Here is a link to the Mueller Report.
Now that the Mueller Report has been released in redacted form, we now know that Attorney General William P. Barr lied to the American people, both in his previous “letters’ and in his unprecedented press conference held this morning about there being “no evidence” of obstruction of justice by Trump – as well as a number of other significant issues.
Barr has lied about so many things involving the investigation into the Russian sabotaging the US Presidential election of 2016 that the American people have to completely ignore anything he has said or written about the Mueller Report.
I watched 6 and a half hours this morning of Barr’s presser and the subsequent commentary about the Mueller Report – and the ball is clearly now in Congress’ court – which is where Mueller intended his report to be.
Go to NBCnews.com for an online version of the redacted report.
Barr has completely shown he is Trump’s defense lawyer, not the Attorney General of these United States. He has sullied not only his own reputation but that of the Justice Department.
There are so many problems with Barr’s written and oral “summaries” of Mueller’s report that we cannot list them here. Go read the report for yourself, dear reader, and you be the judge.
Mueller, in his report, stated he could not draw final conclusions on obstruction of justice because of the lack of cooperation from the White House and the fact that Trump refused after a year of negotiations to submit to an interview with him. Mueller also stated that one of the reasons Trump was not able to fully obstruct justice the many times he wished to because of his aides refusing to carry out his orders or directives, not firing Mueller, for instance. In his written statements to Mueller, Trump claimed he could not recall 37 times in responses to questions.
Barr claimed the Mueller Report did not consider the DOJ policy of not indicting a sitting president, but the report itself is laced with references to that policy and Mueller clearly had it in mind when deciding not to press criminal charges against Trump. But again, it appears Mueller gave Congress a roadmap based on the factual record of how to proceed. Impeachment has to be considered, despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s warning to her fellow Democrats that it’s too soon to move in that direction.
Congressional leaders have to decide what they’re going to do. Obviously they’ll take some time in digesting the report but Barr is already scheduled to testify in early May and Chairman Jerry Nadler, head of the Judiciary Committee in the House, said he will be asking Mueller to testify, perhaps in mid-May. Barr during his presser said he had no problem with Mueller testifying.
Mueller’s report confirmed the Russians sabotaged the election in 2016 (and there’s nothing in place to stop them from doing the same thing in our next election) and he listed all the times Trump associates met with Russians, all the times Trump obstructed justice or the investigation. Never anywhere in the report, did Mueller say Trump was exonerated. In fact the report said that after 22 months of investigation, if the Mueller team had found Trump exonerated the report would have stated so. But it did not.
Kelly Ann Conway, the Trump White House shill, said this morning that today has been “the best day” for the White House since Trump was inaugurated. We don’t know which report she or they are reading, but there is nothing there that exonerates him or causes him to relax. There is plenty to follow-up on by Congressional investigations.
Congress must seek the truth and must seek justice. And not consider the politics involved or whether it’s too messy, or too close to the 2020 election or that the Republicans in the Senate would never convict Trump.
Bottomline, the American people must ensure Congress carries out its Constitutional duties – hold the president accountable, enforce oversight and get to the bottom of just what and when did the president know.
Here is a snippet from the Conclusion of Volume II of the Report:
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