(THREAD) The Barr Summary—a very different document from the Mueller Report—is being woefully misread by media. It doesn't import what media is suggesting it does. Lawyers are welcome to comment on this thread as I report the Summary accurately. I hope you'll read on and retweet. pic.twitter.com/8DGDxP94As
In light of the very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department following the Special Counsel report, where Mueller did not exonerate the President, we will be calling Attorney General Barr in to testify before @HouseJudiciary in the near future.
And Costa is right to point out that what Pelosi does on messaging is a very important part of that whole game:
What to watch: How does Speaker Pelosi guide her party post-Barr letter? Not just in terms of cmmte work, but msg and politics. She is the leader and the strategist. The 2020 field has no clear front-runner, leaving her firmly in command.
If one knows anything about @SpeakerPelosi one suspects she woke up this morning, sipped her tea, and calibrated, not without some satisfaction, a future that (probably) doesn't include a Democratic civil war over impeachment.
Video of Nadler strong statements to media 6:44 pm including that the special counsel's report does not exonerate Trump and it is imperative that the full report is released to the public without delay and mentions the recent unanimous House Resolution provided for same:
“President Trump is wrong. This report does not amount to a so-called ‘total exoneration.’” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler calls for the full Mueller report to be released to the public “without delay.” https://t.co/xjOwisYKWTpic.twitter.com/5qX4HS93mF
By unilaterally concluding that Mr. Trump did not obstruct justice, the attorney general has made it imperative that the public see the Mueller report.
[....] the critical part of the letter is that it now creates a whole new mess. After laying out the scope of the investigation and noting that Mr. Mueller’s report does not offer any legal recommendations, Mr. Barr declares that it therefore “leaves it to the attorney general to decide whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.” He then concludes the president did not obstruct justice when he fired the F.B.I. director, James Comey.
Such a conclusion would be momentous in any event. But to do so within 48 hours of receiving the report (which pointedly did not reach that conclusion) should be deeply concerning to every American.
The special counsel regulations were written to provide the public with confidence that justice was done. It is impossible for the public to reach that determination without knowing two things. First, what did the Mueller report conclude, and what was the evidence on obstruction of justice? And second, how could Mr. Barr have reached his conclusion so quickly?
Mr. Barr’s letter raises far more questions than it answers, both on the facts and the law.
At least we knew Barr, though a bit less than Whitaker, would be more or less a tool (Comey was a surprise).
But this was always going to the House, as of Nov 7 & the firing of Sessions.
The pod investigation divides & replicates: "it's over when it's over"
If it seems odd that Randoms Vander Zwaan, Pineda, and George Papadop were indicted...
And that Michael Cohen was indicted and pled guilty to campaign finance felony...
but his documented co-conspirators were not...
Is that a sign it’s over, or very much ongoing?
Giuliani meets w Ukrainian Prosecutor General to start a Hillary investigation.
These guys are evil - like some kind of woodworms that keep chewing on the foundations...
This is explosive if true. Ukrainian news is reporting that the Prosecutor General of Ukraine had a meeting with Giuliani last month. After the meeting the Ukrainian opened an investigation into Clinton/DNC/Ukraine conspiracy allegations. https://t.co/RBSb3ebF88
In hindsight, Democrats might have implied from day one that a Republican administration being investigated in a strictly limited way (Russian government involvement) by a Republican (Mueller) with limits set by a Republican DOJ will never hold a Republican President accountable for a crime. It would have deflated the witch hunt' bs and insulated against a report that by and large, let Trump off the hook.....by finding crimes only with his shills and associates.
Consider the Dems just got the House in November - actually January -
and it's almost never that the GOP gets called on its bullshit & chutzpah,
I'd say it largely didn't matter how Dems portrayed it - even now, the media
conveniently forget Trump Tower meetings, Trump's lawyer flying to Moscow,
Trump's campaign director giving data to Kilimnik & the GRU (KGB),
Stone coordinating with Wikileaks, testimony by Gates & Flynn, etc. -
it's like Tabula Rasa/Day Zero all over again
because a Republican shill wrote 4 delusional pages.
Trump says wouldn't bother him at all if report is released. Lying on that or not?
Seated next to Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Trump says, "We can never let this happen to another president again. Very few people I know could have handled it." He adds that releasing the report "wouldn't bother me at all," but is up to Bill Barr.
I have a different theory. They are both identical clones of Reichsmarshall Goering, raised in test tubes in Brazil by Dr. Mengele before his death in the 1970s.
FBI is prepared to brief congressional leaders in a closed session on counterintel findings of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, 2 senior US officials tell @NBCNews, but briefing has not yet been scheduled, a 3rd US official familiar with the matter says - @KenDilanianNBC
Whatever this report says, here’s what I know: when I was at Cambridge Analytica, the company hired known Russian agents, had data researchers in St Petersburg, tested US voter opinion on Putin’s leadership, and hired hackers from Russia - all while Bannon was in charge.
Trump campaign going with the advocacy as strong as they can before full report comes out:. They're trying to prejudice as much of the jury as they can:
Yup, drag release out as long as possible (i.e. oh this redaction stuff is complicated, such hard work), the longer they can spin, the better:
The Justice Department offered no indication on Monday of how soon it could release more details from special counsel Robert Mueller's report, but the process AG William Barr described suggests it could be a while. https://t.co/pspypigHBP
Especially as the House Dems have chosen the route of looking judicious and careful. This allows Team Trump to continue to bash media pundits and talking heads as the enemy witch hunters, not even backed up by House Dems. And that's one of Trump's favorite things: media bashing. Win win, they don't even have to try to get him on some other message.
Unless there is something truly damaging in it and it comes out just before the election. Then best to get it out soon and hope people forget it by election time.
Turns out the multitudes already forgot it, anyhew (I know you to be a pretty big skeptic about polls and methodology, but in this case I thought it worth a mention only cause: zero is a pretty stark number.)
I just check with @jennagiesta on this. CNN's last poll asked "In your own words, please tell me what 1 issue will be most important to you in deciding whom to support in next year’s prez election?" 0 (!) respondents said the Russian/Mueller investigation. https://t.co/j4fNwjF7fU
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: 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:
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.
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.
[....] 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’sstory 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 [....]
“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 [....]
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.”
Comments
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 03/24/2019 - 5:13pm
Game on!
by artappraiser on Sun, 03/24/2019 - 5:27pm
And Costa is right to point out that what Pelosi does on messaging is a very important part of that whole game:
by artappraiser on Sun, 03/24/2019 - 5:33pm
Also, adding Glenn's strong opinion on what should be big picture here:
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 2:17pm
Video of Nadler strong statements to media 6:44 pm including that the special counsel's report does not exonerate Trump and it is imperative that the full report is released to the public without delay and mentions the recent unanimous House Resolution provided for same:
by artappraiser on Sun, 03/24/2019 - 7:55pm
David Corn slams Collugestooge Glenzilla...
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/trump-mueller-report-russia/
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 03/24/2019 - 7:38pm
by artappraiser on Sun, 03/24/2019 - 7:41pm
By Neal K. Katyal (Mr. Katyal is a law professor at Georgetown. He drafted the special counsel regulations under which Robert Mueller was appointed.)
The Many Problems With the Barr Letter @ NYTimes.com, March 24
By unilaterally concluding that Mr. Trump did not obstruct justice, the attorney general has made it imperative that the public see the Mueller report.
by artappraiser on Sun, 03/24/2019 - 7:47pm
At least we knew Barr, though a bit less than Whitaker, would be more or less a tool (Comey was a surprise).
But this was always going to the House, as of Nov 7 & the firing of Sessions.
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 03/24/2019 - 8:02pm
The pod investigation divides & replicates: "it's over when it's over"
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 5:14am
Giuliani meets w Ukrainian Prosecutor General to start a Hillary investigation.
These guys are evil - like some kind of woodworms that keep chewing on the foundations...
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 4:40am
Barr's weasel words outlined
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/mueller-report-barr-summary-...
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 4:49am
The Deep State looks pretty weak right now.
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 8:48am
In hindsight, Democrats might have implied from day one that a Republican administration being investigated in a strictly limited way (Russian government involvement) by a Republican (Mueller) with limits set by a Republican DOJ will never hold a Republican President accountable for a crime. It would have deflated the witch hunt' bs and insulated against a report that by and large, let Trump off the hook.....by finding crimes only with his shills and associates.
by NCD on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 10:54am
Consider the Dems just got the House in November - actually January -
and it's almost never that the GOP gets called on its bullshit & chutzpah,
I'd say it largely didn't matter how Dems portrayed it - even now, the media
conveniently forget Trump Tower meetings, Trump's lawyer flying to Moscow,
Trump's campaign director giving data to Kilimnik & the GRU (KGB),
Stone coordinating with Wikileaks, testimony by Gates & Flynn, etc. -
it's like Tabula Rasa/Day Zero all over again
because a Republican shill wrote 4 delusional pages.
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 11:36am
Trump says wouldn't bother him at all if report is released. Lying on that or not?
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 12:51pm
Inspiration for NCD:
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 2:21pm
I have a different theory. They are both identical clones of Reichsmarshall Goering, raised in test tubes in Brazil by Dr. Mengele before his death in the 1970s.
by NCD on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 5:21pm
Makes perfect sense. I don't know why you're working free at Dag and not a paid guest on Rachel's show, or at the very least on her research team.
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 5:35pm
But wait. Deep State: still there!
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 2:24pm
Love Ameri-Russian Style: how operatives fished Trump
https://www.justsecurity.org/49682/collusion-criminal-threat/
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 2:36pm
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 2:40pm
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 2:40pm
Trump campaign going with the advocacy as strong as they can before full report comes out:. They're trying to prejudice as much of the jury as they can:
They learned from the Ken Starr report being blasted all at once for all to see and judge.
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 3:41pm
Yup, drag release out as long as possible (i.e. oh this redaction stuff is complicated, such hard work), the longer they can spin, the better:
Especially as the House Dems have chosen the route of looking judicious and careful. This allows Team Trump to continue to bash media pundits and talking heads as the enemy witch hunters, not even backed up by House Dems. And that's one of Trump's favorite things: media bashing. Win win, they don't even have to try to get him on some other message.
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 6:31pm
Unless there is something truly damaging in it and it comes out just before the election. Then best to get it out soon and hope people forget it by election time.
by ocean-kat on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 7:10pm
Turns out the multitudes already forgot it, anyhew (I know you to be a pretty big skeptic about polls and methodology, but in this case I thought it worth a mention only cause: zero is a pretty stark number.)
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 8:25pm
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.
by ocean-kat on Tue, 03/26/2019 - 12:43pm
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.
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 artappraiser on Tue, 03/26/2019 - 12:14pm
MTWheel(er) gets profiled
https://www.michiganadvance.com/2019/03/25/meet-the-ridiculously-well-so...
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 4:42pm
Mueller vs mystery company - 1 more victory at Supreme Court
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/the-petition-is-denied-supreme-cour...
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 4:50pm
hey, wow, I forgot about that, thanks
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 5:33pm
It will be nice to read the actual report.
I feel like I am stuck in a really terrible version of As You Like It performed by chipmunks mostly concerned about their own personal futures.
by moat on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 6:27pm
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 03/26/2019 - 8:59am
Foreign Policy lists scandals (leaves out Erik Prince, et al)
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/08/all-the-legal-trouble-in-trumpworld...
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 03/26/2019 - 3:58pm
From self-described extremist centrist former Solicitor General and author of Special Counsel rules:
by artappraiser on Tue, 03/26/2019 - 7:24pm
What Brennan thinks:
by artappraiser on Tue, 03/26/2019 - 10:19pm
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.
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
by artappraiser on Tue, 03/26/2019 - 10:43pm
Once more with feeling, Dems try to quash impeachment talk, this time even Maxine Waters and AOC on message:
by artappraiser on Wed, 03/27/2019 - 12:26am
Monica:
by artappraiser on Wed, 03/27/2019 - 5:32am
by artappraiser on Wed, 06/26/2019 - 9:57am