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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJustin Amash...the only thinking republican....
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1133410107461689345.htmlAttorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Muellers report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the presidents false narrative about the investigation.
After receiving Muellers report, Barr wrote and released a letter on March 24 describing Barrs own decision not to indict the president for obstruction of justice. That letter selectively quotes and summarizes points in Muellers report in misleading ways.
Muellers report says he chose not to decide whether Trump broke the law because theres an official DoJ opinion that indicting a sitting president is unconstitutional, and because of concerns about impacting the presidents ability to govern and pre-empting possible impeachment.
Barrs letter doesnt mention those issues when explaining why Mueller chose not to make a prosecutorial decision. He instead selectively quotes Mueller in a way that makes it soundfalselyas if Muellers decision stemmed from legal/factual issues specific to Trumps actions.
But, in fact, Mueller finds considerable evidence that several of Trumps actions detailed in the report meet the elements of obstruction, and Muellers constitutional and prudential issues with indicting a sitting president would preclude indictment regardless of what he found.
In noting why Barr thought the presidents intent in impeding the investigation was insufficient to establish obstruction, Barr selectively quotes Mueller to make it sound as if his analysis was much closer to Barrs analysis than it actually was:
Barr quotes Mueller saying the evidence didnt establish that Trump was personally involved in crimes related to Russian election interference, and Barr then claims that Mueller found that fact relevant to whether the president had the intent to obstruct justice.
But Muellers quote is taken from a section in which he describes other improper motives Trump could have had and notes: The injury to the integrity of the justice system is the same regardless of whether a person committed an underlying wrong. None of that is in Barrs letter.
As a result of Barrs March 24 letter, the public and Congress were misled. Mueller himself notes this in a March 27 letter to Barr, saying that Barrs letter did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Offices work and conclusions.
Mueller: There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.
To alleviate the misunderstandings that have arisen, Mueller urged the release of the reports introductions and executive summaries, which he had told Barr accurately summarize [Muellers] Offices work and conclusions.
Barr declined; he allowed the confusion to fester and only released the materials three weeks later with the full redacted report. In the interim, Barr testified before a House committee and was misleading about his knowledge of Muellers concerns:
Barr was asked about reports that members of [Muellers] team are frustrated with the limited information included in your March 24th letter, that it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the reports findings. Do you know what theyre referencing with that?
Barr absurdly replied: No, I dont I suspect that they probably wanted more put out. Yet Mueller had directly raised those concerns to Barr, and Barr says he suspect[s] they probably wanted more materials put out, as if Mueller hadnt directly told him that.
In subsequent statements and testimony, Barr used further misrepresentations to help build the presidents false narrative that the investigation was unjustified.
Barr notes that Mueller did not find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign. He then declares that Mueller found no collusion and implies falsely that the investigation was baseless.
But whether theres enough evidence for a conviction of a specific crime which Mueller thought was appropriate to charge is a different and much higher standard than whether the people whom Mueller investigated had done anything worthy of investigation.
In truth, Muellers report describes concerning contacts between members of Trumps campaign and people in or connected to the Russian government.
For instance, Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner took a meeting with a Russian lawyer whom Trump Jr. had been told worked for the Russian government and would provide documents to incriminate Hillary, as part of the Russian governments support for Mr. Trump.
Its wrong to suggest that the fact that Mueller did not choose to indict anyone for this means there wasnt a basis to investigate whether it amounted to a crime or collusion, or whether it was in fact part of Russias efforts to help Trumps candidacy.
Barr says the White House fully cooperated with the investigation and that Mueller never sought or pushed to get more from the president, but the report says Mueller unsuccessfully sought an interview with the president for over a year.
The report says the presidents counsel was told that interviewing him was vital to Muellers investigation and that it would be in the interest of the public and the presidency. Still Trump refused.
The president instead gave written answers to questions submitted by the special counsel. Those answers are often incomplete or unresponsive. Mueller found them inadequate and again sought to interview the president.
Ultimately, the special counsel recogniz[ed] that the President would not be interviewed voluntarily and chose not to subpoena him because of concerns that the resulting potentially lengthy constitutional litigation would delay completion of the investigation.
Barr has so far successfully used his position to sell the presidents false narrative to the American people. This will continue if those who have read the report do not start pushing back on his misrepresentations and share the truth.
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Justin Amash...the only thinking republican.... (Original Post)
pbmus
May 2019
OP
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)1. What is this guy's angle?
I suppose he actually be a conservative who isn't a moral coward like the rest of the Senate but this smells of set up or scam.