Well, today’s the day. The redacted version of the Mueller Report is now publicly available on the Department of Justice’s website (with the seemingly innocuous URL justice.gov/storage/report.pdf).
Today started with Attorney General Bill Barr’s press conference about the report that the press had not yet been able to read. It was little more than a campaign speech for Trump and was rather inconsistent with… *gestures broadly at the Mueller Report*
Despite his statements during the presser, Barr failed to mention that there have been multiple convictions directly related to the Mueller Report, and that there are still ongoing investigations, as indicated by the many redacted portions of the report.
"Lightly redacted" pic.twitter.com/sHkgz99iBe
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) April 18, 2019
A really striking contradiction in Mueller report from what Barr said this morning – Barr said Mueller told him that the OLC opinion on not indicting a sitting president wasn't a factor. The report includes it as a factor.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 18, 2019
Could you imagine what a judge would say if you cropped a sentence this way in a brief? https://t.co/06TlQCNXjz
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) April 18, 2019
Starting to think William Barr is not a great summarizer.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2019
If you didn’t watch the press conference this morning, this is all you really need to know:
Barr totally lied about why Mueller didn't decide whether Trump obstructed. https://t.co/WIQlH8tRCw pic.twitter.com/c9FSDt8PSu
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) April 18, 2019
Two of the things that struck me the most are on Page 288 of the report.
Page 288 (again) – @PressSec admits to investigators that her statements were "not founded on anything." That is code for "lying to the public."
Repeat this forever. "Not founded on anything." Say it over and over again.
"Not founded on anything." pic.twitter.com/xl7wzfL2lO
— Dan Broadbent (@aSciEnthusiast) April 18, 2019
Not founded on anything. Not founded on anything. Not founded on anything.
I’ve had screen down & just reading but this I found unbelievable even though FAR from the most important thing. Sarah Sanders told special counsel that her slander of Comey (rank & file FBI had lost confidence) was a “slip of the tongue” and was not founded on anything. Liars.
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) April 18, 2019
And if this isn’t the very definition of obstruction, I’m not sure what is:
Page 288 pic.twitter.com/jd2fKrEpcR
— Dan Broadbent (@aSciEnthusiast) April 18, 2019
Others have found similar contradictions of fact.
Remember all those rumors about Craigslist ads being put up to make rallies look larger? pic.twitter.com/fx0YPQxror
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) April 18, 2019
FoLkS tHiS iS nOtHiNg LeSs ThAn a ToTaL eXoNeRaTiOn Of
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) April 18, 2019
And here’s a good thread:
https://twitter.com/UhSayWhatNow/status/1118910251317768192
https://twitter.com/UhSayWhatNow/status/1118934002902159360
https://twitter.com/UhSayWhatNow/status/1118937556010270720
We don’t deserve people like Chris Hayes, yet they persist.
Barr omitting the "although" part of that sentence he quoted on collusion tells you everything you need to know.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 18, 2019
Mobsters act the way they do for a reason: it makes them hard to prosecute! That's the whole point!
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 18, 2019
Obstruction is the intent to obstruct justice. You don’t prosecute people who are successful at obstructing justice, because they’ve obstructed justice so you generally don’t know that they’ve obstructed justice.
Mueller says Trump’s obstruction failed because others didn’t follow his orders to obstruct: “The President 's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders…”
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 18, 2019
There’s also this part from Trump’s 2016 campaign where Trump encouraged Russia to interfere with the 2016 election:
https://twitter.com/GuadalahonkyToo/status/1118919374134374402
Then there’s the part where Trump says he’s “fucked.”
Page 290 pic.twitter.com/Et5yhPojzt
— Dan Broadbent (@aSciEnthusiast) April 18, 2019
Toobin on CNN: "The idea that being frustrated by leaks is exculpatory is exactly backward…A concern about leaks and response to them can be evidence of criminal intent. That’s what it was in Watergate."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) April 18, 2019
Evidence that Trump hires “the best people” –
Sure sounds like it was Trump who directed Manafort and Gates to get Stone to find out what WikiLeaks had planned.
But we knew that. Raises questions about whether BDTS made Mueller take out a reference to Trump in Stone indictment. pic.twitter.com/MGU9hfieaI
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) April 18, 2019
Kyle Griffin is a great Twitter follow for current events –
Page 382: "Under OLC's analysis, Congress can permissibly criminalize certain obstructive conduct by the President, such as suborning perjury, intimidating witnesses, or fabricating evidence, because those prohibitions raise no separation-of-powers questions."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 18, 2019
Page 17: "…the investigation established that several individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign lied to the Office, and to Congress, about their interactions with Russian-affiliated individuals and related matters. Those lies materially impaired the investigation."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 18, 2019
Page 300: After Trump directed McGahn to call Rosenstein and have Mueller removed, McGahn "called his lawyer, drove to the White House, packed up his
office, prepared to submit a resignation letter … told Priebus that the President
had asked him to 'do crazy shit.'"— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 18, 2019
As is Rick Wilson –
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) April 18, 2019
And of course, religious folk are upset about information being shared, because access to information is how you overcome the lies religion teaches.
https://twitter.com/hemantmehta/status/1118916150291775488
I’ll try to update this throughout the day as more information and interpretations come out.