Trump: Obstructed Justice, Putin Asset, and 100% Russian Disinformation Campaign

The Kremlin: Center of Russian Intelligence Operations

(Разведывательный центр)  

Update on AG Barr and his silly game of hide the truth:

AG Barr is supposed oversee the nation's crime and justice laws, and NOT to protect criminals like Trump who it will come very quickly did obstruct and constantly tried to obstruct justice - analysis below: 

AG William Barr: Cover-Up Part Two​

Simple points re: Mueller report: The only legitimate way this concludes is for Congress or some subsection of Congress to get the complete and un-redacted Mueller Report. Precedent is on the side of this approach. Congress has various models to accommodate this:

1. It can be released only to the committees of jurisdiction.
2. It can be released only to the Gang of Eight, though that may be too restrictive.
3. It can of course be released to the entire Congress, which seems most reasonable.

What redactions are included in the publicly released Mueller Report is something reasonable people can disagree over. But as long as the substance of the redactions remain secret from the Congress the whole thing is illegitimate. If the redactions of the public version are reasonable we need members of the opposition party to confirm that that is the case. We need leadership of both chambers to confirm that.

This is shaping up to give Bill Barr broad latitude to hide all the details that President Trump wants kept secret. So, Mr. and Mrs. Public: Wake up and pay close attention to all this from AG Barr more here:

What will be redacted and why:  Things the public will not see: (1) related to ongoing investigations, (2) identification of intel sources and methods, (3) Grand Jury info that can’t be released by law, and (4) info that unduly prejudices individuals not charged (e.g., Trump Jr., et al).

(Barr also confirmed that Special Counsel Mueller is involved in the redaction process).

So, does Trump have a say in this: Trump and his Attorney Rudy Giuliani have of late ramped up their usage of the term “executive privilege” and said that they should get to review the Mueller report before it goes public to make privilege recommendations. It does not appear, at least right now, that this is a factor at play.

Interestingly, Barr reminded Trump he has this right to assert privilege over “certain parts of the report,” but that there aren’t any plans to give the report to the White House to make privilege recommendations.

(My note: “Plans can change” thus Barr's slick choice of words is interesting and shrewd).

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – AG Barr plans to issue a redacted copy of Special Counsel Mueller's nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April (he said in a recent letters to lawmakers).

“Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own,” Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats (Rep. Jerald Nadler, D-NY) and Republicans (Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC) on the House and Senate Judiciary committees. He also said he is willing to appear before both committees to testify about Mueller's report on May 1 and May 2.

Barr earlier sent a four-page letter to Congress that outlined Mueller's main findings saying that Mueller's investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in its election interference activities (no collusion). However, Mueller left unresolved the question of whether Trump obstructed justice. (Barr said based on the evidence presented, that he concluded it was not sufficient to charge the president with obstruction).

He said that his four-page letter “was not, and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting” of Mueller's investigation and said he believes the public should be allowed to read it and judge for themselves.

Barr continued: “I do not believe it would be in the public's interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report or release it in serial or piecemeal fashion.” 

Barr said in his letter that certain information must be redacted before the report is released (see update above), including secret grand jury information, intelligence sources and methods and information that by law cannot be public or might infringe on privacy.

He said Trump has the right to assert executive privilege on some materials but that “Trump has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me.”  I no plan for DOJ to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review.” 

Meanwhile at a rally in Grand Rapids, MI, Trump celebrated the end of the investigation calling it “lies, smears, and slander.”

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What we know already: (1) The Mueller report is by most accounts now nearly 400 pages long, (2) AG Barr submitted his 4-page summary, (4) Mueller had dozens of indictments, guilty verdicts, and sentencing, (3) the Federal Grand Jury continues, and (4) court filings remain thus it is premature to accept and adopt Barr’s simple 4-page summary.  

Mueller’s office may have properly drafted a detailed and damning account of Trump’s obstruction of justice and then simply cast it as a set of facts, a road map for the analysts who must decide what to do about it: Members of Congress. 

If Mueller believed it was inappropriate to pronounce on the president’s guilt — after all, the DOJ has a long-standing policy against indicting a sitting president — he could be following the example of Leon Jaworski the Watergate independent counsel who decided against indicting Nixon.

Jaworski instead submitted his findings to Congress – an extensive accounting of all the facts surrounding Nixon’s efforts to shut down the investigation. Jaworski’s testimony skipped all the adjectives and adverbs. It simply told the story and allowed the branch of government tasked with oversight to do the rest. The rest is history – Nixon resigned after the Oval Office tapes and other evidence clearly showed obstruction.

In this case, Mueller may not have anticipated (and perhaps could not have avoided) is that Barr would improperly declare the president’s guilt or innocence.

But that doesn’t mean Mueller came up empty-handed.

The attorney general does have a role in determining what to show Congress. In particular, he should redact information drawn from grand jury testimony and anything that might give away the tools of American espionage. But why did Barr, in his own letter to Congress describing Mueller’s work, reach a definitive conclusion about the absence of criminal guilt? 

“The Special Counsel’s decision to describe the facts of his obstruction investigation without reaching any legal conclusions leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime,” Barr wrote. 

But “the Special Counsel’s decision” did not require this at all. Instead, Mueller may have intended for Congress or voters to reach their own conclusions about Trump’s wrongdoing. It was Barr, not Mueller, who decided that Barr should be the judge.

What in the report might challenge Trump’s claim that he has been “exonerated”? The initial portion could document the intervention by military agents of a hostile foreign power in an American presidential campaign. Yes, we already know the outlines of this attack from the allegations in Mueller’s grand jury indictments of Russian operatives. 

That would be a startling account of the brazen attack on democracy. The counterintelligence portion also may prove deeply embarrassing to those who argue that Mueller’s investigation should never have existed. If so, would critics really maintain that Congress and the American people should be kept in ignorance about such an attack on the United States? Such evidence would also establish that the media’s “obsession with Russia-gate was entirely proper, indeed essential and not a “hoax, witch hunt, or fake news” that Trump has labeled the reporting.

My 2 cents: Lastly, we must not underestimate the strength, experience, and skill of Putin in Russia with his massive “disinformation apparatus” (Russian: дезинформационный аппарат) ever since 1923 and has gotten stronger with each new operation ever since.

That’s why I is critically important the public see the full Mueller report, minus the most sensitive data, but not to protect Trump in any way, period.

So, stay tuned and thanks for stopping by.