Trump/Russia 2016 election investigation (continued, now with Ukraine!)

Cool cool

Counterpoint:

Jesus Christ. Can the House appoint an independent investigator?
(Doesn’t look like it, everything goes through the AG.)

And seriously, fuck the media.

Why are the whispers about the Mueller probe ending any different than the previous reports that it was ending soon? Is it just because of the Barr confirmation?

Josh has kind of been off the rails more than on of late.

Imma go with Marcy Wheeler’s read on things.

People are ascribing such unrealistic wish-casting aspirations for the Mueller report that pretty much anything is going to send social media into fits.

Honestly, I expect the House to call Mueller to testify at some point about his report. If it was truncated at the request of the incoming AG, he’ll say as much then.

And the Barr timing is prolly the reverse of what you think it is.

Which is? Could be I’m stupid but that sentence is meaningless.

I agree with what others have said and it’s driving me nuts. We already know the crazy fucked up shit Trump has done, all the report can really do is repeat all that in a document.

I think the worst thing about this, like all of Trump’s bullshit, is all the horror has dribbled out a week or two at a time. If all this info was dumped all at once, I feel like that would be enough to push the needle. As it is, I think a lot of people are just inured to it.

That Mueller was pretty much wrapped up a week or two ago, and waiting for the confirmation of the incoming AG to be complete.

As Wheeler has noted numerous times: the SCO has offloaded lots of stuff to the SDNY and EDVA. They were moving files (a sign that things were wrapping up) last week, before Barr’s confirmation.

Or: a sign that SCO was worried about being summarily shut down this week.

Or: a sign that those particular lines of investigation were at a stage ready to, and appropriate to, move.

File need to recall that Barr isn’t a total political hack. He’s not like Whitaker.

If Trump has some actual bad stuff, and Mueller shows him a report containing it, i don’t think Barr is going to their himself on that grenade to protect Trump. I feel like he actually has some allegiance to America that will preclude him from covering up something off that magnitude.

Except Mueller and Barr both know that Mueller will be testifying to House and perhaps Senate committees regarding his report and investigation. And both know that:

  1. Mueller won’t lie, and
  2. If Mueller indicates he was told to cut his investigation short, he’ll say so, and
  3. If he does say so, it’s going to open the door for even more investigations and subpoenas and create an impeachment scenario.

Barr is a jackass, but he’s a DOJ proceduralist, too. As Timex notes, Barr isn’t Whitaker.

Deja Vu?

William Barr Supported Pardons In An Earlier D.C. ‘Witch Hunt’: Iran-Contra

Then-Attorney General Barr supported the president’s decision in the Iran-Contra case, which gave clemency to people who had been officials in the administration of President Ronald Reagan, including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. He had been set to go on trial to face charges about lying to Congress.

To the man who led the Iran-Contra investigation, however, the pardons represented a miscarriage of justice.

“It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office, deliberately abusing the public trust without consequences,” said Lawrence Walsh, the independent prosecutor in the case, at the time of the pardons.

“The office had developed evidence over the course of many years suggesting that there had been a high-level conspiracy to obstruct the investigation … designed to protect, first President Reagan, and then-Vice President — and ultimately President — Bush.”

It’s worth noting that Iran contra wasn’t the same kind of thing as what seems to be the case with Trump.

It involved illegal things, but it wasn’t motivated by personal greed or being owned by a foreign power.

I could see Barr supporting a bending of the rules in favor of executive power… If that power were being used to some end that benefitted the country.

But if Trump was just owned by the Russians? That’s not a question of executive power at that point.

I don’t think Barr would go along with that. The dude had been around for long enough that i think he cares about his reputation. He’s not going to set himself up to be thrown under the bus.

Mueller is a train at this point. Trump can’t stop him, and Trump is pretty much the only one dumb enough to think he can.

Of nothing else, Mueller respects his prior oath to the country. He will not be silenced. If it comes down to being threatened by Trump with jail, Mueller will choose jail if he has to, as punishment for telling Congress what is up, if something is up.

I agree with most of what you wrote, but I don’t think Mueller would choose civil disobedience. He’s a prosecutor, not a journalist. And prosecutors are the people least likely to break the law in service of a higher principle. (Yes, occasionally they do so for the sake of convenience or self-advancement, like everyone else).

If he felt that Trump was somehow corrupting the DOJ to the degree that Justice was not being done, I suspect that he would take it to Congress, and go against Trump’s objections.

He wouldn’t go on TV. He’d work within the system, but he wouldn’t give Trump the normal deference he would give other Presidents, if he felt Trump was actually acting unconstitutionally.

Sure, I think Mueller would do what he could to see the law enforced, without actually breaking it himself.

Basically, same as Comey post-firing.