Was Mueller pressured to end his investigation?

[Igel]

14. Um, sort of.

Did Barr's conclusions match the conclusions of Robert Mueller? From the little that we have gleaned from Bill Barr's letter today, their conclusions do not match?

The first conclusion is a quote from the report: Russian collusion, no. Now, there's a lot behind that, but since the collusion was a quote--possibly a short, incomplete quote, but a quote--I don't see that changing.

The second conclusion derives from the non-finding of the Report. It was a loose end. No "traditional decision" was a problem, and the reasons seem, well, reasonable. Agree or disagree, the process is probably an appropriate one--consult around. It's likely that this was discussed over the last month. And it's also likely, to my thinking, at least, that a yes "obstruction of justice" charge could have been a political zoo we would have liked but which would have resulted in nothing but chaos with a clear political benefit--and a real disaster for anything less complete political warfare and slash-and-burn politics. Which, of course, would be near and dear to Putin's little coal-lump of a heart. Agree or disagree, Mueller, for whatever reason, didn't decide to make a decision and have it overridden. There are apparently quite specific requirements for an obstruction of justice charge, and the need to actually empanel a jury that didn't already believe they knew the verdict would be a problem.

On the other hand, we've been shouting "collusion!" for years so that, I think, is an appropriate topic for a one-sentence summary. "Obstruction" is a fall-back.

Does the Special Counsel law require the Report to go to Congress?


It's a rule or regulation, not a law. Some of the report has to go, and the letter says why it might take a while. It's limited by all sorts of constraints. They're listed in the letter, and not unreasonable. The kind of thing which, if Barr ignored, we'd impeach him over for dereliction of duty; but which, since he's going to try to do, we can accuse him of foot dragging over.

Did Barr and Trump communicate while Trump was in Florida?

Don't know, don't care. Much of the full report will be made available to others, so lying on the brief letter would be a "yuge" mistake. The only "rule" that he couldn't give Trump a "sneak peak" was one made up on the fly by the madam chairman. Try to find it elsewhere and you won't.

Why wasn't Mueller included in the final conclusion by Barr and Rosenstein?

Because he had his say in the main report. He opined and rendered his best verdict. Going back and saying, "Um, help us re-do this" might be taken as overriding his decision not to reach a decision. But I suspect they discussed things in the recent past. They may have even discussed things yesterday or this morning. But if Mueller did his job adequately, there's no point asking him for anything but points of clarification. Because it's hard to be that perfectly clear, even in writing, and not have editing errors or discontinuities. I doubt he wrote each word himself.

It smells like a can of worms has been opened.


Anything that wasn't resoundingly exactly what we wanted would have been a can of worms. Anything that was what we wanted would have been a can of worms. That there are warms all over the place cannot be a surprise. The cynic in me is convinced that many would have wanted an even bigger can of worms full of large, tooth-bearing carnivorous worms unleashed. Sort of the T. rex of worms.