Mueller report

[BillyStubbsTears]

I finally got around to having a look at the Mueller Report last night.

You know how Trump has been screaming that he was found innocent of Obstruction of Justice? Have a look what the conclusion of the report ACTUALLY says on that issue.

CONCLUSION
Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the President's conduct.

The evidence we obtained about the President's actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.

Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.

In plain English. It wasn't Mueller's job to decide whether to prosecute the President. Because prosecuting a President is a massive constitutional issue. It WAS Mueller's job to state if the evidence cleared Trump. He very pointedly refused to do that.

In simple terms, he's saying: the evidence is laid out for you. You decide if you think your President committed an impeachable case. I'm very deliberately not saying that he didn't, and I don't want to say more than that.

If you are GENUINELY interested in justice, you can wade through the evidence laid out in the report that led to that conclusion. If you'd just woken from a 5 year coma and read that report, you would be astonished that there was ANY debate about his guilt.

What's happened is that there's been a slow erosion of standards, so that behaviour that, not so long ago, would have been shocking, now elicits a "meh" from people on the Right.

But anyone buying the line that Trump has been exonerated is being wilfully stupid.

Anyone repeating that line does not really care for justice and democracy. They care for winning for their side.

[Dutch Uncle]

As per usual Seth Abramson twitter gives a great analysis.

[silent majority]

As per usual Seth Abramson twitter gives a great analysis.

You need to follow this lady too Dutch;

https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield

[Dutch Uncle]

Thanks SM. 

[BillyStubbsTears]

We'll see SS. We'll see.

Look past the headlines to the detail that will be coming out over the next few weeks. For a start, Mueller has NOT "totally exonerated" Trump on Obstruction of justice. He specifically says that his report does NOT exonerate Trump. The decision not to prosecute has been made by the Attorney General, who Trump selected personally a few weeks ago.

The AG has now got to justify that decision to Congress.

Let it go Billy, you're sounding f*cking desperate.

SS
Even as we were having that discussion five weeks ago, Robert Mueller was writing an astonishing letter to the Attorney General, in diplomatic terms telling him that he, the AG had misled folk over the Mueller report.

That letter has been released today.

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/05/01/letter.32719.pdf

You might want to reconsider your swallowing of the smoke and mirrors act that the AG played. It's becoming grimly clear that Barr is just another Trump stooge, providing cover for the criminal in the White House.

See, if you read the Mueller Report, rather than accept Barr's summary of it, it is quite obvious what is happening.

Mueller says: It's not MY job to determine that the President is a criminal. My job is to provide the evidence. It is the job of the AG, and Congress to draw the suitable conclusions.

Mueller did that because he is a consummate professional who knows what his constitutional role is.

The AG's conclusions were that Trump was cleared.

Mueller has now publicly rebuked the AG for saying that.

Draw your own conclusions.

I'll tell you mine, having read the Mueller Report. Trump is as guilty as sin of having committed Obstruction of Justice. Mueller's work has laid that evidence out categorically.

Whether Congress has the integrity to impeach him now is secondary. That's a political decision.

The primary facts are publicly available for anyone to read for themselves. Go and have a go. Then come back and tell me what you think.

[Sandy Lane]

We'll see SS. We'll see.

Look past the headlines to the detail that will be coming out over the next few weeks. For a start, Mueller has NOT "totally exonerated" Trump on Obstruction of justice. He specifically says that his report does NOT exonerate Trump. The decision not to prosecute has been made by the Attorney General, who Trump selected personally a few weeks ago.

The AG has now got to justify that decision to Congress.

Let it go Billy, you're sounding f*cking desperate.

SS
Even as we were having that discussion five weeks ago, Robert Mueller was writing an astonishing letter to the Attorney General, in diplomatic terms telling him that he, the AG had misled folk over the Mueller report.

That letter has been released today.

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/05/01/letter.32719.pdf

You might want to reconsider your swallowing of the smoke and mirrors act that the AG played. It's becoming grimly clear that Barr is just another Trump stooge, providing cover for the criminal in the White House.

See, if you read the Mueller Report, rather than accept Barr's summary of it, it is quite obvious what is happening.

Mueller says: It's not MY job to determine that the President is a criminal. My job is to provide the evidence. It is the job of the AG, and Congress to draw the suitable conclusions.

Mueller did that because he is a consummate professional who knows what his constitutional role is.

The AG's conclusions were that Trump was cleared.

Mueller has now publicly rebuked the AG for saying that.

Draw your own conclusions.

I'll tell you mine, having read the Mueller Report. Trump is as guilty as sin of having committed Obstruction of Justice. Mueller's work has laid that evidence out categorically.

Whether Congress has the integrity to impeach him now is secondary. That's a political decision.

The primary facts are publicly available for anyone to read for themselves. Go and have a go. Then come back and tell me what you think.

Thanks for that Billy.  You have more patience than I.  I just despair of the many people not doing the hard work of actually looking into the situation, reading the documents, listening to what people are saying and looking specifically at the evidence, but instead just parrot what they have heard on certain news outlets - particularly knowing there are many untrue stories and versions being put out there for public consumption.

It certainly is a deeply concerning situation and Congress has today interviewed Barr, who had to answer for his own ‘Summary’ of the Mueller report in light of Mueller calling him out on his misleading characterization of the report to the American people. Not good.

[idler]

It's a seemingly bottomless can of worms.

[MachoMadness]

Trump is asserting executive privilege over the full Mueller report now. But I'm sure it totally exonerates him!