The Wapo reported yesterday that just three days after Bill Barr released his non-summary of the Mueller report he received a letter from Mueller complaining about it.
“The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote in the March 27 letter, according to the Post. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
That original March 24th Letter from Barr (incorrectly) said the following:
“The Special Counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election,” Barr wrote in the letter.
Barr added in the letter that Mueller had laid out facts regarding “difficult issues” surrounding whether Trump committed obstruction of justice.
“The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,'” Barr wrote, before adding that he and Rosenstein had decided against charging Trump with obstruction.
Barr’s letter is a summary of the Mueller report that he wrote in consultation with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and not the report itself.
The problem with all this is that Barr was specifically asked if he knew how Mueller felt about his March 24th letter and he told Congress that “he didn’t know.” Except he did know because Mueller told him on March 27th with a letter and on March 28th on the phone.
Barr twice claimed that he didn’t know how Mueller, or his people, felt about his summary letter and his conclusion on obstruction.
At an April 9 hearing in the House, Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) cited reports that members of Mueller’s team were unhappy with the way Barr portrayed the obstruction section of the report. Crist asked Barr if he knew what those reports were referencing.
“No, I don’t,” Barr replied.
A day later at a Senate hearing, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) asked Barr, “Did Bob Mueller support your conclusion?”
“I don’t know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion,” Barr replied.
Barr’s testimony today hemmed and hawed over this issue confusing the issue of the Mueller deputies who were complaining with Mueller himself and back and forth. The fact is that Mueller letter on March 27th points out that he and his team had already communicated their concerns to the DOJ in a letter on the 25th, the day after Barr’s initial letter so he should have known already exactly what their issues and concerns were when he testified to both the House and the Senate.
The letter also points out that they had a direct meeting between Mueller and Barr on March 5th.
And yet Barr claimed he didn’t know, several weeks later. At this point it’s time to talk to Mueller and his people specifically and if necessary to subpoena their communications with the DOJ.
Two of Mueller attorney’s have since specifically said that they did find evidence of obstruction.
Two prosecutors from the special counsel’s office said privately there was enough evidence to file federal criminal charges of obstruction of justice against President Trump over his efforts to halt an FBI probe into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, reports Murray Waas at the New York Review of Books. But Trump’s status as president precluded them from advocating for criminal charges.
[...]
“Privately, the two prosecutors, who were then employed in the special counsel’s office, told other Justice Department officials that had it not been for the unique nature of the case—the investigation of a sitting president of the United States, and one who tried to use the powers of his office to thwart and even close down the special counsel’s investigation—they would have advocated that he face federal criminal charges,” the story reads.
And Jeffrey Toobin basically had a live bovine birth.
“That is a scathing, outraged letter,” Toobin said. “Accusing the attorney general of completely distorting and lying to the public about what Mueller spent two years on. I mean, that is not a polite letter among old friends. That is an accusation of political interference in Mueller’s work. That is not a routine letter in any sense of the word.”
Legal analyst Susan Hennessey similarly called Barr’s actions in intercepting Mueller’s findings on whether the president obstructed justice to be inexcusable.
“What Bill Barr has done, what Robert Mueller is fairly clearly accusing him of having done, is undermining the central purpose of having a special counsel,” she said. “This is the most critical example, an investigation of the president into the circumstances of his election, potential crimes committed while in office. That really is just indefensible.”
One of the statements truncated by Barr were these sections from the report.
First, Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J.Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton Campaign and then released stolen documents. The investigation also identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign. Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
[...]
The report describes actions and events that the Special Counsel's Office found to be supported by the evidence collected in our investigation. In some instances, the report points out the absence of evidence or conflicts in the evidence about a particular fact or event. In other instances, when substantial, credible evidence enabled the Office to reach a conclusion with confidence, the report states that the investigation established that certain actions or events occurred. A statement that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there was no evidence of those facts.
[...]
In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of "collusion." In so doing,the Office recognized that the word "collud[e]" was used in communications with the Acting Attorney General confirming certain aspects of the investigation's scope and that the term has frequently been invoked in public reporting about the investigation. But collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. For those reasons , the Office's focus in analyzing questions of joint criminal liability was on conspiracy as defined in federal law.
Meanwhile Bill Barr in his letter and press conference stated that there was “No collusion” and “No obstruction.”
As a result of all this there are Democrats who are frankly now considering Impeachment — of Bill Barr.
The Washington Post‘s Robert Costa told MSNBC Wednesday that Democrats were “stunned” by Robert Mueller’s letter calling out Attorney General William Barr for mischaracterizing the findings of the Russia probe — and said that “privately” they were considering all avenues of redress, including impeachment.
“What I’m hearing is that Democrats are stunned by what they saw in the Mueller letter, it’s something they were not aware of,” said Costa. “Are they calling for his impeachment yet? No. But privately and now some publicly some senators, top Democrats in the party, are saying we can’t rule out anything at this point.”
Today, Pat Leahy went after him whole hog.
Leahy told Barr that “contrary to what you said on April 9,” Mueller “wrote to you” on March 27 “expressing very specific concerns that your March 24 letter” failed to capture the “context, nature and substance of his report.”
Leahy continued, “What really struck me: Mr. Mueller wrote that your letter threatened to undermine a central purpose for which the Department (of Justice) appointed the special counsel.”
Leahy asked Barr why, on April 9, he said he was unaware of the “concerns” being expressed by Mueller’s team “when, in fact, you had heard those concerns directly from Mr. Mueller two weeks before.”
Barr responded that he “was not aware of any challenge to the accuracy of the findings.” Leahy replied that Barr seemed to “have learned the filibuster rules even better than senators do,” implying that Barr was being evasive.
During his testimony today Barr has shown that he is extremely clueless about very important sections of the Mueller report. He repeatedly says that Mueller didn’t refrain from making a decision on obstruction because of OLC rules which prohibit indicting the White House resident, however when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse reads from the section of the report which talks about how Mueller had decided they would abide by the OLC opinion and goes on further to say that it would be unfair to deliver a damning report against Trump when he can’t defend himself in court since he can’t be indicted and mount such a defense — Barr seems completely unaware.
He seemed to split some amazing hairs when it came to Trump’s asking Don McGahn to tell Rosenstein remove Mueller under the excuse that he had “conflicts of interest.” Barr didn’t seem to know what those conflicts where — Trump and Mueller had a dispute over Golfing fees years ago which was long resolved — and he seemed to think that it’s fine for Trump to have the Special Counsel kicked out because he felt the investigation was unfair and fueled by partisanship.
Lord, if Bill Clinton had tried to do that the Ken Starr they would have burned him at the stake.
Overall, Barr’s performance this morning has been pathetic and doddering — plus he’s getting tons of help from Senate Republicans and he seem completely unaware of anything about the Steel Dossier and the fact that several specific items within it have been confirmed by the Mueller report.
Here are this week’s daily updates for the Trump-Russia Corruption Timeline.
April 24th —
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Kim arrives in Vladivostok for summit with Putin.
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Trump denies any of his staffers from testifying before Congress arguing that they already testified before Mueller [But Congress isn't just looking at the same issues.] Later he tells reporters “We’re denying all the subpoenas.” [Yeah, you don't really get to do that.]
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Trump finally selects a nominee to replace former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, but his selection of current Ambassador to Canada Kelly Knight Craft faces an uphill battle to confirmation.
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NYTimes reports that before she was fired Mick Mulvaney warned former DHS Sec. Neilsen not to bring up the issue of efforts to prevent Russia election meddling in 2020 during meetings with Trump because he didn't want to hear about it.
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The House asks a Federal Judge to block Trump's use of DOD funds for his border wall.
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#MAGABomber Cesar Seyoc blames steroid use for his attempts to kill Dems and members of the media.
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Kellyanne Conway claims that Dems post-Mueller inquiries are “a little gratuitous.”
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Salon argues that Russia attacks on Hillary and the DNC delivered Trump the WH by helping to sway Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein voters away from her: “Trump won the entire trifecta by less than one percent of the popular vote — a 10,000-vote margin in Michigan, 22,000 votes in Wisconsin and about 44,000 in Pennsylvania. Around 51,000 previous Bernie Sanders supporters voted for Trump in Wisconsin, around 47,000 Sanders voters went for Trump in Michigan, and a whopping 116,000 more in Pennsylvania. In every case, we’re talking about election-altering margins, especially when we add the tens of thousands of votes for Green Party nominee Jill Stein in those states. “
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GOP Strategist Cheri Jacobus tells the DailyBeast: Mueller exposed ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ — and Americans need to see that on TV
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Marina Butina's lawyers and the DOJ get into a fight over her sentencing — which is scheduled for Friday (tomorrow) — based on whether she was acting as a “spotter” for Russian spies to help select potential targets.
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Indicted Coast Guard Officer and White Nationalist Christopher Hassan reportedly targeted prominent Democrats, Journalists and two members of the Supreme Court and wanted to start a "race war" with his “best nigger-killing gun.”
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Tom Arnold provided the WSJ with a recording of a phone conversation he had with Michael Cohen where he denied the tax charges against him were valid, even though he had plead guilty to them, but he admits to the campaign finance violations which were tied to Trump's hush money payoffs to his mistresses.
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Cummings blasts DOJ staffer John Gore for blowing off his subpoena over the Census citizenship inquiry. [The Capital Jail is going to be full of Trump staffers serving for contempt soon.]
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Deutsche Bank is beginning to comply with House subpoena’s for Trump's financials.
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Kim prepares to meet Putin.'
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WH rejects House Oversight Dems request for Stephen Miller to testify over border security decisions.
April 25th —
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Joe Biden enters the 2020 race with a video blasting Trump for his “fine people on both sides" comment about Charlottesville.
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Jeff Sessions praises Mueller: “Probe was carried forth vigorously and with integrity.”
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Stephen Moore says he still want the Fed gig, but will reconsider if he becomes a “liability.”
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DOD inspector General clears Acting SecDef Shanahan on Boeing related matters.
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Don Jr. writes an op-ed in Brietbart that claims the Mueller probe was an “attempted coup” by Dems. [Actually, that hasn't even started yet and Mueller is still a Republican.]
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Trump admin proposes pulling protections for Trans patients claiming “Religious Freedom.”
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George Conway on Hillary: “If she's with the Constitution, I’m with her.” [Oh, Lordy that has got to sting.]
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Trump claim he didn't need McGahn to fire Mueller, “I could have done it myself.” [Yeah, and that would have been another nail in the obstruction coffin that's waiting for you.]
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Lara Trump claims that Merkel admitting refugees is “One of the worse things in German History.” [Yeah, um, they signed and ratified the UN Resolution on Refugees just like the US did 50 years ago — they kinda had too.]
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Napolitano says Trump’s obstruction was “criminal and immoral.”
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SHuckabee has her first press conference in over a month, with kids.
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FL House votes to put huge fees on ex-felons before they can regain their voting rights. [Did someone say “Poll Tax?”]
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Marina Butina loses attempt to block prosecutors from including claims in her sentencing docs from an ex-FBI agent that her actions were part of a “spot and access” intelligence operation for Russia.
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Trump's 2020 Campaign Chief Brad Pascale ridiculously claims “there was no help from the Russians.”
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The lawyer for Yevgeny Prigozhin, Concord Management and the Troll Farm claims that Mueller should be held in criminal contempt because of how they are described in his redacted report in violation of a gag order.
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Judiciary Chairman Nader, Oversight Chairman Cummings and Homeland Chairman Bennie Thomas are demanding documents on the recent firing of officials at DHS
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WaPo reports that Trump authorized paying North Korea $2 Million for Otto Warmbier medical care (ransom) — but it's not clear if they actually pay the money. Shuckabee refuses to talk about “ “hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.”
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Magistrate Judge Charles Day approves the release for White Supremacist Coast Guard Officer Chris Hassan despite prosecutor objections that he’s a danger to the community, because they haven’t filed any terrorism-related charges against him (And that's partly because there are no law against domestic terrorism, you'd have to have tried to build a WMD or aided foreign terrorism).
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A three-judge federal panel strikes down Michigan's GOP drawn redistricting map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
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Trump campaigns blasts out an Official “Obama Russia Accountability Survey" which is really a push poll intended to smear the Obama administration and gather voters contact information.
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Tennessee GOP passes a bill to make mistakes by voter registration drives a felony.
April 26th —
April 27th —
April 28th —
April 29th —
April 30th —
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TrumpCo sues Deutsche Bank and Capital One not to submit to Congressional subpoenas claiming the requests are “Presidential Harassment” and not related to a legitimate legislative purpose.
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Judiciary plans to go ahead with their hearing whether Barr shows or not.
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Pelosi and Schumer meet with Trump over infrastructure and seem to come close to an agreement for $2 Trillion in spending.
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Don Jr.'s side-slice former Fox Host Kim Guilfoyle joins the Trump campaign as a senior adviser.
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Lindsay Graham says “I Don't Care" about Trump's misdeeds which are documented in the Mueller report. “There were zero instances of Trump impeding Mueller. Zero.” [Yeah, no, that's not the law, he made multiple improper attempts to stop, slow and interfere with the investigation — he doesn't have to succeed for it be a crime.]
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WaPo reports that Trump has tried to downplay the significance of Russian interference even with his own aides. [126 Million Americans were fed propaganda and BS designed to help Trump, his entire campaign became organized around the Wikileaks releases which were supplied by Russian hackers - but it all made no difference at all when he only won by 70k votes spread across three strategically targeted states?]
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Taylor Dumpson, the first African-American woman to serve as American University's student body President has sued the Daily Stormer for $1.5 Million for setting up an online Troll Storm against her.
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Pompeo says that the US "Fully supports" the growing military uprising against Venuezuela's former president Maduro.
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Adam Schiff plans to issue a criminal referral to the DOJ over Eric Prince’s false testimony to congress about his trip to the Sechelle Islands on behalf of Mike Flynn and Kushner where he and met with the head of the Russian sovereign investment fund.
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Prosecutors in the Roger Stone case oppose his motion to view the redacted portions of the Mueller report related to him.
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Gov. Cuomo slams Trump for whining about the NY AG investigating the NRA.
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Trump Admin proposes charging a fee for asylum requests, while at the same time forcing processing of those requests to only take 180 days and also forbidding asylum seekers from receiving work permits.
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Eric Trump on the Deutsche Bank lawsuit: “What the hell is the legislative purpose of the subpoenas” [Perhaps to strengthen money laundering laws when people are taking $Millions from Russian gangsters.]
- Dems {Pelosi and Schumer) agree to Trumps infrastructure proposal without establishing a way to pay for it. [So there goes another hole in the deficit.]
- Dem Senators (HIrono, Blumenthal, Harris, Udall, Wyden, Whitehouse, Murray, Booker, Reed, Gilibrand, Klobuchar and Mackey) write a letter to the DOJ Inspector General to investigate AG Barr’s handling of the Mueller report.
- Butina says she “didn’t expect” such severe punishment as 18 months in prison.
- Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan refuses request by Trump to toss the Dem Emoluments suit.
- NY Attorney General is now investigating allegations of wage theft by Trump’s Golf Courses against undocumented workers.
- WaPo reports that Mueller wrote to complain to AG Barr about his March 24th letter three days later on the 27th saying that it “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions” They also followed up with a 15 min phone call the following day. [This indicates that Barr’s claims under oath that he didn’t know how Mueller felt about his letter may have been a lie.] Some Dems are open to putting Impeachment of Barr on the table.
May 1st —
- AG Bill Barr appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee and releases his opening statement.
- Chairman Graham dismisses the Mueller report as finding “no collusion and no obstruction” even though he didn’t read the entire thing, then he goes on complain about Peter Strozk and Lisa Page’s involvement in the Clinton email investigation even though the Inspector General has already found that they didn’t do anything in that case based on personal bias against Trump.
- Ranking Member Feinstein argues that there was evidence both of coordination and obstruction found and notes the letter Mueller sent on March 27 complaining about Barr’s letter distorting the finding of the report.
- Barr again claims that Mueller’s team did not reach a decision on obstruction and says that the expressly didn’t do it on the basis of the OLC opinion blocking indictment of a sitting WH Resident, there for Barr and Rosenstein made the determination that there wasn’t sufficient evidence of obstruction.
- Barr says Mueller declined to review his summary letter.[Since he sent two letters in response, he clearly wasn’t happy with it.] Then he says he called Mueller after getting his March 27 letter in response, and claims Mueller didn’t say the letter was inaccurate, but the press coverage was inaccurate and suggested that Barr release the pre-written summaries of each section. Barr didn’t put out the summaries, but he instead put out a clarifying letter saying that his summary wasn’t really a summary.
- Graham goes after Comey by quoting Dems complaints about how he handled the Clinton investigation, and argues that firing him wasn’t obstruction. [Except we know that that wasn’t the real reason he was fired based on the original letter written by Stephen Miller that McGahn rejected, then they had Rosenstein used the Clinton email excuse.] Barr suggests it was legitimate to fire Comey for not publicly announcing that Trump wasn’t under investigation, even though that was up to the DOJ and then Acting AG Dana Beonte hadn’t authorized him to say that there was an investigation for Trump not to be involved in because that situation might change — and it did. Boente also refused to release info that Trump wasn't being — yet — investigated when McGahn asked him, but he wasn’t fired.
- Barr argues that McGahn wasn’t ordered to fire Mueller he was asked to ask Rosenstein to push Mueller out over conflicts of interest [And that’s different how?]
- Feinstein says you still have Trump asking McGahn to lie to the press, and Barr says that’s not a crime and McGahn had already talked to Mueller. He then claims that having a Special Counsel replaced wouldn’t be obstruction, but ending the probe would.
- He claims to Feinstein that if Trump felt the investigation was unfair, he was innocent and it was being directed by his political rivals it would not be obstruction for him to use his constitutional powers to have the Special Counsel replaced. [!!!??? That’s. not. true.]
- Grassley asks about Fusion GPS and Chris Steele claiming they used Russian Government sources to build the “debunked collusion narrative”, but didn't investigate if there was disinformation provided to Steele. Barr says he doesn’t know if Mueller looked into all of that, but he probably will.
- Grassley also asks if Mueller should have looked into the origin of his own investigation. Barr didn’t know if that was inside his scope.He also asks about FBI leaks during the Clinton and Russian investigation and Barr says there are multiple criminal leak investigation ongoing.
- Leahy asks about the fact that several of Mueller staff had complained about his March 24th letter and asks specifically about Barr testifying that he said he “didn’t know about Mueller concerns” — Barr says that he had talked to Mueller, but he didn’t know what the specific accuracy complaints by Muellers staff were. Leahy says “I feel your answer is purposefully misleading” because he asked about knowing what Mueller felt and Barr keeps claiming his previous answer wasn’t about Mueller.
- Leahy asks do you think it’s cooperating with the investigation to tell the former AG to unrecuse himself, shutdown the investigation, declare Trump innocent. Barr asks where that is in the report, so Leahy names the page number and points out the Trump never testified. Leahy asks if it would trouble Barr that Trump people were receptive to offers of help from Russia and didn’t report it to the FBI, but Barr seemed completely unfamiliar with that part of the report too, even though it’s on page 8.
- Cornyn asks why didn’t the Obama Admin do more to deter the Russians [He did plenty including getting directly into Putin’s face about it and threaten to start physical conflicts but Republicans were blocking him and threaten Dems not to reveal the attack.] Barr says that Mueller did good work on the IRA and “if that had been done in 2016, we’d be a lot further on.” [It did start in 2016 with Peter Strozk]
- Cornyn also asked if Russian disinformation was part of the Steele Dossier, but Barr doesn’t have an answer.
- Cornyn says CIA Director Brennan went to Obama to disrupt the Russia, but claimed that they decided to “place their bets on Clinton.” and asks what steps Obama took to stop the Russian influence before Nov 2016. [They put Homeland Security on it and they reached out to each State, but not all of them had people with the proper security clearance. What steps has Trump taken since then?]
- Cornyn asks why didn’t the Trump campaign receive a “defensive briefing” about Russians targeting them — [They actually did as part of their normal security briefing, but the FBI already knew they were in contact with Russians at the time] Barr says he “doesn’t know.”
- Durbin asks again about Barr receiving the letter from Mueller then his answering question from Rep. Crist about not knowing how Mueller felt. Barr says some gobblety gook about Mueller wanting more details about his decision on obstruction.
- Durbin points out that Barr claimed Trump “fully cooperated” but that he never sat down for an interview and his didn't answer 30 of the written questions put to him.
- Durbin also points out that Trump clearly attempted block the investigation by having McGahn try to influence Rosenstein to fire Mueller, it just that McGahn refused to do it. [Also Lewandowski passed a note to Dearborn for Jeff Session asking him to un-recuse himself, but Dearborn didn’t deliver it.]
- Sen. Lee asks if there’s any evidence if “Putin has something on Trump?” Barr says “None that I’m aware of.” [He had the secret Moscow Tower project on him and also about $200 Million worth of money laundering] Barr also says he’s not aware of Trump being a “Russian agent” [Then why doesn’t he ever criticize Putin and why does he deny Russia did the hacking?] Then Lee proclaims that claims that Trump is linked to Russia is merely a “conspiracy theory by the opposition party.” Lee asks about surveillance of Carter Page while he was with the campaign, Barr says “I don’t know” [The FISA warrant on page wasn’t approved until after he had already left the Trump campaign.]
- Lee claims the FISA warrant on page was “based largely on the Steele Dossier” [He had also previously been a target of Russian spies] — and he asks if the Mueller report confirms if Page met with Igor Sechin. [No, but he did meet with another exec from Rosneft and discussed the same stock sale issue that Steel mentions and it confirms that he met with Deputy Prime MInister Dvorkovich.]
- Sen Whitehouse tells Barr “Wow that’s some amazing hair-splitting” when asking about the Mueller summaries. Barr says the summaries are embedded in the report.
- Whitehouse asks if there’s any way for the OLC opinion to be tested by the Judicial branch. Barr says he didn’t know. Whitehouse argues that Mueller’s report specifically says that the OLC opinion impacted the conclusion on obstruction because it would be “unfair” since Trump couldn’t have his day in court. Couldn’t Trump himself waive the OLC opinion and say “Let’s go to court.” Barr seemed completely unaware of this part of the report.
- Whitehouse asks about Barr using the term “spying” — Barr says since he started in intelligence he didn’t consider the term “spying” to be a pejorative. He also says “we haven’t waived executive privilege” as if he’s Trump’s lawyer.
- Julian Assange is sentenced to 50 months in a British Jail due to jumping bail.
- House Dems invite Mueller to testify, but haven’t set a date. He agrees to appear before House Judiciary.
- Stephen Moore cracked a joke about Trump’s election saying it “Kicked a Black Family outof public housing.”
- Judge Napolitano nails Barr for misleading congress.
- CNN Elie Honig blasts Barr’s weak excuse for not finding a case for obstruction.
- Trump tries, again, to blame Obama for Russian interference. [So Trump believes it happened now? Does that mean Putin lied to your face?]
- Comey blasts Bill Bar in a blistering Op-Ed: “Trump has eaten your soul.”
- Nicole Wallace: “We've got an attorney general lying about what was in the Mueller report.”
- During the Second Round with Barr:
- Sen. Kennedy questions whether Mueller’s team has changed their assessment on conspiracy. [No, but several of them say obstruction was a valid case.] Barr claims that Mueller was concerned about Barr’s letter was incomplete and asked for the full executive summaries to be released, Barr “wasn’t interested” and he’d rather release the full report.
- Kennedy asks why Mueller didn't reach a conclusion on obstruction — Barr says he didn’t really get a clear understanding of the reasoning. Kennedy suggests that a “handful of people acted on their political beliefs in 2016” and he’d like to know how the Clinton investigation started? [That was started by a referral from the State Dept. Inspector General] and he asks that Barr investigate leaks by the Mueller team too. [They didn't have any leaks man.]
- Klobuchar comes after Barr for not mentioning Mueller’s 3/27 letter. She ask if Barr is aware that bipartisan Secure Elections Act had been blocked the WH, he’s not of course but he says he’s take a look at it. She asks for a briefing by the FBI on Russian hacking, particularly their attack on Florida, he agrees. He agree to supporting the Honest Ads act to make it possible to discover the source of political advertising. She asks if Trump threatening Michael Cohen’s family was an attempt to change his testimony. Barr says no because it was a public statement. Then she asks about Trump promising to “take care of Manafort.” and he says “no, that’s no obstruction.” Trump wanted Cohen to keep quiet on the Moscow Tower, Manafort not to “flip” and so on… Even though Barr had previously said acts like this were obstruction, he now says “No, they aren’t.” He argues that because Trump thought a news report is wrong doesn’t mean that his attempting to make McGahn lie about it wasn’t corrupt. [Because he was too deluded to know the story was true?]
- Ben Sasse asks about Deripaska, and Barr is clueless. He asks if it’s ok to be on the payroll for a Russian Oligarch with links to gangsters while donating time to a U.S. campaign? Barr says he “would think it’s legal.”
- Sen Coons points out that Trump tried to fire Mueller several times and says that Barr’s 3/24 letter obscured that fact, and says that if Barr had done what Mueller wanted — release the summaries — perceptions would be very different. He then asks if a member of foreign government says we have “dirt” on their opponent should they report it to the FBI? Barr for a second doesn't understand the question, then eventually says “Yes.”
- Sen Hawley asks if there has been a counter-intelligence investigation of another President or candidate? Barr: Not to my knowledge. Hawley asks if he’ll look the reason for the counter-intel investigation of Trump? Barr: Yes. Would discussions of forcing a President out of office using the 25th amendment would be problematic. Barr: Yes. He then quotes a text from Strozk about being able to “Smell the Trump support” and claims that’s why there was counter-intel investigation intended to overturn an election. [The election hadn’t happened yet, also there were other FBI agents who were openly anti-Clinton and said “Are you finally gonna get that bitch?”]
- Blumenthal says Barr seems to be the designated fall guy for the report, and goes back over the answers he gave to Sen. Van Hollen about how Mueller felt. Barr claims this was two different issues, and that his answer to Van Hollen was about Mueller’s opinion on his decision not to prosecutor on obstruction. Blumenthal says Mueller found substantial evidence in 4 cases that met all three requirements for obstruction that Barr ignored. He asks if Barr has had any conversations wit the WH about the 14 ongoing investigations spawned by Mueller. Barr says he hasn’t had any conversations or substantive information to the WH about those investigation. Barr doesn't seem to be able to recall the cases specifically. Blumenthal asks if he’s recuses himself from those investigations and Barr says “No.” Blumenthal lists Trump’s lies about Russian interference and contacts with the campaign, being involved in the Veselnitskaya meeting press release were lies to the American people. Barr says he’s not in the business of identifying lies to the American people, or exonerating people, they’re in the job of identify crimes, we have to “stop using the criminal justice system as a political weapon.” [Tell Trump, him first.]
- Ernst tries to focus on Russia actions against us in 2016 and in the future. “We know that Russia attacks us.” [Trump doesn't know or care.] Barr responds that he received a briefing on this from Chris Wray and Mueller on March 5th, and says that the private companies are being more aggressive at defending themselves.
- Hirono says that Barr is no different from Giuliani and Kellyanne Conway in turning over their reputation in support of Trump, largely because he wrote a 19 page memo which exonerated Trump of obstruction before he knew any of the facts, he should have let Rosenstein be recused, he applied for a job as Trump’s personal lawyer and he gave Trump’s lawyers an early heads-up on the report before Congress. She says Barr should resign because he used every effort of his office to clear trump, taking statements out of context to ignore the rest, and he lied to congress. She brings up his refusal to show Congress OLC memos on the arrest of Noriega and he approved pardons for Iran-Contra criminals — and says she signed on to the referral to the DOJ Inspector General and he should resign. Barr says he’s not involved in whether Mueller testifies. She asks if all the things Trump did are “OK?” He tries to filibuster, but ultimately says it's ok. She asks if it’s ok to ask your WH counsel to lie and he stammers. She asks if it’s ok to offer pardons to witnesses — then Graham butts in and says that she’s “Slandered this man, up and down.” [She accurately listed his actions.]
- Blackburn tries to turn this into an question about their being a “seedy cynical culture” within the FBI. [Well, if you mean Kallstrom and the NY Field Office sure, but the IG already cleared Strozk and Page of any wrongdoing under color of authority.] Barr denies there’s a cynical culture in the FBI and that they do a great job, to the extent there was overreach maybe a “few people at the top got into their heads that they knew better than the American people.” [Yeah, that’s bullshit they were American people too who had a right to their private personal opinion.] She asks if Mueller’s team was the “Dream Team” and “best and the brightest”. Barr, “Not necessarily” but he does say they would search for the truth, and “would have found obstruction”. He says in response to Hirono “how did we get here when the evidence is now that the allegations against Trump were false, and yet he is still called a traitor and a Russian agent” [Because he is a traitor and a Russian agent, he just didn’t get caught because he obstructed.]
- Sen. Booker says that our Democracy is at risk as we normalize some of the behavior of lies, cover ups that are documented in the Mueller report. He asks should we be grateful that a candidate for president sought to benefit from an foreign illegal effort? Barr hems and haws and tries to deny this happened or that he only tried “see what this woman had.” And Booker says “and they didn't report it [to the FBI].” Booker points out the ten attempts at obstruction and the 250 contacts with Russian operatives and tried to hide them — and Barr blows it off and says lots of foreign government try to establish contacts, and claims that “you would find lots of attempt to contact the Clinton campaign.” [That’s flat out bullshit] Booker says “polling data was shared” and Barr goes “With who?” [Konstantin Kilimnick who gave it to Ukranian Oligarchs who owe Manafort money.]
- Tillis whines about the press narrative that Mueller wanted the executive summaries released. Barr says he was pushing to get the report out as soon as possible, that he didn't get a\ request for executive privilege, and that only 0.1% of the report is redacted to the copy available to congressional leadership. He says “I hope Strozk and Page are being investigated.” [They already were and were already cleared by the IG.] Barr says that IG Horowitz is looking at the FISA application and looking back. Mostly he complains about Hirono calling Barr a liar. [Yeah, but he is.]
- Sen. Harris asks if the Trump or the WH has requested or suggested any investigations be opened. Barr doesn’t recall. [Trump has repeatedly asked for the “other side” be investigated.] She asks if he personally reviewed all the underlying evidence in the Mueller report? Barr, “No, we accepted the report”. She makes a case that a US Attorney would review all the evidence, but that he made the decision and called it “his baby.” He argues that the prosecution memo is what is usually used. Harris asks about whether he’s consulted with the ethics dept whether he should be recused. Barr asks why? She said he’s shown that he’s biased and has a conflict of interest, he tries to argue that he wasn't the only decision maker, Rosenstein also decided. So she asks if he consulted with ethic officials over using Rosenstein when he was a witness to he firing of Comey. He says he thinks Rosenstein was already reviewed and cleared. [That’s probably true, but it’s still sketchy.]
- Sen Crapo asks how the WaPo received Mueller’s 3/27 letter. Barr says he doesn't know, but suspects it was the DOJ. Crapo goes on about the “perceived bias at the FBI” by high-level individuals, and he mentioned the IG report claiming he found “bias at the FBI, but he wasn't able to prove it affected their work product.” [Horowitz hasn’t come out with a report on Anti-Hillary bias at the NY Office yet, so I’m losing some confidence in him because that was pretty obvious.] Crapo asks if it inappropriate for FBI personnel to leak for political purposes. Barr says yes, but also that sometimes people leak to make an impact on their superiors. [By the way, Andrew McCabe leaked that the FBI was still investigating the Clinton Foundation even though the DOJ wouldn’t help] Barr also says he’s investigating how the DNC paid for the Steele Dossier [So the the Conservative Washington Free Beacon.]
- Sen Cruz claims that Barr has received the “Kavanaugh treatment” and that Democrats have been unfairly attacking him and Trump, particularly over the issue of the March 27 letter. He says “If this is all they got, they ain’t got nothing.” [It’s not nearly all.] He says that Barr didn’t release the 19 pages of summary that Mueller asked for, then he releases all 400 pages later. So they’re only complaining that he was trying to hide something that he later released. Barr chuckles. [I think the point is that his initial letter set a false narrative that had two weeks to set, and that most people would never read the full report — obviously Barr himself didn't read it all — when they had been falsely told there was “no collusion, no obstruction” when there’s plenty of both. Cruz claims the DOJ was “weaponized and politicized” to go after the Trump campaign. Barr agrees that’s an abuse of power [Too bad it didn't happen.] Cruz asks when the surveillance began [We know that, we have the FISA warrant and technically Trump wasn’t being investigated until he fired Comey at which point Obama was long gone.] Cruz asks if they investigated any other candidates. Barr says they investigated Hillary. [Yep.]
- Leahy says the Trump campaign knew about the stolen Russian emails before the victims knew and didn’t report it [Yep], and that there were an abundance of underlying crimes including the fact that Trump is “Individual-1” in the Cohen case. Leahy asks that Barr not interfere with the other 14 investigations, Barr says he’ll oversee those investigations as AG. Leahy points out the the Mueller reports has multiple references to turning the investigation over to Congress, but Barr denies this. '[It’s in the report you didn't entirely read.] Barr claims that the Trump could terminate a proceeding without corrupt intent if he’s being falsely accused.
- Durbin explains that the reason the investigation started was because the DNC Hacks, the Wikileaks releases and the Australian ambassador revealed that Papadopoulos was told Russia did the hacks. Barr questions how you assume they have “fore knowlege of the hack” [Because that's what George told Alexander Downer which was before the Wikileaks releases] Durbin responds that’s what in the report. Durbin asks about Barr seeking a waver about his connection to a Malaysian company which was a client of lawfirm that had donated to the Trump inaugural. Barr says it was the head of criminal division that asked him to get the waiver.
- Whitehouse asks when Barr decided there was “no obstruction” — he says March 24th, the same day he wrote his letter. When did you get the report? March 22nd, but the OLC and Rosenstein were looking at the evidence for weeks previously.
- Klobuchar asks if Mueller examined Trump’s taxes or financials. Barr doesn’t know. Klobuchar asks if the totality of acts could show the intent to obstruct, Barr argues that a facially innocent act which is authorized by the constitution is hard to prove obstructive beyond a reasonable doubt. She asks if his actions in this reports consistent with his oath of office and the requirement in the constitution to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Barr says he basically made the decision, but doesn't answer the question.
- Blumenthal asks about the phone call with Mueller and Barr repeats that Mueller said he wanted his summaries released, and Barr just didn’t want to do it peacemeal. [Well, you already had done it peacemeal pal, you can’t unring that bell.] Blumenthal says there was nothing in the letter about the press, it was about how he characterized the report. Barr says Mueller’s not a “career prosecutor, he was just head of the FBI 12 years” [That’s longer than anyone except Hoover, but he was also a State and Federal Prosecutor before that] and the “letter’s a bit snitty.” Blumenthal asks for the notes from Mueller’s phone call, Barr says “No. Why should you have them?” [Because they’re fracking CONGRESS that's why.] Graham says he’ll ask Mueller if he has anything different to say about their conversation.
- Hearing ends.
- Shep Smith: Did Barr even read the Mueller report? [Nope, doesn’t seem like it .]
- Chairman Graham says “This is over” and refuses to call McGahn and Mueller to testify.
- WH complains about Dems “Baseless attacks on Barr.” [No, they had a base alright.]
- House Judiciary gets ready to go for a contempt citation against Barr if he doesn't appear before them tomorrow.