dagblog - Comments for "Lowering the Barr: flip-flops & backflips to save Trump"

If this whole Attorney

artappraiser — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 13:57:28 +0000

In reply to Lowering the Barr: flip-flops & backflips to save Trump

If this whole Attorney General thing doesn’t work out ... https://t.co/gbJqomhjXY
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) June 26, 2019

Monica:

artappraiser — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 09:32:55 +0000

In reply to Lowering the Barr: flip-flops & backflips to save Trump

Monica:

if. fucking. only. https://t.co/6N7SFiKRln
— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) March 27, 2019

Once more with feeling, this

artappraiser — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 04:26:57 +0000

In reply to Lowering the Barr: flip-flops & backflips to save Trump

Once more with feeling, Dems try to quash impeachment talk, this time even Maxine Waters and AOC on message:

⁦>> @AOC⁩: “What’s tough is impeachment in principle is something that I openly support, but it’s also just the reality of having votes in the Senate to pursue that.”

⁦>> @RepMaxineWaters⁩: “Impeachment has never been a caucus agenda”https://t.co/MkzwEVpVjT
— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) March 26, 2019

More on the obstruction thing

artappraiser — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 02:43:32 +0000

In reply to What Brennan thinks:

More on the obstruction thing here

More Questions Emerge About Mueller’s Punt on Obstruction of Justice

By John Cassidy @ NewYorker.com, 5:22 P.M.

[....] On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mueller told Barr three weeks ago that he didn’t intend to come to any conclusions on whether Trump’s actions in office, which included asking the former F.B.I. director James Comey to “go easy” on his former national-security adviser Michael Flynn and eventually firing Comey outright, amounted to criminal obstruction. The Journal’s story said that Mueller gave this information to Barr and the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, in a meeting on March 5th. Citing “a person familiar with the matter,” the news story said that Barr and Rosenstein were “surprised” by Mueller’s decision, and that Mueller “made that decision on his own.” You bet that Barr and Rosenstein were surprised. It’s been pretty clear all along that Trump’s lawyers were more worried about obstruction of justice than collusion, and on Tuesday a report from NBC News confirmed this. According to the NBC report, the President’s lawyers “never seriously worried their client would be accused of a Russia conspiracy.” They believed that “the real threat was obstruction of justice.”

In a post published shortly after Barr’s letter was released, I wrote that Mueller’s failure to reach a conclusion on obstruction “looks like a cop-out.” That was strong language, perhaps, but Mueller’s inaction also startled some veterans of the Justice Department [....]

and in what Comey just said to an audience

James Comey says he is confused by Mueller's decision on obstruction

“The entire rationale for a special counsel is to make sure the politicals aren't making the key charging decisions," the former FBI chief said.

By Julia Ainsley @ NBCNews.com, 9:34 pm

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former FBI Director James Comey told an audience in Charlotte on Tuesday that he is confused by special counsel Robert Mueller's decision to neither charge nor exonerate President Donald Trump on obstruction of justice.

"The part that's confusing is, I can't quite understand what's going on with the obstruction stuff," Comey told an audience of roughly 2,000 people gathered at the Belk Theatre for an event sponsored by Queens University.

"And I have great faith in Bob Mueller, but I just can't tell from the letter why didn't he decide these questions when the entire rationale for a special counsel is to make sure the politicals aren't making the key charging decisions," the former FBI chief said [....]

He also pushed back on Attorney General William Barr's logic in deciding not to pursue obstruction charges against the president, saying he found that part of Barr's letter summarizing Mueller's findings "really confusing."

"The notion that obstruction cases are somehow undermined by the absence of proof of an underlying crime, that is not my experience in 40 years of doing this nor is it the Department of Justice's tradition. Obstruction crimes matter without regard to what you prove about the underlying crime," Comey said [....]

What Brennan thinks:

artappraiser — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 02:19:46 +0000

In reply to Lowering the Barr: flip-flops & backflips to save Trump

What Brennan thinks:

The obstruction of justice issue, however, is too important to be dismissed by a Trump-appointed AG with a predetermined view on Presidential accountability to the rule of law. We need to see the Report.
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) March 26, 2019

From self-described extremist

artappraiser — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 23:24:20 +0000

In reply to Lowering the Barr: flip-flops & backflips to save Trump

From self-described extremist centrist former Solicitor General and author of Special Counsel rules:

Very important oped by George Conway just went up https://t.co/j9rUfvemSo
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) March 26, 2019

Foreign Policy lists scandals

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 19:58:50 +0000

In reply to Lowering the Barr: flip-flops & backflips to save Trump

Foreign Policy lists scandals (leaves out Erik Prince, et al)
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/08/all-the-legal-trouble-in-trumpworld...

I am a skeptic about polls

ocean-kat — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:43:44 +0000

In reply to Turns out the multitudes

I am a skeptic about polls but my argument is they are sometimes useful and always need to be thoughtfully considered. That poll is pretty straight forward and probably accurate. But that number could change radically in a heart beat if the Mueller report is released and there is something clearly damaging.

As per current WaPo headlines

artappraiser — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:14:44 +0000

In reply to Unless there is something

As per current WaPo headlines: that's not the way it's playing out, they are playing it as if there's not much damaging in it. and many Dems are going along with that picture:

With Mueller probe over, Trump allies switch from defense to bruising offense

For President Trump and his allies, relief over the broad conclusions of the special counsel's probe turned into defiant glee as they realized they could wield the findings as a political cudgel.

By Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey

House Democratic leaders urge focus on health care, other issues in wake of probe findings

Many Democrats appeared eager to pivot to other matters, even as some members said they need to do more to hold President Trump accountable.

By John Wagner, Mike DeBonis and Rachael Bade

From January pic.twitter.com

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 12:59:30 +0000

In reply to Lowering the Barr: flip-flops & backflips to save Trump

From January pic.twitter.com/cn4hcpmn9R
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) March 25, 2019