Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin writes in her April 5th OpEd “ William Barr’s stunt has backfired:”
prolonged gamesmanship
The Justice Department seems to be engaged in prolonged gamesmanship both to keep the report bottled up and to rationalize Barr’s interference with Congress’s right to see the information. Once it became known that “the summaries the Mueller team had prepared were intended to be ready for public consumption in a timely manner, because the redactions could have been done fairly quickly,” the Justice Department had to respond.
its retort was too cute by half
However, its retort was too cute by half. “Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement Thursday that every page of Mueller’s confidential report was marked with a notation that it may contain confidential grand jury material, adding that it ‘therefore could not be publicly released.’” That’s nonresponsive and misleading. The summaries, according to the prosecutors, were prepared in such a form to allow quick transmission (e.g. attach them to Barr’s original letter). Barr refused to do this, just as he has refused to request the court give permission to send the whole report to Congress.
I wasn’t sure exactly what too cute by half meant. Here’s what Urban Dictionary says:
- A phrase to denote the subject to be excessively sneak or cute.
- That is, if the subject were being HALF as sneaky (cute, clever) as they had been, it would have still been considered excessive or too much.
Indeed, I have to agree.
I hope Rubin is right when she concludes that:
Even if the feds never charge Trump, that could leave considerable territory for New York state prosecutors to charge Trump under state law.
You see, simply because Trump and Barr want to wish away the Mueller report doesn’t mean it’s gone. To the contrary, its release might prove even more debilitating to them both. The information it contains, along with any additional evidence prosecutors in the Southern District of New York uncover, will not vanish. The facts are the facts. Voters will render one verdict; down the road state and federal prosecutors might seek others. Trump can run, but he cannot hide forever.
Leave it to Trump toady William Barr to make an oxymoron of the motto of the DOJ Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur, or roughly translated “ he (meaning the AG) who prosecutes on behalf of (Lady) justice.