The Russia Investigations and other Trump-related cases

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Barr announced today that he will hold a press conference tomorrow when the report is released. That makes little sense to me, as reporters will not be able to know what to ask him until after they have had a chance to actually read the report. The only way that it makes sense is if his purpose to continue to try to spin the response to the report before people actually get to read it.

[yovargas]

Hard to imagine he would be crazy enough to actually try and take questions considering reporters are just going to asked 100 different versions of "what got redacted?"

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And now it is coming out that Barr and the Justice Department has "briefed" the White House about the report in advance of its release.

ETA: and who will NOT be at the press conference tomorrow? Mueller, or anyone else from his team.

[yovargas]

It's been out for minutes, anyone finished it yet? Common HOF, if anyone can do it, you can!

[elengil]

It's been out for minutes, anyone finished it yet? Common HOF, if anyone can do it, you can!

https://www.npr.org/assets/news/2019/04 ... report.pdf

Fortunately (unfortunately?) it's a scan rather than an interactive PDF. That means the redactions are actually redacted, but it also means you can't search or copy/paste.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There were 14 investigations referred by the special counsel's office to other U.S. Attorney's office. One was the Michael Cohen investigation which resulted in Cohen's guilty plea, and may still implicate Mr. Trump. One was the Greg Craig investigation that resulted in his recent indictment. The other 12 are redacted. What are those investigation?

From what I can see and what I am hearing, Mueller meant to leave the question of obstruction up to Congress, and instead Barr stepped in and substituted his judgment (which had already been clear long before he was nominated to be attorney general).

[yovargas]

Do we know which of the four redaction reasons those 12 investigations fall under?

[Cerin]

Do we know which of the four redaction reasons those 12 investigations fall under?

I'm guessing the third category.

- grand jury material, which could include any documents and testimony presented;
- information that could reveal the government’s intelligence-gathering sources or methods;
- information that could compromise ongoing investigations;
- details that would violate the privacy of those deemed “peripheral” to the investigation.

[Frelga]

Shared by Stephen King

IMG_20190418_103132.jpeg (112.1 KiB) Viewed 6537 times

[Cerin]

What is behind the calls for Mueller to testify before Congress? What do people think he will say that isn't in 400 pages representing two years of investigation?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I downloaded the report and am currently converting it to a searchable PDF, but I can say already that there is a lot more there than Barr (whose actions I would describe charitably as 'despicable') or even the media has stated. Much of the focus has been on the obstruction issue, and for good reason because it seems very clear to me that Mueller did find that the president of the United States did take numerous actions for the purpose of illegally obstructing justice, but what few have emphasized is that the report details in great length the fact that Trump, his campaign, and his associates DID collude with the Russian interference in the election to his benefit, but that that collusion did not rise to the level of a criminal conspiracy. That is a stunning conclusion and one that is largely being swept under the carpet.

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There is a lot in the report a lot worse than this, but there is something so very symbolic about this.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/0 ... /23714151/

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is an excellent article from Dahlia Lithwick, Slate's her good legal correspondent.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/201 ... o-know.amp

Here's the money quote:

For some proportion of the public, that means today confirms, once again, that the president is a valorous and heroic leader, triumphing against all odds. Barr had them at his first claims, in announcing the conclusions of the report, that the president feels he has been treated very unfairly. But for Americans who are weary of Donald Trump, bored of the lies, fatigued by the ugliness and rancor, there is nothing good about this report, which essentially says, “This guy is appalling, I can’t say whether he’s a criminal.”

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[yovargas]

Lies upon lies upon lies upon lies, and somehow none of it changes anything. Somehow, none of it matters anymore.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The question is, is it the new normal, or just a blip on the screen? Only time will tell.

[Frelga]

I'm not time, but can tell you right now that this is a logical and predictable development based on the events of the last couple decades. This is not a drill.

[yovargas]

What is behind the calls for Mueller to testify before Congress? What do people think he will say that isn't in 400 pages representing two years of investigation?

I would be very interested in hearing his thoughts on Barr making the call on the obstruction charges after explicitly saying he saw that as Congress' responsibility.

Not that it would matter, because nothing matters.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes, that is a big part of what I'm sure the Judiciary Committee will want to ask him. As for his testimony at the Intelligence committee, they will want to ask him about the counter-intelligence findings of the investigation, which the report specifically says it does not contain. In other words, who is/was compromised by a foreign power, and to what extent.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

From Fox anchor Chris Wallace:

When you read the report it becomes clear that the reason that Robert Mueller didn't make a finding on obstruction wasn't because he didn't feel capable of doing it, but because he thought in direct contradiction to what Bill Barr said yesterday, that under department guidelines, there could not be an indictment of a sitting president, and he very much left it to Congress to make that decision,” said Wallace Friday.

“So the fact that Barr decided to interpose himself and to make this decision himself, although Congress obviously can go ahead and do what it wants, really seems to go against the grain of what Robert Mueller was suggesting in his own report.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chris- ... ubling.amp

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[Voronwë the Faithful]

More from Wallace:

“You got into this very curious area where the attorney general seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, the counselor for the president rather than the attorney general,” Wallace declared. “Talking about his motives. Talking about his anger, his feeling this was unfair and there were leaks. And really, as I say, making a case for the president.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news- ... nse-lawyer
Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk