Tomorrow will be the two week anniversary of Robert Mueller submitting his final report to the Department of Justice. Attorney General William Barr worked throughout the following weekend to cull together a four-page summary in which he cherry-picked some of the data and information from Mueller’s Report, and then Barr took it upon himself to “exonerate” Trump of obstruction of justice. It was a mess and we knew it was a mess. The House gave Barr until this past Tuesday to submit the report to Congress. He did not. Barr made a lot of noise about how he’s working on a redacted version of the report to submit to Congress next month. Yesterday, the House authorized a subpoena for the full, un-redacted report.
Mueller always ran a tight ship, and there were rarely (if ever?) any leaks from his team. I hoped that after two weeks, a copy of the full report would have been leaked to some prominent Democrats or even some journalists. But no, nothing has happened. Instead, people on Mueller’s team leaked that Mueller is actually quite disappointed with the way Barr has handled this whole thing. First they leaked to the New York Times:
NEW: Some people on Mueller's team think their report is more damaging for Trump than the attorney general let on @npfandos @nytmike @MarkMazzettiNYT https://t.co/BzWLJleFPp
— Amy Fiscus (@amyfiscus) April 3, 2019
And then they confirmed the story to the Washington Post. Some highlights:
Members of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team have told associates they are frustrated with the limited information Attorney General William P. Barr has provided about their nearly two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether President Trump sought to obstruct justice, according to people familiar with the matter.
The displeasure among some who worked on the closely held inquiry has quietly begun to surface in the days since Barr released a four-page letter to Congress on March 24 describing what he said were the principal conclusions of Mueller’s still-confidential, 400-page report…. Members of Mueller’s team have complained to close associates that the evidence they gathered on obstruction was alarming and significant.
“It was much more acute than Barr suggested,” said one person, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity.
Some members of the office were particularly disappointed that Barr did not release summary information the special counsel team had prepared, according to two people familiar with their reactions.
“There was immediate displeasure from the team when they saw how the attorney general had characterized their work instead,” according one U.S. official briefed on the matter. Summaries were prepared for different sections of the report, with a view that they could made public, the official said. The report was prepared “so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately — or very quickly,” the official said. “It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.”
Mueller’s team assumed the information was going to be made available to the public, the official said, “and so they prepared their summaries to be shared in their own words — and not in the attorney general’s summary of their work, as turned out to be the case.”
After investigating Donald Trump, his Russian associates, his mafia connections and seeing how the GOP has turned a blind eye to all of it, did Mueller really think it was going to be that f–king easy? That he would submit his (damning) report and Barr would just release it, or release the Mueller-approved summaries? What Pollyanna universe was Mueller living in? It was never going to be that easy. So leak that sh-t. I know Mueller is all about the rules and he probably feels like submitting a copy of his report to House committees is not part of the special counsel situation, but these are extraordinary circumstances. Release the report.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.
And he wrote it so there would be minimal to no redactions.
Yeah….I agree. Leak it.
Bobby, this ain’t the time buddy.
Exactly. JFC. I’m beside myself at the two sets of rules going on these days. Or rather, one side playing by the rules and sticking to norms while the other continues to just burn everything down. I truly fear that we won’t ever come back from this.
No Republican is coming to save us. Ever. We need to put on our shoes and start knocking on doors for 2020.
Rachel Maddow had a guest on last night who wrote the regulations about what the AG is supposed to do in this situation. Barr’s behavior is not supported by law or precedent. The report doesn’t have to be leaked. Mueller can legally talk about it. It just a matter of time until it comes out.
Mueller can legally talk about it? You mean to the press or via subpoena? Not that I could see Mueller leaking it to the press but….
Interesting!
Mueller and his team can speak publicly only after they are officially out of the DOJ. However, I don’t think Mueller will speak publicly because he knows he will be subpoenaed to testify.
He can testify in Congress. Barr and the idiots can play hide the ball for so long. After that Nadler will subpoena and get the report and there will be hearings.
What exactly did he think was going to happen???
Barr was hired to do precisely what he did and he pretty much broadcast that he was going to do it before the report was released.
Unless someone is willing to get their hands dirty and get that whole thing leaked, all we’ve really done was win the battle (getting the report released with it obviously not looking good for 45) but lost the war (nothing coming of it). Again.
My first thought too. What did he think was going to happen? It needs to be leaked.
I think it’s not his way. However, he and his team seem to imply pretty heavily that they have no problems with being subpoenaed.
You speak for me with your last paragraph. I have been raging over just this. We needed a bold heart to make bold moves in this most dangerous and unprecedented time. I guess you could boil it down to; go big or go home.
Guess who went home?
Mueller handled things the way they are supposed to be handled. I can’t get mad at him for that. Our anger and frustration need to be focused on Trump, Barr, and the GOP.
Oh Melly I have anger enough to go around. My anger could power the world’s energy needs.
Touché. Let me go ahead and step out of your way so I don’t get your anger energy directed at me. 😉
haha, nooo.
I don’t know…the ladies at Gaslit Nation have some thoughts about Mueller–they’ve been critical of him for quite some time. I’m certainly no expert so far it be for me to weigh in but I DO wonder about some of the charges he brought against people like Flynn…seems like Mueller could have gone harder on him.
He is a bit of a Ned Stark isn’t he?
Mueller knows a lot more about this than any of us do and knows how to play the game. He brought down the Gambino family, and he can handle Trump. Don’t second-guess him.
I think that there are processes in place that Mueller and his team can use to get the necessary information out that don’t include Barr. I don’t think Mueller needs to “leak”, he will get a subpoena and testify for Congress and hand over documents.
I think that Barr made a big mistake: it was never up to him to decide whether to prosecute. I don’t think Mueller deferred to Barr, he deferred to congress as to whether to use evidence of obstruction to impeach.
Barr was noisy out of the gate, but he will get corrected and it will ruin his reputation. Win a battle, lose the war.
Right. Mueller deferred to Congress and then Barr basically usurped the report and cut it off at the legs so he could issue his OWN statement clearing the POTUS.
That would make sense, knowing how quiet Trump was for the two days or so after the report dropped. They were strategizing about how they could get ahead of the report and control the public narrative.
Barr is doing what the fat orange emperor put him in place to do which was bury the report and yeah he will fight the dems against releasing it in anyway.
Also the press should be up in arms that Barr’s son has just taken a role as a legal advisor to Agent Orange – conflict of interest much.
Aww so it’s a scratch my back and I will scratch’s yours situation. Being bribed to mess with the true report to get your son a job in Trump inc. Very interesting…
It is telling that this is really the only significant leak from the Mueller team over the past 2 years. That tells me that they are TICKED at Barr and his handling of this, and they DGAF anymore.
I do think that public pressure is mounting to release the report, and I’m hopeful we will see a fairly complete version of it soon.
Also the House requested his tax returns!!!
Representative Neal requested hose tax returns from the IRS, not Trump himself, and by law, the IRS MUST provide those documents to Representative Neal. Massachusetts is very proud of Representative Neal this morning.
I had never heard of Neal until last night. Your state has every reason to be proud.
Not only did his letter request the six years of returns, but also confirmation of whether they are/have been under audit.
Yup, it was a brilliant move. I wonder if that was always the plan, or if they were waiting for the Mueller report and then figured “might as well.” Trump can’t protest it either.
@Christin, And yesterday, Orange Voldy was still claiming he was under audit. Cohan stated under oath that Trump was not under audit. Neal is entitled by law whether they are under audit or not. He can even get the audit reports and call in the IRS staff doing the audits for questions.
@Becks1 Trump will protest. As the Executive, he is going to argue that an agency under his branch doesn’t have to comply. But Neal will prevail in court, which is where this will go.
The IRS has a special unit for high wealth individuals and if they weren’t investigating Trump before Cohen’s testimony, they probably are now.
Per video from yesterday, Orange claims he’s been under audit for years because when you have lots of wealth, blah blah. He acted surprised they were asking for six years of returns instead of 10.
How long would an audit take? He’s been claiming of an ongoing audit for at least three years.
Super-smart move but why didn’t somebody think of this sooner?
ETA: Never mind, dumb question.
We tried to but the GOP prevented us. I seriously cannot imagine where we’d be if we didn’t win the House SMDH.
We all know Barr is compromised and here’s a suggestion how. I posted this on another thread yesterday, but it’s worth its separate post. No one, and I mean NO ONE chosen by trump is clean. In the list of requirements to work for #trumpcrimefamily corrupt and easily bought are at the top.
https://twitter.com/cher/status/1112279387116724226?s=21
Well duh.
When Bill Barr, a man hired solely to loudly announce that the Mueller Report completely exonerated Trump, quietly wrote in his summary that it categorically does NOT exonerate Trump, you know there’s some incredibly damning stuff in there.
Plus, like, Trump openly admitted to obstructing justice on national TV so we know he did.
Considering he was told (supposedly, as anything connected to this WH is suspect) weeks ago that no conclusions would be specified, he could’ve written it without even reading it– just inserting a few partial sentences. His job was to give them a rallying cry so if and when the facts are released, they have already prepped the faux followers to dismiss it. I’m curious whether Mueller wrote a summary, evidently he always does, and why it wasn’t the only thing that should’ve been released.
“Duh!” has been my response to every other headline I’ve read about all of this. I get that Mueller is a by the books hard ass for rules but anyone who has been paying attention for even a minute would know republicans and Trump were going to do everything in their power to obstruct, because DUH!
Mueller did what Mueller does and he left it up to Barr whether he was going to do his job or expose himself as Trump’s puppet. Mueller knows full well Congress can and will call him and members of his team to testify and that when they do, they will testify as to what they found about Trump and his spawn but also how Barr lied to cover it up. Barr should have released the report and then resigned. He should do that now. Congress is going to get the information in that report and then Congress is going to go after Barr.
“Congress is going to get the information in that report and then Congress is going to go after Barr.”
I agree (and hope).
“Barr should have released the report and then resigned.” Wouldn’t that have been so ethical and courageous? Mueller? I just don’t know, he seems like he feels as though the boundaries/rules are important, but is there a time when you just let the truth out? It will be interesting, and hopefully more than that, to have him testify.
I don’t think Mueller will leak the report. I mean one can hope he would & that he made an extra copy but it’s not the type of guy he is. He’d never be hired again. I don’t know if anyone that worked on the investigation has a copy of the report, so the pressure has to be placed on Barr to give an unredacted version to Congress.
They may not have a copy of the report but they know what’s in the report, they worked on it for about two years. I believe we will find out everything that Don the Con and Barr are hiding from the American people in due time. Slow and steady my friends win the race.
Mueller and all of his team members can be called into Congress for testimony. And they all would probably would be happy to go. That would put Barr in the extremely awkward position of having to explain to Congress why each and every one of them, and the specific testimony each would provide, can’t be made public.
There’s copies out there. Mueller will knows he needed to cover his a$$. Whether they are leaked or not is a different story.
He won’t he has too much integrity to do it. could see him handing it over to Congress however or other officials.
I work at a Big Law firm in DC, have been part of a trial team (in fact am going to trial later this month), and been to all the strategy meetings trial teams hold. The thing is, with lawyers as experienced as Mueller and his team, they are always considering multiple strategies, weighing each move and its subsequent consequence. This is even more true given the team’s long history prosecuting/investigating very high profile criminal and terrorist organizations where national security is at stake. And I’m certain that they, having taken the measure of all the individuals, organizations, and governments involved, considered mutliple ways to release the report to the public- including a leak. And while that strategy has short term benefits in terms of the media cycle and public interest, it would do significant damage in the long term legal strategy. We consider Mueller to be a credible source of knowledge because he had worked under a Democratic and Republican president, led the FBI for ten years, and is generally considered a serious investigator who does not allow his political beliefs to sway the course of the investigation. This is evidenced further by the fact he fired DOJ investigators whose texts showed personal bias against Trump. In a situation like this, when the stakes are so high and the findings definitely have Constitutional significance with respect to the powers and limits of the executive office, you MUST do everything by the book. You MUST follow procedure so that no doubt can be cast as to the integrity of your findings, so that in this supercharged atmosphere, no side can accuse you of political bias or tainted findings. Imagine if the report were leaked- that opens the doorway to doubt regarding the integrity of the findings. Was the document tampered with? Is it the REAL document, not a document claiming to be the report? What were the political motivations for the leak? Who leaked it? The person who leaked the report- are their contributions to the investigation legitimate if they had political motivations? How does that taint the rest of the report? Like I said, this investigation and its implications delve into uncharted territory with respect to the powers of the presidency, our electoral process, the wider intelligence implications of this kind of social engineering. Consider how many huge companies have come under scrutiny since this investigation began. Consider what implications there could be with respect to international relations with Russia. Consider what we know of Trump’s public actions towards Russia DURING HIS PRESIDENCY, not even considering his prior conduct. If there was criminal activity, is that considered a high crime and misdemeanor? What does that mean? This has never come up before, and it would establish a new Constitutional precedent. What about Trump’s pardon dangle? How does this shape the role of Congress as a check to executive power? They are the only ones to try a sitting President. And all of this rests first on the legitimacy of the findings of the investigation. Is a leak really worth putting all that in jeopardy, just to satisfy the public’s current mood? Mueller believes in the democratic process, and he clearly believes in the rule of law. Once you break a procedure, especially something this unusual and high profile, it is very difficult for that process to retain its legitimacy, the teeth behind its power. Because once broken, the only way to test the force of that rule is to measure the harshness of an appropriate punishment.
So no, I don’t think Mueller did the wrong thing handing the report over to the attorney general, retaining the legitimate chain of custody. He is not the head of the Department of Justice- he serves UNDER the attorney general (a political appointee, confirmed by Congress) as a public officer of the government (not a political appointee, not confirmed by Congress). It’s hard to sit and wait for the findings of the report to come out, but I think it was the right decision- the necessay decision. And as many have pointed out, Congress can subpoena the attorneys to testify, whether in an open or closed hearing, exercising their own Constitutional power.
TL;DR – this investigation could raise huge Constitutional questions and have huge consequences which have never been dealt with before. Mueller and his team understand that, perhaps better than anyone else in the country. They did the right thing not to circumvent the AG and leak the report.
I would be willing to bet that they anticipated the cover up of the cover up and had these leaks teed up and ready to go. A shot across the bow.
I think they knew this would be a long game. As the saying goes, give someone enough rope.
Mueller was always in it for the long game. He has to have anticipated every outcome and planned for it. He’s the ultimate chess master lol. Do I believe he has no back up copy, knowing what Trump and cronies are capable of? ( Obstruction was being investigated, so not a huge leap)
It’s the Media Fault they should not have printed that frog’s findings until the full report was released but printed that according to Barr Trump is allegedly not guilty of collusion instead of printing Headlines, “No proof Trump off the hook” they have been played again by the orange idiot and his army of yes men.
Oh America, please accept my condolences to your democracy, mueller isn’t going to save you.. the issue is not trump but the entire system. The lobbyists for corporate America owns your government not the people. Stop killing ppl and stop toppling down countries in the name of democracy. Clean your side of the street first.
Barr and Mueller have been friends for 30 years, it says in the Times. That’s gong to be one awkward Thanksgiving dinner this year.
I don’t think they are best friends. After all I do think they worked together at DOJ at one point. They are casual friends at best. Totally dispensable.
If no charges are pursued, then double jeopardy is not in effect and the next administration will be free to release or even act on the content of the report, no?
Eric?! Where are you?
I’ve been waiting to hear your take since the Barr Summary dropped and you’ve been silent.
I’ve been wondering where Eric is, as well!
Yeah, I asked whether we needed to send out a BOLO for Eric on Sunday, but it didn’t get printed. I once joked that he was actually Mueller himself. Maybe I was right!!
Yeah me too.
Maybe Eric expected more from Mueller and needed a break for his own mental health. I felt that way when this report dropped and they started screeching all over that trump had been exonerated. And some of us who HOPED for more from Mueller, maybe don’t want to be mocked even by other alleged liberals, even right here, for it. Calling us a brain trust and what did we expect. That was said right here, in the comments, not the OP, I am talking about in comments. I mean, I was told I need counseling, but I will tell you something, I did go into therapy and it is helping me a lot so the joke is on them! LOL
This was a mess since the moment the report was submitted. I understand that people in high offices are efficient and used to high pace of work but just to think Barr had less than two full days to go through 400 pages of what should be a very dense text and throw the report for 4 page summary is just plain wrong. I would assume that most of the things layed out across 400 pages will provoke a lot of legal disputes and political discussions and now we are led to believe that Barr just slapped it in a few simple paragraphs and everyone just need to call it a day? Seriously Trump and his enablers are naive to think that this is the end of it.
But now we know that it didn’t really matter that he only got s short time because muellers team said they had already written summaries for him to use specifically intended for public release. He opted not to include those summaries.
The most interesting thing I learned about William Barr this week is that his father, Donald Barr, was headmaster at the Dalton School in New York City from 1964 to 1974. Why interesting? Because in 1973 Donald Barr decided to hire a college dropout to teach physics at the prestigious school–none other than Jeffrey Epstein! Yes, the now infamous sex offender, pimp, human trafficker of underage kids, long-time Mar-a-Lago member and dear friend of Trump. So many connections between all these creeps… Things that make you go hmmm.
Wow, that is interesting.
really, mueller, “unhappy”? welcome to the party you threw. shouldn’t have punted.