Neal Katyal: "Must look at p2 of Report." He's discussing this now on MSNBC.

[Miles Archer]

Neal Katyal
@neal_katyal

Must look at p2 of Report. Mueller says he applied a legal standard whereby he could NOT accuse Trump of crimes. So there isn't a way the Report exonerates. "we determined NOT to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes"

12:15 PM · Apr 18, 2019 · Twitter Web Client

Link to tweet

[Dream Girl]

1. Then wat was the point?

[uponit7771]

2. THANK YOU !!! and that about Trump's kids!!!

[Miles Archer]

5. Don Jr

Mueller could not find enough evidence that Donald Trump Jr. was smart enough to realize he was breaking the law by accepting Russian assistance for his father’s campaign.





https://www.rawstory.com/2019/04/11-jaw-dropping-bombshells-mueller-report/

[klook]

8. Ah, so ignorance of the law IS an excuse...

if you’re the “president”’s offspring.

[mr_lebowski]

11. This is probably specific to campaign-finance violations ... I'm sure Mueller was quoting the

statute accurately here. You have to show the finance violation was done 'willfully' in violation of the law, apparently.

[uponit7771]

9. Ignorance of the law is now an excuse to break the law ?!?!?! WOW !!!

[rockfordfile]

14. Only if you are a Republican crook. Mueller let his country down

[uponit7771]

17. I'm disappointed if this was Mueller, we need to talk to Mueller quick fast yesterday.

[zentrum]

37. Mueller carried water for

...the Bush Administration, telling Congress there were WMD is Iraq and cited Powell to do it, although it was widely circulated at the time that this was bogus.

He was following Repug orders.

Anyone with true integrity would have made damn sure WMD's existed and further, would have had conscience pangs over the fact that Iraq DID NOT invade us and was not behind 9/11 before he helped to send thousands into war to die and suffer for no damn reason except Halliburton.

Have never seen a Repug not run true to form.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. No. Govt has to prove accused had "mens rea", criminal intent. High bar. Jr ignorant, Manafort not.

[uponit7771]

21. Willfully"... with general knowledge of the illegality of conduct.." sounds like intent comes down t

... to knowledge of the crime and not the act itself.

How in the hell ?!!?

I didn't know speeding was a crime doesn't pass for me even on a great day

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. "intent" is not written into speeding regulations, because negligence is not a defense there.

Other statutes have "intent" written into them.

Don't apply inapplicable analogies.

[uponit7771]

29. Knowledge of the law doesn't define intent, Intent does

[Bernardo de La Paz]

32. Well, duh, yeah, of course, I didn't state otherwise. Intent is written in, but NOT for speeding.

[uponit7771]

36. Dons ... INTENT ... was to get dirt on Clinton from the Russians. Don's knowledge of the legality

... is NOT relevant then.

Mueller says it is

[Mr. Ected]

38. There's no way to know Trump Jr.'s intent without having deposed him

Same is true for all the children, the President, the Vice President, and every other soul in that administration that did not testify to the grand jury or be interviewed by the Special Counsel's office.

Jr.'s only testimony was a pack of lies delivered to Congress, a criminal offense that he's yet to pay the price for.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. Maybe he was afraid of bucking DOJ policy against criminally indicting a sitting President?

So he just laid it all out in non-criminal terms?

I'm just spitballing here.

[FakeNoose]

7. Looks to me like Mueller was planning to punt

... and wait for the House to decide on impeachment proceedings.

Maybe?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. Where Mueller had provable cases he got convictions. House-Senate impeachment-conviction lower bar.

For removal, you only have to convince Senators that there is a good case, not "beyond a reasonable doubt".

Of course, with Trump-Republicons, many of them complicit, you actually have a very high bar.

[lagomorph777]

25. Impeachment and conviction is a HIGHER bar.

You have to convince politicians that they will be booted out of office unless they vote to convict. And that includes a substantial number of Reptilian politicians.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

27. Read my post text for the first time. I say that. . . . nt

[lagomorph777]

31. Mismatch between your headline and your body content.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

35. Yes. Life is complicated & hard to put everything into subject line, though I try my best. . . . nt

[rockfordfile]

15. That policy is a Republican policy. Considering history

[TruckFump]

6. Impeachment.

That is what Mueller, IMO, was looking at because as a traditionalist, he felt that a sitting POTUS could not be indicted.

[coti]

10. He didn't necessarily even "feel," he was following the incredibly thin amount of policy he knew of

at the Department. He was following the rules the best way he knew how, whether they were right or not.

[lagomorph777]

26. Barely even "policy" - more like a line in a memo.

[ScratchCat]

3. This

is spiraling out of control quickly. The report clearly doesn't say what Barr claims it says, and even Fox News folks are shaking their heads asking "how are we going to spin and defend this, Barr lied!?!?!"

[lagomorph777]

28. The person most damaged by the Mueller report is Barr.

Barr is so fucked.

[mr_lebowski]

12. I believe he's referring to 'in terms of wording in this report', not in terms of 'how he conducted

the investigation all along'.

See Rosenstein's comments from last month where he said DoJ policy is to not imply people are guilty of crimes ... unless we're prepared to indict for those crimes.

Let's see if this principle holds true when the DoJ puts out the report on Steele here in the next month or so ... and they DON'T indict him ... will they still adhere to this so-called 'policy' of their's ... for Steele?

[rockfordfile]

13. White washed. There goes Mueller's reputation for "a stand up guy'

Mueller is a republican, trump is a republican and bushco is a republican.

[Tom Rinaldo]

16. He accepted long standing Justice Dept guidelines that sitting Presidents can't be indicted

That is a view point that many dispute, but honest jurors have come down on both sides of that issue. Mueller preserved and presented the evidence that can be used to impeach, or to charge Trump once out of office. I think whitewash is too harsh. What Barr has attempted to do in regards to the report however is a whitewash.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Mueller follows the book. rarely loses cases. He wins. Not a white wash. Also wait for his testimony

[FakeNoose]

18. Take a look at Page 290

This is relayed by Jody Hunt, former Chief of Staff for Jeff Sessions. He was in the room when Sessions told Chump he was recusing himself and an special investigator has been hired.



There is a lot of evidence in Part 2 of Chump obstruction, Mueller didn't whitewash anything. It's in the report but Mueller didn't know how/when to bring obstruction charges against a sitting president.

Mueller cannot impeach the President himself, he could only provide the evidence and stand back while the House does the impeachment.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. Trump knows he is a criminal & guilty. I agree w you. Mueller didn't whitewash or sugar-coat. . .nt

[True Dough]

34. I think you're right

Mueller was cautious not to overstep, but he left a nice trail of crumbs for legislators to follow.

[wishstar]

30. If they were ignorant of law, why did they lie and attempt to cover up subject of TT meeting

The fact that Trump and Co. lied and made up the adoption cover for the TT meeting is clearly an indication they knew soliciting and accepting Russian help was illegal. Don't know how Mueller team could decide ignorance of campaign finance laws when Manafort was there and is an attorney and a campaign expert and Kushner is a lawyer too. I don't see any other reasonable explanation for all of the lying and covering up about the contacts with Russians unless they knew that knowingly accepting Russian assistance by campaign was illegal. Also FBI had briefed the campaign about foreign contacts and need to report them.

[lagomorph777]

33. Yeah that ain't gonna fly with the public.

(MAGAts excepted of course)