The only reason Mueller would leave the question of obstruction to Congress

[bigtree]

Last edited Tue Mar 26, 2019, 02:33 PM - Edit history (1)

...is if the evidence weighs on the side of Trump's guilt.

Mueller clearly kicked the ball to Congress. He's looking for Congress to make the verdict, because it's such an explosive decision.

It's unlikely he would have left the question open if the evidence tilted toward actually exonerating the president. Whatever Mueller wrote apparently allowed Barr to let Trump off the hook on conspiracy with Russia, so the SP clearly didn't have any problem exonerating anyone involved, if he saw fit.

That's made all the more clear by the resistance from the WH and the president to releasing the full report. No one believes they wouldn't be waving that around. They can't lift the lid on the report without opening the entire can of worms.

[guillaumeb]

1. Recommended.

And Trump can publicly demand that the report be released in its entirety,

while privately ordering Barr to do the opposite.

[bigtree]

4. he's not even doing that

Last edited Mon Mar 25, 2019, 10:34 PM - Edit history (2)

Sanders said on NBC’s Today Show that Trump will leave the full release of Mr. Mueller’s report “in the hands of the attorney general” and called it a “full exoneration of the president.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/435566-sarah-sanders-trump-doesnt-have-any-problem-with-release-of-mueller

[guillaumeb]

7. Trump seems to know the meaning of very few big words.

Exonerate prominent among them.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

14. Please don't read the rightwing Washington Times

[bigtree]

15. just lazy sourcing for the quote

...good call.

[onit2day]

25. Please watch Eric Holder's video on DU now to gain some perspective

On how Mueller is following precedent, by leaving criminal charges up to the House who decides if Trump should be impeached. Special counsel never makes a recommendation and Barr is interfering by injecting himself between Mueller and Congress. Please watch it and pass it on before it disappears. It's also on you tube.

[guillaumeb]

29. Thank you for the point. eom

[rso]

2. Mueller

Dems need to make “release the report “ their battle cry to counter the premature victory celebrations by Donnie and his sycophants. There are many things that dems can point to in the letter, for example, on the issue of collusion, the fact that the letter mentions “ Russian government”, when it is well known that Russia’s Intel agencies operate through unofficial cutouts like Wikileaks , shell companies and oligarchs.

[JI7]

5. if that was the case the report would already be made public

[mcar]

6. Which is why Barr, McConnell et al will do

everything possible to block its release.

[manor321]

8. Yes. I think Mueller thinks there is more than enough for Congress to impeach

And that since the DOJ couldn't indict (based on internal rules), it made sense to hand it to Congress.

Then Barr jumped up and intercepted it.

It has also been pointed out that Starr also left the decision up to Congress. Mueller was just following that tradition.

[BigmanPigman]

9. That makes me believe that it will be leaked by someone close to Mueller

and knew of Mueller's intent.

[SergeStorms]

20. Don't forget...

Mueller is a republican, contrary to what the maniac in chief thinks. The "investigation" was ordered by a Trump appointed DOJ republican, was investigated by DOJ appointed republicans, was then handed back to Trump appointed republicans, was sanitized by Trump appointed republicans, and that very weak synopsis was then handed to Democrats.

What if the report was so very damning of Trump and the republican party that it could have spelled the death of not only the Trump presidency, but the republican party completely? Do you believe republicans would release it? Do you think there are any patriotic republicans remaining, or are they only concerned about their party, a party that has demonstrated it wants total autocratic control of our country forever and ever? That's a stretch, I know, but knowing the shit we've seen going on the past two years..........is it?

I don't trust anyone anymore, and certainly not a single republican!

[BigmanPigman]

21. I have heard for two years about how stellar Mueller's character is from both Dems

and GOPs who have worked with him and everyone has so much respect for him. I try to not be black or white and believe there is a grey area between two extremes but today's GOP is not like my grandfather's GOP in character at all, mainly due to a total lack of character by their party since Nixon (basically my whole life time). I have heard what you wrote from several pundits today as well and I realized that Mueller too may be one of "them". You know, the new GOP where they put "party over country". Their party is like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and they got Mueller too now.

[SergeStorms]

22. Think of the chaos...

if a titanic Trump scandal wiped out the sitting president and the entire political party he represents. The repercussions of something like that would be world changing....literally. I don't think that's something any GOPer, no matter how "fair and even-handed" they may be, could deliver unto their party. They believe they are the country!

[WinstonSmith4740]

12. Actually, that went back to Nixon.

Rachel was talking about it in her opening tonight. Leon Jaworski did not indict Nixon, but in his report there was a comment from John Dean that basically was the "pulled thread" that led to the whole thing unraveling and congress getting involved.

[onit2day]

26. Exactly. Well said.

[zentrum]

10. OK. Some solace.

Makes sense.

[jalan48]

11. So do we think Mueller was naive enough to think Republican's would let Democrats see the full

report?

[yaesu]

13. This who deal is a whitewash or should I say orangewash. nt

[shanny]

16. ...is that it is Congress' job to indict (i.e. impeach) the president,

not his.

Dawg save me from self-righteous honorable men.

[bigtree]

17. it's that

...or the evidence didn't rise to the level of proof required in the federal guidelines Barr cited in his letter to Congress.

Thing is, that was the reason he gave for clearing Trump on conspiracy with Russia, and arguably more serious charge. Hedging on obstruction in this case would indicate serious doubt about the president's exculpation.

Another interesting element, more to the point about Barr's interference, is his resume delivered to Trump before he was gifted with the AG job outlining why he believed a president was immune from charges of obstruction.

Perhaps Mueller has similar reservations about the extent of a president's ability to inquire about ongoing cases, including his own, and wanted Congress to resolve the issue - doubting it was a deliberate hand-off to Barr.

Interesting that the excuse for obstruction, Barr, was in position to defacto answer the question for Congress.

[shanny]

18. I don't think the level of proof required by Congress to impeach

is as high as that of a criminal indictment.

And I absolutely agree that Barr was chosen for his resume. It is unfortunate, given the preznit's epic level of incompetence, that there are still some people present who know how to manipulate the levers of power...and have ZERO integrity, like their boss.

[uponit7771]

23. It's not, congress can impeach for high crimes and ... misdemeanors. Right now Red Don is violating

... the emoluments clause. He should be impeached for that alone seeing that can be seen to curry favor but it can't be done at the numbers Nixon got impeached.

Nixon was at 24% approval faux news will never allow for that

[quakerboy]

19. Nah.

Righty Mueller was never gonna stick his neck out to take down Righty Trump.

Guy kept us hoping but fairly passive for 2 years, gave us some minor scapegoats to keep the train rolling and make it look like all was well and the justice system would take care of the matter, and then and then turned in exactly what he could get away with. He will have carefully weighed the matter, and inserted just enough in the report to CYA if his work is made public and the other Righties arent around to let him off the hook, and just under enough for Trump to turn more than the twitter machine against him in the mean time.

[in2herbs]

24. Or, as Rachel alluded to, the Mueller report is incomplete, having been stopped by Barr before a

complete investigation could occur.

[coti]

27. It occurred to me that maybe he even thought Trump was guilty, but Barr argued with him

when they discussed it a few weeks ago. And because his boss argued with him, he backed down and tried to leave it to someone else with authority

[wendyb]

28. Bring Mueller and Barr and Rosenstein in to testify

I don't understand why the oversight committees aren't bringing in these guys to clarify and to expand upon Barr's D- book report.
I also agree that Trump is saying to the cameras that he has no problem with the report being given to the public and Congress while wink wink..he has told Barr to obfuscate it.