Yeah, only now the Democrats control the house, and thus will give him a fair forum.
So much for the rule of law.
(Does this count as irony? Timex the nominal conservative vs me, a lefty pinko.
Just to be clear, that’s a joke.)
Don’t get me wrong, I hope you and Trig are right but … let’s just say I’m skeptical.
Wheeler:
This is happening in the window of time when Rod Rosenstein is still around and — because William Barr has presumably not been through an ethics review on the investigation — presumably back in charge of sole day-to-day supervision of the investigation. But it is happening after Barr has been confirmed, and so any problems with the investigation that might stem from having an inferior officer (an unconfirmed hack like the Big Dick Toilet Salesman) supervising Mueller are gone.
I’m fairly certain the concerns about Barr coming in and forcing Mueller to finish this are misplaced. I say that, in part, because Mueller seemed to be preparing for this timing. I say it, too, because Barr is too close to Mueller to do that to him.
That says that Mueller is choosing this timing. Whatever reason dictates this timing, by doing it in this window, Mueller can ensure the legitimacy of what happens, both legally (because Barr will be in place) and politically (because it will be clear Rosenstein presided over it).
So whatever comes next week, people on both sides should accept that it is the outcome of the investigation that Mueller deemed appropriate.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. The coverage on this is all over the map. The Business Insider article certainly raises concerns that Barr will cover up the worst findings and take a position against charging the President.
And, from the CNN article comes this worrying observation:
Under the special counsel regulations, Mueller must submit a “confidential” report to the attorney general at the conclusion of his work, but the rules don’t require it to be shared with Congress, or by extension, the public. And, as Barr has made clear, the Justice Department generally guards against publicizing “derogatory” information about uncharged individuals.
I can easily see a scenario where Barr feels like you can’t charge a sitting President and, by extension, you can’t publicize anything against him that would be considered derogatory.
I’m open to being pleasantly surprised but based on his past public comments, I have a bad feeling that Barr is well positioned to minimize the impact of Muellers report
We have probably seen 99% of the ‘Mueller Report’ already, because Mueller communicates it in indictments and filings to court proceedings.
His report is very likely to be a summary of process.
To be clear, my concern is not so much with the timing of Mueller wrapping it up as it is with Barr’s position to decide what action should be taken based on Mueller’s findings
This made me laugh.
Someone asked Marcy why she’s so in-demand on MSNBC and CNN and elsewhere, but won’t go on the payroll of a professional media outlet and instead works off donations and subscriptions to her site.
Her response was basically: “Because I want to use terms like ratfucking and calling Whitaker the Big Dick Toilet Salesman without getting edited.”
The best part is that people are reading it, thinking it’s some kind of colorful pejorative term.
Nope! Just a literal description of what he was!
Any idea if there are still supposed to be indictments under seal?
I think people are way too optimistic about Barr. The only reason Trump fired Sessions – his hand picked AG – is because Sessions recused himself. In ever other political axis Sessions is perfectly aligned with Trump’s goal. Clearly Barr is going IN on this investigation.
You may be right.
But is there a circumstance by which you see Mueller:
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Not saying “This investigation was truncated by the incoming AG” if asked by reporters, if indeed that was the case or
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Mueller not disclosing that his investigation was truncated by the new AG when he inevitably testifies in congressional committees, if indeed that was the case?
And do you think Barr doesn’t realize how Mueller is likely to answer those questions, and what that may mean at some future point in history in an obstruction of justice investigation and/or presidential impeachment trial?
I mean, I guess I can see Barr cutting this investigation off now. But when I see that, I also see the rip current of untenable positions roiling back, and it’s a little difficult for me to think that some of the folks who’d have to go along with this would do so. I mean, you’d have to have Mueller’s investigative team of attorneys being willing to buy in, I’d think.
My nightmare scenario is that he says this and then… nothing happens. Trump’s defenders focus on whether Trump has the legal right to end an investigation, as in, whether it’s within the powers of the office of the President.
I think about how Trump calls Mueller and even his own AG Sessions TRAITORS on the official twitter account of the President of the United States and, well, everyone kind of shrugs. Is that that big of a leap to: Trump canned the investigation on himself but, well, he’s Trump, of course he did. We all expect him to act like this. It’s within his legal powers as President so what can we do?
You regular reminder that “sources” have been declaring that Mueller will be wrapping things up any day now for over a year. So far they have been wrong. That’s because these “sources” invariably turn out to be Team Trump engaging in wishful thinking and/or or attempting to get the media to hustle Mueller out the door.
(And yes, eventually the Mueller investigation will end. It may very well end tomorrow for all I know. Point is, the track records of these “sources” are so terrible at this point that you should basically ignore reports based on unnamed sources and just wait for actual events.)
Every person who ever engaged in a cover up did so with the belief that it would work. Does someone like Barr believe he can bend the rules to cover up something and get away with it? Almost certainly.
Yes, exactly. As long as Republicans in the Senate don’t turn on Trump, nothing will happen.
I am hoping this is the case.
The reason for the optimism is that with the Dems in control of the House, there is at least one branch of Government not completely beholden to Trump over the Rule of Law.
Maybe 2, if you have faith in the Roberts Court (at least, while RBG is still on it). Roberts has shown signs of being more supportive of the Law, and existing laws/rulings of late, which can be read in the tea leaves as a good (better?) sign, though Kavanaugh and Gorsuch appear to be quite taken with Party/Ideology over Country, as expected.
This is important to the extreme, because the entire Trump Investigation has to do with whether the law and our institutions are resilient to people who ignore them. It also goes beyond Trump, as he is pretty much only doing what any 1%'er seems to think it is their divine right to do.
If the House asks Mueller whether his investigation was truncated and he answers yes, that’s hardly the last thing he will say.
Next they will ask him which investigation was still unfinished. And what information Mueller still needed.
Then more witnesses will be called in order to try to complete the investigation. Except it will all be in public view. Which is pretty much the worst case scenario for Barr.
Wheeler has also made the point that Mueller has a lot of legal minds with appeals court experience on staff - and that while he may make a report prior to the appeals processes being completed, the team will still be together for that (in theory).
Can we just take a moment and let it soak in that 30 years down the road we’ll still have key issues decided by a court partially picked by an idiotic reality show con man? Jesus.