, a bit more pique in her voice. (The sense you are dealing with people who have an enthusiasm for eugenics can do that.) But Wohl's not having it.
"Diana, look, can you just do this for me?" he says. "Can you just keep your mouth shut and just…just do it for me."
"Oh Jacob, come on," she says. "You have a way of charming people…and there are a lot of things I don't want to say in front of Jack but I am so done with you. I do not want to deal with this anymore. I think you're actually an evil person…you're just, you're just so charming until you get me cornered. I don't know how you do it, but you find a way to make me go along with your little plans."
At this, the men talk over each other, telling Andrade she "readily volunteered" and asking who cares if she "made up a story. Grow up, for Christ's sake." And those harassing phone calls she's started getting since the conference call?
"Probably telemarketers," Wohl tells her.
Shortly afterward, Andrade ends the call. Then she emails me.
...
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