Well, I was wrong. I kept saying that people were reading the Trump-Russia tea leaves the wrong way, and that Robert Mueller was going to be investigating for months longer. Nope. Friday afternoon, Mueller submitted his final report to the Department of Justice. Cable news was in full meltdown about what the report *could* say, like the connections between Donald Trump and Russia are still some giant unknown, like we haven’t seen ample evidence of criminality and impeachable offenses and outright treason for the past three years.
On Saturday, Attorney General William Barr spent more than nine hours in his DOJ office, reviewing the report. Rod Rosenstein was called in to work on Saturday too. We got the message that they would not release anything yesterday, and the idea is that they might release something vague – like an outline of Mueller’s findings – at some point today.
House members and senators are freaking out and offering statements about how the Mueller Report just needs to be released, in full, to the general public. The Democratic leadership at one point was asking for their highest-security level members to be briefed on the report, but that tactic has changed over the weekend. Now Nancy Pelosi is leading the charge for the report to just be released in full, publicly:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democrats on Saturday she’ll rebuff any efforts by the Justice Department to reveal details of special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings in a highly classified setting — a tactic she warned could be employed to shield the report’s conclusions from the public.
Three sources who participated in a conference call among House Democrats said Pelosi (D-Calif.) told lawmakers she worried the Justice Department would seek to disclose Mueller’s conclusions to the so-called Gang of Eight — the top Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate — which handles the nation’s most sensitive secrets. The substance of Gang of Eight briefings are heavily guarded.
“Everyone pounded the transparency drum continuously,” said a source who was on the Saturday afternoon call.
Pelosi said it was her belief that the findings of the report should be unclassified, a consistent theme from Democrats who said they wanted Attorney General William Barr to share virtually every scrap of paper connected to the Mueller report with Congress.
While the two aren’t comparable whatsoever, I remember Ken Starr’s special counsel investigation into Bill Clinton and Whitewater (massive eyeroll) and that was released publicly very quickly. They published excerpts in the New York Times and Washington Post, and they released the report in book form too, so everyone could read it. They should do the same with the Mueller report.
I wonder if the Mueller report will have anything REALLY explosive in it, like Donald Trump standing in front of reporters and asking Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails
— Ike Barinholtz (@ikebarinholtz) March 22, 2019
AG Barr must not give President Trump, his lawyers, or his staff any ‘sneak preview’ of Special Counsel Mueller's findings or evidence.
The White House must not be allowed to interfere in decisions about what parts of those findings or evidence are made public. #ReleaseTheReport
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 23, 2019
Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.
The Mueller report SHOULD be released in full right away, but the GOP is going to fight to the bitter end to keep it as secret as possible. These shady people don’t want the truth to come out. This whole thing gives me so much anxiety that I’m back on my low daily dosage of xanex.
If there was no collusion or anything saying Don the Con colluded with the Russians/Putin, why hide it. If the report is hidden or given to 45 before the American people that would say to me he his hiding something and there was collusion and Don the Con sold out to Putin to get elected and he’s not a legitimate president. I want to see everything, now!!!!
Exactly this. There is nothing to hide. Mueller isn’t revealing state secrets in this.
oh in no way will they hide it if it clears him. They will parade it around and then make political commercials off of it.
The report will prove Trump obstructed justice but cannot be indicted as a sitting president. Now why obstruct justice if you’ve done nothing wrong?
“Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) prohibits public release of documents and testimony presented to the grand jury. When people are investigated but not indicted, public release of that information injures the innocent, causing business losses and reputational harm, as it did under the Independent Counsel Act.”
FBI Director James Comey publicly discussed what the FBI found during its investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein used Comey’s improper disclosure as a basis for his firing, criticizing Comey for revealing such information.
Well I was wrong. No collusion, no obstruction. No justice.
Expect a bunch of pardons tomorrow.
I have said many times here that nothing will be done. Just smoke and mirrors. My guess it will all just be a vague reveal that something was going on but they can’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was Russian collusion with 45 and his minions.
Totally agree. Anyone getting their hopes up about this report is going to be disappointed.
Yup. If his base didn’t care that he was paraded around on a leash in Helsinki and forced to perform tricks for the cameras like Vlad’s miniature poodle, they won’t care about anything Russia-related.
They might care that, if the GOP retain control in 2020, they’re going to be losing their Medicare/Medicaid to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cuts, but probably not until after the fact, so, yeah, we’re all doomed.
The thing is, many people have to remember: 37 indictments HAVE been issued, and a lot are STILL UNDER SEAL. WE DON”T KNOW EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN INDICTED YET. If he’d held off and dropped ALL the 37 indictments at the end, we’d be jumping up and down!
Some other good points to remember:
1. While MUELLER isn’t indicting now (he has to have over 90% certainty to indict; Congress needs only a 70% threshold, so…. it could still happen there.
2. Don’t forget, in Cohen’s case, Dump was listed as an “UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATOR”. SOMETHING will SURELY come from that.
And BEST: there are a SHITLOAD of indictments and cases handed off to other jurisdictions (SDNY, EDNY, EDVA, NYAG…). I think he and his evil spawn haven’t seen ANYTHING yet!
***ONE MORE POINT: SDNY has hired Audrey Strauss. (https://www.courthousenews.com/lawyer-who-bested-roy-cohn-tapped-for-big-gig-in-sdny/), the attorney who beat Roy Cohn (Dump’s “mentor” back in the day, precursor to Michael Cohen), and she is a SPECIALIST in indicting Mafia figures. I really think NY is going to go after Dump and his spawn for RICO/racketeering, bank fraud (lying on loan apps to banks/inflating income), criminal use of his Foundation (basically using it as his own personal checkbook).
Don’t worry peeps… this is NOT over!
There was always something so sad about the people on here convinced Mueller would indict Don Jr or Ivanka or Jared (coincidentally the same sort to use phrases like “Orange Menace” – not exactly a brain trust). Was never going to happen. These are the same sort who believed there were dozens of secret indictments out there too…
There are indeed reasons not the release the entire thing. However, the only way to get rid of Trump has always been to defeat him in the next election, and his base of morons is going to seize mightily on the fact that this doesn’t suggest “collusion”.
Jan—do you know what the process is for indictments under seal? Why are they held back and what happens to them? Are they strategically processed based on timing or is it just a matter of delay due to court process?
The GOP is spinning the fact that Javanka & Junior weren’t interviewed as good for them & the family. I’m guessing the reason Mueller didn’t have a sit-down w/them is because there may be sealed indictments against them (and/or referrals to other jurisdictions) and the Mueller team didn’t want to tip their hand about what they have against them.
Jan is wrong and it’s been confirmed – there are no sealed indictments related to Mueller’s investigations. This is in Barr’s letter, and before the wild talk starts, no, it’s not a lie.
Agree. Mueller’s report probably doesn’t prove any collusion and Don the Con and his GOP henchmen walk. The report will be used to exonerate Trump and he’ll use it in his campaign efforts to paint the Dems and other “haters” as colluding against him in a “witch hunt.” Nothing changes and this sh@t gets even worse. I wish I could be more hopeful but I just can’t anymore. Time to avoid all news for awhile and practice self care.
Even though I expect the report to be a damning indictment of Trump, we’ll never see it and nothing will happen. I don’t envy Barr, he needs to tell Trimp about this in a way where he won’t start WWIII to hide his embarrassment.
This is what I’ve thought, too. I’m trying to hang onto a shred of hope that Barr will do the right thing and release it but I’m not holding my breath.
Bye bye Democracy. I can’t believe we are losing our country to a B-rate reality star.
Jan I really hope you are right.
I really do feel this way. I know SDNY is federal, and there *could* be pardons, but I also know that NY State is going after Dump and his kids now with full force. IRS is also making noises about the tax returns (with the false bank statements), so there’s that, too.
Don’t forget, if nothing else, Al Capone was finally taken down because of his taxes. Dump and his kids will see a similar racketeering /tax fraud case, too. What the feds have started, let NY State finish!
Not getting my hopes up, but I will say one very interesting note: Trump is suspiciously quiet. Friday, lots of his supporters were crowing gleefully that Mueller isn’t indicting anyone else and Trump is exonerated. But Trump himself, who’s been screaming witch hunt and hoax about Mueller didn’t tweet a thing. That’s incredibly telling, imo. He’s worried. And if he’s shook, there’s a reason.
Funny because I read that quiet as the opposite. He knows there is nothing in there to nail him. The fact that there are no more indictments recommended is a good thing for him .
I just read it as they took his phone away, perhaps due to the North Korea sanctions kerfuffle. I doubt it means anything.
The powerful will always protect the powerful over the public.
It was reported that White House attorneys traveled to Mar-a-Lago to keep Trump from going off the rails this weekend. So…the idea that his phone was taken away is probably straight on the money.
Agree with Gaaahhh and J. I think they took his phone away *and* he hasn’t tried to get it back because he knows the report doesn’t damage him in any ways that he can’t Tweet about on Monday.
Considering DOJ guidelines don’t allow indictments against sitting presidents, pundits are saying the report could still provide enough evidence for state(s) to begin their own investigations against drumpf or some of his colleagues, family or staff. However, I’m not hopeful at this point it’s gonna have any real impact on his longevity in office this term or his ability to run for a second. His base is just too ignorant and too entrenched in his ideology (or he in theirs), and the Repubs will continue to obstruct and undermine any moves the Dems try to make to force a resignation.
If that’s the case don’t you think he’d be all over Twitter gloating?
I think the report is still going to be bad. Several experts have said for quite a while that Trump’s real danger will come from New York’s investigations.
There are 17 sealed indictments related to this case in the DC docket. It’s possible Jr and Kushner could still be indicted.
Yeah, you would think he’d at least post one tweet claiming victory. I say that he’s worried about the report’s contents and/or his lawyers are warning him to keep quiet.
He doesn’t have to – Mueller did it for him.
I agree, he would have been shrieking like a banshee if he knew it cleared him on Friday but given that the WH is distancing itself from the report is also telling. They know what’s in it and it does not look good for the Dumps.
Let’s not forget the investigations in NY, Mueller seems to have given them enough to carry on regardless of what happens to his report. This is not over. Mueller may not be able to indict anyone else but SDNY. An and probably will. Those rumours about sealed indictments for the Trump spawn have been around for a long time, come on NY unseal them if they exist.
Dump doesn’t have the self control not to gloat. If the report cleared him 100% we would have heard from Barr right away. Right now there is political spin being worked on.
I want to be more excited about what this means, but two plus years of watching this monster slide away from all consequences of his actions (aided and abetted by the GOP the whole way) has killed any optimism I once had about this report.
If there is something concrete to be heard I hope Mueller has set something up to make it to the public, because otherwise Barr and the GOP will find ways to squash it for good.
Just remember, Mueller’s investigations are done, the other investigations are not.
Beyond all these ongoing legal threats to Trump and his interests, of course, anything Mueller provides in the way of hints of misconduct or crimes by the president and his circle could be followed up on in the wide-ranging investigations being undertaken by various House committees now that Democrats control them. Anything they ultimately produce could provide additional grist for federal and state prosecutors, present or future, and possibly, for those arguing the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors justifying impeachment proceedings.
All of the continuing sources of legal and political peril for the president will predictably lead to loud demands from the White House and the president’s congressional and media allies that all inquiries cease and desist now that Mueller has supposedly exonerated the president. That won’t happen, but the spin wars over Mueller’s report will begin even before its details make their way in the public domain.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/the-legal-trouble-trump-may-face-after-the-mueller-report.html
Even as the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, submitted his confidential report to the Justice Department on Friday, federal and state prosecutors are pursuing about a dozen other investigations that largely grew out of his work, all but ensuring that a legal threat will continue to loom over the Trump presidency.
Most of the investigations focus on President Trump or his family business or a cadre of his advisers and associates, according to court records and interviews with people briefed on the investigations. They are being conducted by officials from Los Angeles to Brooklyn, with about half of them being run by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.
Unlike Mr. Mueller, whose mandate was largely focused on any links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, the federal prosecutors in Manhattan take an expansive view of their jurisdiction. That authority has enabled them, along with F.B.I. agents, to scrutinize a broader orbit around the president, including his family business.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/us/trump-investigations-new-york.html
I’ve been wary and worried that Mueller would be just one more disappointment, another levee to fail (the electoral college, GOP senators, the Supreme Court — remember when we thought they’d all stand up to him) as the swamp rushes in… That’s how this now feels to me. And I think it’s also paved the way for a 2020 re-election. It’s so just patently obvious that this guy is a Russian asset, and that he’s making the world safe for oligarchy, with impunity. Also the whole sitting president can’t be indicted issue did not anticipate a guy like this… I’m generally an optimist but I’m not with this anymore. It’s v sad and scary…
i doubt the full report will ever be released; and the version barr sends to congress will be highly redacted on national security grounds. the ‘investigation’ was a farce; and keep in mind the only people actually indicted are actual traitors and schemers. dotard, inc walks away.
at minimum, i’m hoping the nys attorney general will be successful in taking down that crime family. and don’t get your hopes up about the manhattan da — that is headed by cyrus vance who allowed princess complicit and boy blunder to walk away from felony fraud charges.
45 was playing golf with that idiot Kid Rock, so it doesn’t seem to me that he’s worried about anything.
Eric where are you today? Give us your take because this feels like a whole lotta womp. If 45 and his mob family walk.. and gets re-elected. I don’t know what I would do.
We don’t come back from it. Plain and simple.
I keep refreshing in the hopes that we’ll hear from Eric.
There are currently 43 sealed indictments in the DC courts. This is the end of the Mueller’s investigation, not the end of the story for Trump, his family and allies.
don’t get your hopes up:
“A few other words of caution: sealed indictments are not uncommon and the U.S. attorney’s office in DC does many complex cases. Mueller is not the only active prosecutor working in that courthouse. I’m not saying nothing is cooking, but don’t read too much into docket numbers,” said Benjamin Wittes, Editor-in-Chief of Lawfare blog.
My understanding is collusion is not illegal. The National Review likes to point that out. It’s shady but no, not illegal. Like a generous donation to, say, Harvard, and suddenly your son has been admitted to that prestigious hall of higher learning. Kushner anyone?
I believe our energies should be concentrated on the election of progressive candidates in the local and state levels. And deal with the gerrymandering that allowed the GOP to put into place state by state.
“Collusion” is Trump’s word. Mueller was searching for crimes, not collusion. Mueller found a lot of crimes, that’s why people are in prison.
Lightpurple I agree but collusion has been the talking point from the right. Don’t look at the man behind the curtain!
Well the people in prison now are the fall guys.
45 , his family and office will not being wearing orange any time soon. I imagine 45’s handlers were ordered to distract the orange turd any way possible while a formal statement is prepared for him to make on telly.
The gloating will be saved for his reelection campaign.
It’s amazing how slithery the Trumps are. They are like slimy sewer eels.
Well that’s funny, because my Fox News – watching relative who dementia said that Mueller’s report came out and “completely exonerated Trump. There was no collusion.” Even though the report hasn’t been released…
Mango Mussolini will rage Tweet a response during his morning dump tomorrow. “stinky muller’s report Contanes Clasified info, VERY dangerous to releese to r enemies.”
Fearmongering comes to him as naturally as capitalization errors.
just like I said:
Members of Congress were notified Sunday afternoon that they will soon receive a letter from Attorney General William P. Barr summarizing the findings of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
CNN JUST GOT THE SUMMARY:
“Special counsel did not find Trump campaign or associates conspired with Russia”
UGH the magats are going to have a field day. Notice they only got a brief one page summary which is interesting.
I like how Barr straight up dismisses the evidence we know about because that’s going to work out well for everyone.
I don’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
Even worse: “Special counsel has no sealed indictments filed
From the letter:
“The report does not recommend any further indictments, nor did the Special Counsel obtain any sealed indictments that have yet to be made public.”
Ugh picture Don Jr’s swarmy face right now.
Barr is definitely trying to cover up or soften the blow of what’s in that report. “There’s no definite/conclusive evidence but it doesn’t exonerate him”??? Something’s fishy. They’re saying he wrote that letter with his aides and Rosenstein. Mueller wasn’t consulted for it.
I agree. I think the report is going to say that Trump KNEW that Putin/Russia helped him win the election even if he didn’t necessarily direct them to or was in on it. Therefore, it wasn’t conspiracy if Russia acted on its own accord but he just knew about it (hence his Russia/Putin love).
So they release the summary that says “No conspiracy” and then stall, and stall and stall to release the full report which shows the shady but non-indictment worthy stuff.
It’s a sad day for democracy. I hope the intelligence committee supeonas mueller for testimony.
As I recall, Mueller’s remit was about the 2016 election and the run-up to it. With that in mind, Barr is probably getting a wee bit Jesuitical and confining his remarks about what Mueller found to that time period, while not saying that he is confining his remarks to that time period.
I’m reading excerpts of Mueller’s report (via AG Bill Barr’s reporting, so there is THAT), and it’s like a knife through the heart. I am depressed and shattered.
“Special counsel Robert Mueller found that neither the Trump campaign, nor anyone associated with it, “conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election,” according to a letter that Attorney General Bill Barr sent to Congress on Sunday.”
The full report needs to be shown. This is pure spin. No one lies this much about Russia if there’s nothing there. And people have gone to jail, so there is some word parsing or other legalese happening.
Plus Mueller specifically doesn’t exonerate Dump and yet the media along with the GOP are brushing this super huge conclusion away. There is enough to investigate and start impeachment proceedings based on that wording alone. Besides all the other crimes he has committed since including daily violation of the Emoluments clause.
!!!
https://twitter.com/sethabramson/status/1109913558333210629?s=21
We deserve the full report. Not Barr’s summary, and not Congress’ take on it. The full report, made public, now.
And now I think I’m going to avoid the news for a few days, just to protect my sanity.
What does everyone think the “full report” is going to say? “Trump did all of these terrible things but I couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt he did them.” It’s not going to say that.