What Mueller Said About Don Junior Is Embarrassing

[babylonsister]

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/04/what-mueller-said-about-don-junior

4/19/19 5:48am
Read time: 1 minute
What Mueller Said About Don Junior Is Embarrassing
Really he's just too stupid to collude.
By Tengrain
Video @ link~


As Junior Mints takes a victory lap on Twitter today (they are all just gloating and saying, Neener-Neener-Neener!), we go now to the redacted report released by strategic hire AG Bill ‘Low’ Barr to see what it says about him:

[The June 9 meeting] This series of events could implicate the federal election-law ban on contributions and donations by foreign nationals . . . Specifically, Goldstone passed along an offer purportedly from a Russian government official to provide “official documents and information” to the Trump campaign for the purposes of influencing the presidential election. Trump Jr. appears to have accepted that offer and to have arranged a meeting to receive those materials. Documentary evidence in the form of e-mail chains supports the inference that Kushner and Manafort were aware of that purpose and attended the June 9 meeting anticipating the receipt of helpful information to the Campaign from Russian sources.“. . .

There are reasonable arguments that the offered information would constitute a “thing of value” within the meaning of these provisions, but the Office determined that the government would not be likely to obtain and sustain a conviction for two other reasons: first, the Office did not obtain admissible evidence likely to meet the government’s burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these individuals acted “willfully,” i.e. with general knowledge of the illegality of their conduct; and, second, the government would likely encounter difficulty proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the value of the promised information exceeded the threshold for a criminal violation.

In other words, Mr. Mueller thought that Junior Mints was too dumb to know what he was doing.

As they say in the South, Gawd looks after the simple. Or in this case the simpleton.

[samnsara]

1. Bless his soul!

[Funtatlaguy]

2. In the south, we say, Bless his heart.

[Lonestarblue]

13. Molly Ivins was a master of putdowns like that.

I have several of her books and they always amuse, especially when I’m too angry to think clearly because Trump and his crime family are getting away with so many crimes and Republicans just yawn in boredom. And I absolutely long for another strong woman like Ann Richards as governor of Texas!

[Funtatlaguy]

14. You mentioned two national treasures gone too soon.

[True Blue American]

33. Juanita Jean

Is helping to fill their shoes. I first started reading her when she talked about,” Hot Tub Tome,” Delay.

Her Son is now in Court with Alex Jones.

[Pepsidog]

32. We miss her voice. She would have had a great time skewering this hapless traitors.

[struggle4progress]

48. Bless his pointy little head

[infinite_wisdom]

3. Disappointed with Mueller here

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. But it kind of looks like Mueller is giving Jr a pass because Jr is a box of rocks. If they are going to be able to use this as a defense, we will never be able to indict any Republican for anything ever again.

[2naSalit]

4. ++++++++++++++++++++++++!!!

[uponit7771]

5. +1000

[DeeDeeNY]

6. Spot On

[Kurt V.]

9. +1

[Takket]

10. You are correct but...

I think with Mueller having handed cases to NY authorities to avoid pardons... we have not heard the last of this. I just think he didn’t want to move on Junior until drumpf senior is out of office.

[Ms. Toad]

12. Correct - except when the mens rea the crime requires knowledge of the illegality

All crimes include a mens rea (the mental state with which the acts are carried out).

The mens rea in this particular crime requires acting inentionally with knowledge that his conduct was illegal. Mueller isn't giving Jr. a pass - he is applying the law. Your beef is with Congress (and the Supreme Court) which wrote and interpreted (respectively) the law to require knowledge that the conduct was illegal.

[uponit7771]

18. +1

[SunSeeker]

23. Don Jr. lying about and trying to cover up the meeting showed he knew it was illegal.

And why didn't Mueller interview Don Jr. if he had questions about his mens rea?

[Ms. Toad]

45. I was responding to an incorrect legal interpretation

- that kgnorance of the law is no excuse. In some cases, it is.

I have not read the applicable portions of the Mueller report, so I have no idea whether he correctly applied the law to the facts, or gathered specific facts. I tend to suspect he did, becaue of how carefully he has otherwise tended to this matter.

But lying about, and covering up, meetings one would not want political opponents to know about is not necessarily indicative of knowing they are illegal.

[SunSeeker]

21. I couldn't agree more. Don Jr. knew what he did was illegal. That's why he lied about it.

There is plenty of evidence of scienter. And if Mueller had questions about Don Jr.'s scienter, he should have interviewed him.
Mueller was being waaay too solicitous to the privileged little turd.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

28. Damn straight!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[pnwmom]

44. But a corrupt criminal intent is one of the elements that must be proven

in order to be found guilty of a criminal conspiracy.

That might have been provable if there were other texts or emails or testimony that showed that, but apparently there wasn't.

[empedocles]

7. I like your Bill 'Low' Barr label.

[Funtatlaguy]

15. I'd go one more: Bill Lowest Barr.

[True Blue American]

34. Bill Barrf!

[UniteFightBack]

8. I don't get how it's not illegal. Yes he is dumb, but he knew WTF he was doing. The bigger issue

then is WHY IS THIS NOT ILLEGAL? How is it not? There are more ramifications for parking in front of a fire hydrant.

DEMS BETTER HAVE THEIR TALKING POINTS ON POINT. I'm sorry Im yelling but I'm angry and I live alone I have to get it out!!!!

[CDerekGo]

16. Let's face it

The 'apple', or in this case, Jr Mint, doesn't fall far from the tree. We have a pResident that barely reads, has no vocabulary much beyond one or two syllable words, and generally avoids knowledge at all costs.

I wonder how much Hairplug Himmler paid to get each of his kids into college? We all know that it was well over $2 million for the son-in-law, you know, the guy with illegal Security Clearance?

As much as I want to see this administration GONE, I have a feeling we're stuck with this group of idiots until January 2021.

[dewsgirl]

11. It made me think the article from last week, pre report that suggested exactly that. I think it may

have been an ex security official. I am thinking maybe some people did have access to bits of information. Or it was a good guess.

[mercuryblues]

17. Basically the only thing Mueller

agreed with trump on is that little Donnie Jr is an idiot.

[DallasNE]

19. Ignorance Of The Law Is No Excuse

How many times have I heard that refrain. Has that been an idle threat for all of these years? I sure wouldn't want to count on it. People have obscure charges filed against them all of the time, especially if they are black. Does this expose a two tier justice system?

[rainin]

20. Politics is forever frustrated by the fact that there are two sets of rules for the two parties.

Republicans can scream "lock her up" over...... what? Using a private server for emails that .... weren't highly classified?

Republicans can commit treason (yes, treason if cyberwar were recognized as war) and we have to parse intent...and the "President cannot be indicted" bullshit.

Over 100 pages of chargeable crimes and he is still standing!!

Remember the scandals when Obama was President? Held a cup of coffee in his hand during a salute. Bowed too deeply (for the Republicans). Offered sympathy that the US dropped bombs in Japan. Wore a tan suit.

Our candidates are moral and smart. There's are immoral and dumb dumb dumb!

Every day it's like the mental patients have overtaken the asylum.

[wishstar]

22. I don't accept this reasoning, campaign veteran Manafort and Kushner are lawyers

Manafort has worked on high level campaigns for decades so he certainly knew accepting Russian help was illegal. Also FBI had clearly warned the Trump campaign about foreign contacts and need to report to FBI. Plus, the lying and cover story indicate they knew it was probably illegal and Trump denying Russian contacts and Russian involvement in the hacking was deliberately done to protect their criminal liability. In my opinion, Mueller should have indicted them, and particularly Manafort since he also was working with Russians providing campaign data to help them target American voters.

[SunSeeker]

24. Exactly. If Mueller had questions about Don Jr.'s mens rea, why didn't he interview him?

Major fail on Mueller's part, IMO.

[DallasNE]

35. Either That

Or Rosenstein wouldn't let him go there. We know nothing about the relationship between the two.

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

25. I got a different impression.

The report stated: "... the Office did not obtain admissible evidence likely to meet the government’s burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these individuals acted “willfully,”

If Mueller had admissible evidence, then he could have proved that element of the crime.

Don Jr. may be a dim bulb, but that isn't really the point in this situation. IMHO

[DallasNE]

38. When I Heard That

I immediately thought "Why is that evidence unusable. Was it contaminated or did it involve intelligence sources and methods". Mueller needed to explain why their evidence that would have shown he acted willfully was not admissible.

[OneBro]

26. Did I miss something?

When did Jr. get questioned under oath about any of this? I remember a time when it would have been up to a jury to decide 1) the value of the information Jr. was so eager to get, and 2) Jr’s state of mind, i.e. mens rea.

Strange times we live in.

P.S. The average criminal would likely gladly take being called an idiot over a criminal conviction.

[lunatica]

39. Prosecutors need to have enough evidence to prove a crime

Belief and opinions don’t count as proof. Facts do.

[OneBro]

47. Apparently we disagree.

Given that the FBI warned them about Russian interference, the fact that they ALL lied about the meetings with the Russians, and they ALL knew the information had been stolen by the Russians, I think at a minimum Jr. should have been interviewed under oath. THAT'S how you get FACTS and PROOF.

The idea that Jr. is just too stupid and thus didn't need to be interviewed simply defies logic.

[certainot]

27. the trumpian efforts to get 'dirt' on hillary and the clinton foundation were predicated on STUPID

these dumbfucks actually believed the bullshit coming out of the russian and GOP propaganda operations and amplified by 1500 radio stations and fox

they're dittoheads

[KPN]

29. While most of us learned very early on the old saw that "ignorance of the law is not an excuse",

this mob family was raised differently. With the aid of shyster lawyers, tRump taught his kids that stupidity is and can be an excuse. And that's how they roll. Stupid is a safe play as demonstrated by dad for decades.

WTF is wrong with this picture?! .....

Mueller punted (actually, he undermined any legal argument that ignorance is not an excuse in his report's analysis of this crime by saying they could not prove Jr's intent or the value of what he expected to receive beyond reasonable doubt -- pretty weak imo) and Barr the fixer is making sure a jury never gets to make the decision whether "ignorance" is in fact a reasonable and acceptable "excuse" for stupid behavior -- like lying to Congress about the meeting and dad making up a story about the purpose of the meeting -- in this particular case.

WTF America?!

[cureautismnow]

30. At Wikileaks behest, he also tweeted a link to search through the stolen emails.

How is that not aiding and abetting stolen goods? He should be considered an accessory to robbery.

p.60 of the Mueller Report.

[smirkymonkey]

31. Come on, he's dumb as a brick, but he's not that dumb.

He knew exactly what he was doing. Fuck this fucking criminal family! I am so sick of them getting away with everything!

[Brother Buzz]

36. In my perfect world, Junior will step up and tell us he knew exactly what he was doing

The ball is in your court, Junior,

[sarcasmo]

37. #TooStupidToIndict 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 A great hastag if you need a laugh.

[SunSeeker]

42. It's not funny to African Americans who are never given this benefit of the doubt.

It is an outrage. It is the ultimate white upper class privilege. Mueller failed us in making this conclusion.

[Neoma]

40. I'm on that part in the Mueller report right now.

[peggysue2]

41. The thing that pisses me off about this is . . .

that any ordinary citizen--particularly people of color--would not have been given any slack in the real world. Being ignorant of the law is no defense. How many times have we heard that?

So, greasy Don Jr is measured by a different yardstick when, in fact, he should have had that yardstick jabbed where the sun don't shine. And then we wonder why citizens question the legitimacy of our justice system? Just another sad example.

[SunSeeker]

43. Exactly. They had a great segment on AMJoy about that this morning. nt

[peggysue2]

46. I missed it, SunSeeker.

But I agree in absentia. There's something profoundly wrong with this picture.