Who is Patrick Byrne’s “Mediocrity,” who did so much to derail Trump’s legal appeal of the election? By David Evans.

In yesterday’s excerpt of what happened in Trump’s legal appeal in the aftermath of the 2020 election, Patrick Byrne introduces the “Mediocrity” thus:

The Mediocrity — I am not going to be mean about it. For example, I am not going to reveal the gender or other details about this person (other than to say, imagine a person who is a lawyer and who had once made a career at one of the better-known government agencies). But given how the Mediocrity went out-of-way to be horrible to work with, and because of how stunningly destructive Mediocrity’s behavior was, I am simply to refer to the person as, “Mediocrity”.

So, a lawyer and who once worked at one of the better-known government agencies. More from Byrne’s account:

The Mediocrity had evolved into our point of contact with Rudy’s team, and nothing seemed to flow well. On November 26, Thanksgiving Day, we were all sitting together in a restaurant in DC, and discussing their problems. Sitting there eating our turkey dinner, they gave me quite an earful.

How the Mediocrity was super-controlling about information, plans, access. How the Mediocrity seemed to think they were peons, were telling them, “Go here, go there,” with no explanatory information, no sense of “Hey teammates, this is what is going on, and we are going to work on it together!”

I had trouble believing the stories they were telling me. Among them were some horrible ones concerning the Mediocrity’s proclivity for hitting on people of the opposite gender, and possibly the same gender, in ways that were embarrassing to all present (the Mediocrity had asked one of my colleagues to meet one evening, and when the Mediocrity’s hotel door opened the Mediocrity was in underwear, waiting).

So, probably male. Then there’s this part:

“Look,” the Mediocrity said, standing over us at late Thanksgiving Dinner. “First, what is your corporate structure?”

We all looked at each other, male and female, 75, Weaponized Autism and others, not previously having given the matter much thought.

The “male and female” is for the group of people, but the “75” is specific to a person, which in this context can only mean the Mediocrity. So, he’s 75.

He got a mention in yesterday’s excerpt — dismissing the requested one-pager from Byrne that summarized the actual fraud that overturned hundreds of thousand of votes (instead of retail frauds like dead people voting, that he and Giuliani understood) — at a drink-fueled dinner at midnight in Washington:

Third, the Mediocrity was at the table. The Mediocrity picked up the one-pager Rudy had set down, and holding it between fingers like it was a turd, announced with a laugh, “Can you believe Byrne worked all weekend and this is all he wrote?”

So who was this technological genius who couldn’t or wouldn’t understand the fraud, but, with Giuliani, had the ear of President Trump?

Here is Trump’s legal team for appealing the election:

Donald Trump on Saturday night announced the five lawyers who would form his ‘truly great team’ and contest the results of the election. …

‘Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!’ …

Apart from Rudy Giuliani, there is only one male in that team. And he’s 75:

Alongside Giuliani are two close friends of his: Joseph diGenova, 75, and his wife Victoria Toensing, 79. They have been in Trump’s orbit from an early stage, helping Giuliani with some of the law and order platforms on the 2016 campaign.

Checking on Wikipedia, diGenova is indeed a lawyer who once worked at one of the better-known government agencies:

Joseph diGenova (born February 22, 1945) is an American lawyer and political commentator who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1983 to 1988.

So, the Mediocrity is Joseph diGenova:

He and Giuliani were just not up to the task of running a fast-paced legal case based about a technology-based crime, involving (gasp!) computers and numbers. They were old style political operatives, running on gut feelings and alcohol. They had learned decades ago that election fraud meant dead people shouldn’t vote, and were unwilling to learn new tricks.

Trump should have fired them, but they were the ones telling Trump how great it was going. Trump probably never realized.

DiGenova and Giuliani were the knife that Trump brought to the gunfight.

 

UPDATE: A reader (Susan) notes that at one stage Byrne says “One key player on the team was warning that he would quit if he had to have any interactions with her again” (emphasis added), referring to the mediocrity. So that points to Victoria Toensing.

I originally thought that too. But If the mediocrity is female, the other clues don’t fit.

Such as “the Mediocrity’s proclivity for hitting on people of the opposite gender, and possibly the same gender, in ways that were embarrassing to all present (the Mediocrity had asked one of my colleagues to meet one evening, and when the Mediocrity’s hotel door opened the Mediocrity was in underwear, waiting).”

The other clues narrow it down to a group of five at most, and only one of them is 75: Joseph diGenova. Fits the bill in every way.

I think Byrne wanted to keep the individual anonymous, so he added this reference to “her” to throw everyone off. It’s the tiniest of lies, just one letter really…