Eleven days have passed since Attorney General William Barr fired off a surprisingly brief letter outlining what he asserted were the key takeaways from a highly-anticipated report two years in the making. During that time, we’ve learned much more about Barr than we have about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe.

We’ve learned, for example, that Barr rushed to exculpate President Donald Trump and his advisers in that four-page missive, which laid out what the attorney general claimed were the Mueller report’s two key criminal inquiries: Conspiracy and obstruction of justice. We’ve learned that, although Mueller felt his report didn’t completely exonerate the president, he didn’t think Trump and his team conspired with Russia to try sabotaging the 2016 presidential campaign. On the other hand, Mueller didn’t decide whether Trump obstructed justice. Barr took that as a signal that he should rule on that one, and he did: No obstruction.

<snip>

The Post went further. It reported that “members of Mueller’s team have complained to close associates that the evidence they gathered on obstruction was alarming and significant” and “much more acute than Barr suggested.”

The Post quotes one anonymous U.S. official as saying that there “was immediate displeasure from the team when they saw how the attorney general had characterized their work.” This section from the Post’s reporting about the Mueller team’s summaries is telling:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-04/mueller-team-has-had-enough-of-william-barr-s-letters

https://twitter.com/jfritze/status/1113237398631198720?s=20


John Fritze
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@jfritze
"Someone's going to leak this whole damn speech to the media," Trump tells NRCC in a speech that is being broadcast live by C-SPAN.

19.4K
7:30 PM - Apr 2, 2019

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1113041708730802176?s=20

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1113044765405315073?s=20


Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA....

17.9K
6:33 AM - Apr 2, 2019
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?s=20


Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
....The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump. So many wonderful people, but with such bad Island leadership and with so much money wasted. Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments, and so little appreciation!

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6:45 AM - Apr 2, 2019
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