A few months ago, I read an article about what the Democratic control of the House would really mean for the Trump administration. Sources said that even though people were – at the time – hung up on the idea of impeachment proceedings, House Dems would be content to make Trump’s life a living hell for two years, with a drip-drip of investigations and releases and hearings, all to emphasize and re-emphasize all of the illegality and criminal acts and treason of Trumplandia. Now that the Mueller Report didn’t lead to mass indictments within the administration, I think that Drip-Drip Plan is basically the Democrats’ best hope, honestly. And it’s not the worst plan.

I bring that up because I feel like the slowness around the Mueller Report’s release may end up working in the Democrats’ favor too. Tomorrow – Thursday, April 18th – AG Bill Barr is scheduled to release a redacted version of the Mueller Report. The Thursday before Good Friday/Easter Sunday is not the best moment for the release, obviously. But here’s the silver lining: the redacted report is going to be a sh-tshow anyway, and it will just build even more anticipation for the eventual release of the unredacted report. Plus, Democrats get to use the redactions as a cudgel against AG Barr and the GOP: what are they hiding, why the secrecy, why all the redactions, I thought you guys claimed it was a complete exoneration, so why don’t you prove it and release the full report?

Another reason why I think the release of the heavily redacted report (I’m just preparing myself for it) is good news: because the Trump administration is freaking out about it. NBC News reported this week that multiple current and former staffers are “worried” that the report will out them as sources of damaging information about Trump. And because Trump was “completely exonerated” (remember??) of course he and his people are also “preparing an aggressive response” to the release of the redacted report.

While President Donald Trump and the White House are uncertain about what exactly will be revealed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report when Attorney General William Barr clears its release to the public on Thursday, sources say they are preparing an aggressive response. Sources say the initial response will look much as it did when Mueller first transmitted the report to Barr late last month, which was expressing relief over Barr’s general conclusions.

“He anticipates the end of this just like everyone else,” a source with knowledge of the president’s thinking said. The president’s two top White House lawyers, Pat Cipollone and Emmet Flood, are expected to be among the White House officials reading the report.

Barr and a select few of his associates have been reviewing Mueller’s 400-plus page report in recent weeks and making redactions. ABC News has learned that the White House has received a broad briefing on the report — described as non-specific in nature, focused mostly on the mechanics of the report itself — including that it will be divided into sections on obstruction and collusion and that certain portions will be redacted, according to sources familiar with the matter.

White House officials and sources close to the administration say advisers to the president are most concerned about the possibility of previously unknown examples of potential obstruction of justice and what information Mueller’s team learned from witness interviews, especially former White House Counsel Don McGahn who sat for well over 30 hours with Mueller’s investigators.

Sources say the president hasn’t privately expressed any concern over the contents of the report, and is not likely to read it in its entirety. White House officials will review the report, brief the president, and then release a statement that will come from White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

[From ABC News]

“Sources say the president hasn’t privately expressed any concern over the contents of the report, and is not likely to read it in its entirety.” Because he can’t read anything other than the Fox News chyron. His plan on Thursday is to do nothing but watch Fox News tell him he’s the bigliest and most innocent man in the world. Then he’ll tweet utter nonsense for hours. That’s his “aggressive response.” Meanwhile, none of this is the end. There will be more hearings, more testimony, more investigations, more subpoenas. House Dems are going to get Robert Mueller under oath in the next few months, I’m sure. They’ll also eventually get their hands on the unredacted report.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.