What do we know about Mueller's report?
Nothing. The only ones who've seen it work in Trump's DOJ.
William Barr was chosen by Trump to be Attorney General after Barr had written very critically of the Special Counsel's investigation. Can we believe his "summary" of Mueller's report? He prepared this summary very quickly after receiving the report -- far too quickly to have fully read the entire report.
Trump has a long history of ordering subordinates to lie on his behalf. It's not inconceivable that he told Barr what he wanted to see in the report summary. Trump's own habit of lying -- about matters significant and trivial -- makes it highly unlikely that he's telling the truth about the report's findings (assuming he's been briefed on it at all).
This is why the report must be given in its entirety to Congress, and I hope the public too.
We know that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and that their interference was designed to help Trump win that election. We know that members of the Trump team had multiple contacts with Russia during the campaign -- from the infamous Trump Tower meeting (where Junior, Jared, and Manafort hoped to "get dirt" on Clinton), to Manafort's sharing of polling data with Russians, to Papadapoulus's meeting with Russians, to Roger Stone's coordination with Wikileaks, which had emails Russia hacked from the DNC servers. The Mueller report certainly has even more instances.
That sounds like collusion to most people. But I guess Mueller had a higher standard. As well he should. Incriminating the president in a treasonous crime should have a very high standard. Mueller's apparent standard was whether the Trump team had an agreement with the Russians to work together. That's a pretty high bar to clear.
What about obstruction? Trump admitted on national TV and in tweets to actions that clearly look like obstruction. His repeated lies and changing of stories (after previous versions of his stories are proven false) show he was trying to hide something. Even Barr admits that the Mueller report didn't clear Trump of obstruction, but didn't find proof of it (again, the standard was probably very stringent).
We know that there are no more indictments coming out of the Special Counsel's investigation, but on top of the dozens of indictments, guilty pleas, and guilty verdicts we've already seen, many cases have been referred to other attorneys general, and that investigations into Trump's charities, companies, inauguration, and administration continue.
What's especially frustrating and aggravating this week (besides the lack of additional indictments) is how Trump, the GOP, right-wing media, and others are using Barr's "summary" of the Mueller report to claim the president was exonerated, when the truth is the opposite: he wasn't exonerated, but there wasn't enough proof to prosecute him (I suspect he was heavily implicated in the report). Trump is threatening the media and other critics, claiming they spent the last two years defaming him, when they were reporting accurately on elements of the investigation that came out via indictments and other court filings.
There remains the fact that Trump refuses to admit Russia interfered on his behalf (which could just be his fragile ego denying he was helped to a win). Trump continues to pursue policies that help Vladimir Putin, met with Putin without any aides present, and won't allow release of the translator's notes. He's disbanded a team that was investigating and combating Russian interference.
There is also the fact that many members of team Trump met with Russians and lied about it afterwards.
I think it's premature to exonerate Trump; it's premature to condemn the media; it's premature to denounce Trump's critics; and it's premature to draw any conclusions based on speculation. The facts we know are pretty damning, and the Mueller report no doubt has many more. The report must be released. We certainly can't trust the liar-in-chief or any of his hand-picked liars to tell us what the report says.
Nothing. The only ones who've seen it work in Trump's DOJ.
William Barr was chosen by Trump to be Attorney General after Barr had written very critically of the Special Counsel's investigation. Can we believe his "summary" of Mueller's report? He prepared this summary very quickly after receiving the report -- far too quickly to have fully read the entire report.
Trump has a long history of ordering subordinates to lie on his behalf. It's not inconceivable that he told Barr what he wanted to see in the report summary. Trump's own habit of lying -- about matters significant and trivial -- makes it highly unlikely that he's telling the truth about the report's findings (assuming he's been briefed on it at all).
This is why the report must be given in its entirety to Congress, and I hope the public too.
We know that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and that their interference was designed to help Trump win that election. We know that members of the Trump team had multiple contacts with Russia during the campaign -- from the infamous Trump Tower meeting (where Junior, Jared, and Manafort hoped to "get dirt" on Clinton), to Manafort's sharing of polling data with Russians, to Papadapoulus's meeting with Russians, to Roger Stone's coordination with Wikileaks, which had emails Russia hacked from the DNC servers. The Mueller report certainly has even more instances.
That sounds like collusion to most people. But I guess Mueller had a higher standard. As well he should. Incriminating the president in a treasonous crime should have a very high standard. Mueller's apparent standard was whether the Trump team had an agreement with the Russians to work together. That's a pretty high bar to clear.
What about obstruction? Trump admitted on national TV and in tweets to actions that clearly look like obstruction. His repeated lies and changing of stories (after previous versions of his stories are proven false) show he was trying to hide something. Even Barr admits that the Mueller report didn't clear Trump of obstruction, but didn't find proof of it (again, the standard was probably very stringent).
We know that there are no more indictments coming out of the Special Counsel's investigation, but on top of the dozens of indictments, guilty pleas, and guilty verdicts we've already seen, many cases have been referred to other attorneys general, and that investigations into Trump's charities, companies, inauguration, and administration continue.
What's especially frustrating and aggravating this week (besides the lack of additional indictments) is how Trump, the GOP, right-wing media, and others are using Barr's "summary" of the Mueller report to claim the president was exonerated, when the truth is the opposite: he wasn't exonerated, but there wasn't enough proof to prosecute him (I suspect he was heavily implicated in the report). Trump is threatening the media and other critics, claiming they spent the last two years defaming him, when they were reporting accurately on elements of the investigation that came out via indictments and other court filings.
There remains the fact that Trump refuses to admit Russia interfered on his behalf (which could just be his fragile ego denying he was helped to a win). Trump continues to pursue policies that help Vladimir Putin, met with Putin without any aides present, and won't allow release of the translator's notes. He's disbanded a team that was investigating and combating Russian interference.
There is also the fact that many members of team Trump met with Russians and lied about it afterwards.
I think it's premature to exonerate Trump; it's premature to condemn the media; it's premature to denounce Trump's critics; and it's premature to draw any conclusions based on speculation. The facts we know are pretty damning, and the Mueller report no doubt has many more. The report must be released. We certainly can't trust the liar-in-chief or any of his hand-picked liars to tell us what the report says.
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