May 2, 2019

"Democrats and the media are turning the AG into a villain for doing his duty and making the hard decisions that special counsel Robert Mueller abdicated."

"Mr. Barr's Wednesday testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee was preceded late Tuesday by the leak of a letter Mr. Mueller had sent the AG on March 27. Mr. Mueller griped in the letter that Mr. Barr's four-page explanation to Congress of the principal conclusions of the Mueller report on March 24 'did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance' of the Mueller team's 'work and conclusions.' Only in Washington could this exercise in posterior covering be puffed into a mini-outrage. Democrats leapt on the letter as proof that Mr. Barr was somehow covering for Donald Trump when he has covered up nothing.... Mr. Barr has since released the full Mueller report with minor redactions, as he promised, and with the 'context' intact. Keep in mind Mr. Barr was under no legal obligation to release anything at all. Mr. Mueller reports only to Mr. Barr, not to the country or Congress.... Contrast that to the abdication of Loretta Lynch, who failed as Barack Obama's last Attorney General to make a prosecutorial judgment about Hillary Clinton's misuse of classified information. Ms. Lynch cowered before the bullying of then FBI director James Comey, who absolved Mrs. Clinton of wrongdoing while publicly scolding her.... [The Democrats are] shouting and pounding the table against Bill Barr for acting like a real Attorney General."

From "A Real Attorney General/Bill Barr gets smeared for refusing to duck and cover like Loretta Lynch" by the Editorial Board at The Wall Street Journal.

240 comments:

1 – 200 of 240   Newer›   Newest»
TJM said...

The Dems and the Media (but I repeat myself) are in for a world of hurt, real crimes will be exposed as opposed to fantasy crimes and they know it.

eddie willers said...

It makes sense once you realized that they are not trying to stop Trump. They are trying to stop Barr. (ie. from investigating Brennan, Comey, Strox et al.)

rcocean said...

When is THE GREAT MAN going to come out from behind the curtain and tell all us Dorothy's, Tinman's, and Cowardly Lions, what he REALLY meant?

What a tempest in a teapot. We got the report, we got Barr's summary. But..but..Butll we still need THE GREAT MAN to come forward and tell us all what he REALLY MEANT. Because two 450 page volumes are not enough.

Nonapod said...

They have to try to drag down his credibility in the eyes of the public because he's starting to investigate the investigation. He's going to be looking at Fusion GPS. He's going to be looking at the events around the investigation of Hillary's Email. They know damn well that the jig is up and their only defense is slander.

Michael K said...

you realized that they are not trying to stop Trump. They are trying to stop Barr. (ie. from investigating Brennan, Comey, Strox et al.)

Good point. They have moved on from the coup to covering up those who tried to accomplish it.

The WaPoo kept Mark Felt's name secret until he bragged about it. This is a bigger group and it will be harder to cover them all up.

I have read that Lisa Page has already flipped on Strozk, et all. Fucking your co-conspirator is as dumb as office affairs.

cubanbob said...

The only question is does Barr have the guts and integrity to take this thing to then which entail looking into his predecessors Lynch and Holder and Obama?

Bay Area Guy said...

I watched the entire Senate hearing. Barr flogged the Dems and Mueller, like they were clueless cattle. It was a thing of beauty.

Of course, they're mad at him. Nobody likes a good ass-whipping

Let the great restoration continue!

mccullough said...

Barr’s 4-page summary was accurate.

Barr knows Mueller is a drama queen like Comey and The Senators.

I dig Barr’s approach. He pushes back on stuff firmly but with some politeness. Asking Mueller, “Was there something inaccurate?” Answer No.”

Then he tells the Senate he thought Mueller’s letter was a bit “snitty” but “probably written by a staffer.”

In other words, Mueller is a figurehead. And his staff are partisan crybabies.

Perfect

Big Mike said...

Ms. Lynch cowered before the bullying of then FBI director James Comey,

Unless, of course, it was Comey acceding to the orders of his boss, Loretta Lynch.

Nonapod said...

Ms. Lynch cowered before the bullying of then FBI director James Comey

Is this the same James Comey who once tried to hide in the curtains to avoid Trump?

traditionalguy said...

Bill Barr is as much a Warrior as is DJT. All our beloved President needs to do now is watch Barr go on the attack and Tweet him at-a-boys. Maybe we will brand him Bull Barr, like a printed newspaper typo about Bill Halsey's name forever branded that Warrior's name.

Mike Sylwester said...

Instead of appointing a Special Counsel in May 2017, Rod Rosenstein could and should have ordered the US Department of Justice to write and publish a true history of the DOJ/FBI investigation of Donald Trump's election staff.

* Publish an adequate report.

* Reform policies and procedures.

* Punish the guilty.

* Conclude the matter and move on.

Now, however, that will not be enough.

Since DOJ/FBI has dragged Trump and his supporters through the mud for the past two years, President Trump has good cause to drag DOJ/FBI through the mud for the next two years.

Also, the CIA and DNI -- and our "allies" abroad -- need to be exposed.

Trump is right to make sure that this never happens again to any future President.

readering said...

Lynch cowed before the bullying of the WSJ and Republicans, not Comey. Barr didn't play it straight, he put his thumb on the scales to give Trumpists a head start creating a narrative. But it's a long distance race, not a sprint, so he just covered himself in mud for little long term benefit (unless he lives for favorable editorials from the WSJ and the love of Fox talking-heads).

Hagar said...

I think Loretta Lynch just tried to have as little as possible to do with the shenanigans.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

Glad to finally see a criminal referral to the DOJ... please, please, please let this be the first crack in a dam that is about to burst... We need to be neck deep in prosecutions by the time 2020 election comes around...

eddie willers said...

Is this the same James Comey who once tried to hide in the curtains to avoid Trump?

That told me all I needed to know about him.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

readering... so I assume you've read Mueller's full report... please, pray tell, what Barr "didn't play straight"? Tell me the exact page and line # he supposedly lied about?

Earnest Prole said...

I'm furious Bill Barr is refusing to do Nancy Pelosi's job.

Bay Area Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
readering said...

Morkoth4682, new to this?

Bay Area Guy said...

By punting on the Obstruction question, Mueller (figurehead) and Weissman (his nefarious underling) gambled and LOST.

They were used to hapless Sessions and weak, ineffectual Rosenstein. They thought Rod and/or Barr would throw the Obstruction question to career DOJ Prosecutors to study the question, delay for a while, and make the decision to either prosecute or, decline to prosecute based on the OLC opinions that you can't indict a sitting President. The latter woulda led to immediate impeachment by the House, and, voila, the Get Trump Squad would finally get their large white whale, as a handful of soft Senate Republicans probably woulda buckled too.

But Barr shut that nonsense down quickly, abruptly and decisively.

So, now they are mad at Barr too.

Original Mike said...

"Barr didn't play it straight, he put his thumb on the scales to give Trumpists a head start creating a narrative."

Bullshit. An enjoyable moment yesterday was Coons arguing that Barr's supposed mischaracterization of Mueller's report gave him a "critical 3 weeks". Barr interrupted and asked why they were critical. Coons' stammering said it all. Talk about "narratives."

tastid212 said...

"Barr lies." "Barr must resign." The Kavanaugh circus redux, but the stakes are higher than one SCOTUS seat. It's now about protecting the previous administration's unparalleled domestic political surveillance. People could be going to jail for what they did; they're already lawyered up (big $$$ so keep the media gigs - or flip now). Senior Dems know what the stakes are, but heck if I know why they're doubling down and not trying to find a face-saving way out ("we're shocked, shocked..,"). Some of it is mock outrage for the base; others really seem deranged in desperation. And Horowitz's report will be out soon; what ammunition will that provide?

Static Ping said...

It keeps looking more and more like the late Roman Republic.

Original Mike said...

"By punting on the Obstruction question, Mueller (figurehead) and Weissman (his nefarious underling) gambled and LOST."

Figurehead or not, it was Mueller's call and I don't think he had the stomach for it. Guy probably does care about his reputation.

YoungHegelian said...

I'm looking forward to the House suing the AG/DoJ for the release of the unredacted report. I'll bet dollars to donuts that the court will tell Congress "No, you assholes! Grand Jury testimony is never released without an indictment. Jeez, for a buncha lawyers you clowns don't seem to know any law! Go pound sand, pinheads!".

Anyway, that's how I think it'll go down.

Ray - SoCal said...

They are trying to Alinsky Barr.

Freeze him and portray him as a biased lying Trump toady.

To Ken Star him.

Why this won’t work:

1. Democrats are over playing there hand. The actions in the house with the chicken were embarrassing...
2. Barr has been around the block, and is not naive about the Swamp.
3. Barr only took this job due to a sense of duty. His mission is to un politicize the doj.
4. Barr is excellent on testifying and making the Democrats look like zealots and idiots.
5. Trump counter attacks, and bypasses the media gate keepers. He controls the news cycle, when he wants too.
6. Dems font control the Presidency and Senate.
7. Trump is appointing more conservative judges, that are not so biased against him.
8. Barr controls what will be investigated, and it looks like the deep state and previous administration did unlawful activities to get Trump.

wendybar said...

Never fear, James Comey is here!!! James Comey is going to have a townhall on Clinton News Network on May 9th!! Desperation??? or trying to change his story?? Is this normal for an FBI Director??

Michael K said...

he just covered himself in mud for little long term benefit

Are you really this dumb ? Come on. The "long term" is going to see indictments and, unless the juries are all DC juries, some prison terms.

I guess you must be a big Mazie Hirohito fan.

bleh said...

This is probably the most ridiculous, phoniest "controversy" of the Trump era and it's very revealing about the Democrats. Simply, they aren't serious people.

It's annoying how much they resort to distortion and exaggeration to gin up popular dissatisfaction with Trump. The reason it's annoying is because there really are many good reasons to doubt Trump's fitness or suitability for the office. He's a goofball and he often seems completely unprepared, ignorant, erratic, self-absorbed, careless, dishonest, etc. He's a self-promoting twice-divorced reality star who sleeps around on his wife and is always spoiling for a fight. He's at best a silly person and a minor embarrassment to the country.

So it's so unnecessary to lie about Trump, but that's what the Democrats do, and it makes me want to defend him insofar as I want to defend the truth.

tim maguire said...

I don't know enough about process to comment on Mueller abdicating, but I do know enough to know that Barr is doing his job and is being attacked because some people would rather he do their bidding instead.

Amadeus 48 said...

This is a knife fight going on in public. I would love to be a fly on the wall while Barr quietly pulled Mueller’s pants off on these conference calls. Barr has been a colleague of Mueller off and on for more than 30 years. Remember that Mueller is a special counsel, not an independent counsel. Mueller works for the Executive Branch. He is not independent. When Team Mueller, whose work is done, attempted to seize control of the message, Barr hit him with the most effective management tool ever invented: the open ended, searching question from a superior. Mueller showed all his cards as a result. It wasn’t pretty or impressive.

I have been fascinated by the Mueller iconography. He is always seen from a low angle wearing a dark suit striding to or from a meeting room. Comrade Mueller is brisk, efficient, and silent. Barr punctured that ballon.

narciso said...

Carrying over from the other thread:


https://mobile.twitter.com/pspoole

Francisco D said...

Hold on to your seats, folks!

As investigations into FBI/DOJ/DNC abuses bring indictments, the Dems will really go crazy. The is more like the calm before the storm.

Todd Roberson said...

@bleh -

You make a lot of good points, to which I'll add:

1. I imagine Trump's indiscretions aren't unusual among the political class. He's just more open about it. One might say that Trump's more honest about his shortcomings.
2. I don't listen anything Trump says seriously.
3. I pay pay attention to what he DOES.
4. He gets shit done.

I think 1-4 above account for his popularity outside of the Beltway and the coasts.

Mike Sylwester said...

My own comment at 12:59 PM
Instead of appointing a Special Counsel in May 2017, Rod Rosenstein could and should have ordered the US Department of Justice to write and publish a true history of the DOJ/FBI investigation of Donald Trump's election staff.

The DOJ/FBI two-year stonewall also has raised reasonable suspicions that the misdeeds really are much worse than the public normally would have thought.

JackWayne said...

I don’t know why people continue to think there will be indictments. Mueller did his job. He protected the FBI, DOJ, Clinton and Obama. There will be a report about FISA. Some people already fired will be named but that’s it. Others will be quietly fired. Rules will change slightly if at all. The FISA judges have a lot to answer for but that will not happen. It’s like Benghazi. Some people died, others cried. Move on.

readering said...

Nice summary of Barr's performance:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/bill-barrs-performance-was-catastrophic/588574/

readering said...

Mueller report a best-seller even though available for free online.

JackWayne said...

There’s a sucker born every minute.

narciso said...

The bureau sent mifsud then downer then helpers assistant miss turk to dangle before papadopoulos, from the last link.

JackWayne said...

To me, Carter Page was the real tip-off that there was no pony in all that shit. Named as a potential spy to get the FISA warrant, but no charges of any kind. I expect that’s the true reason Mueller was stymied in his effort to get Trump.

Yancey Ward said...

I wrote in the comments yesterday that Mueller was surprised when Barr actually did his job and adjudicated the obstruction question. Barr explained why he did that- just read his opening statement from yesterday.

Mueller and his team know they could never make the obstruction case in court- it fails immediately on intent because Trump wasn't guilty of collusion or conspiracy as per Volume 1 of the report. This is why they didn't recommend an indictment in the first place- they had no crime Trump was trying to cover up.

Indeed, if you go through the appendices (a thankless task by the way), it is clear that the collusion investigation was done by September of 2016-just 3 to 4 months after Mueller started. It picks up again in September of 2018 with the pressure on Corsi, Stone, and others. I think what happened is that Mueller and Weismann knew that obstruction was going no where without a crime in the collusion part, so they made one last effort at establishing one before closing up shop. This might well have been a direct response to the Barr memo written and sent to Rosenstein in the Summer of 2018- Google it if you want to know the argument Barr made. Barr anticipated every single theory that Mueller and Weismann outlined in the report released last month, and refuted all of them.

Being unable to establish intent on the obstruction, Mueller and Weismann were left with a a problem- they couldn't get Trump. They couldn't recommend an indictment on either the collusion angle, or the obstruction angle. So they devised Volume 2 as a slander, much like James Comey did with his Hillary Clinton press conference, but with one difference- they wouldn't make a recommendation one way or the other, at all, about proceeding with an indictment. Remember, Comey made exactly such a recommendation- to not prosecute- indeed, Comey explicitly said no reasonable prosecutor would take such a case to court. Given there was no crime being covered up, and that the Trump Administration literally bent over backwards to give the investigation all the materials it requested, and didn't fire the investigators, perjure themselves, and didn't tamper with witnesses, Mueller should have, at the very least, done the last thing Comey did- explicitly say he declined to prosecute based on the evidence because a reasonable prosecutor couldn't make an honest go of it. However, Mueller didn't do that- he intended for Volume 2 to set the narrative in the press, and he expected Barr would just leave it at that.

Barr surprised Mueller by actually making the decision Mueller was required to make as the special counsel, and did it with Rod Rosenstein standing behind him. That undermined the narrative Mueller and Weismann had planned. You can see this in that snotty little letter that Mueller wrote to Barr- Mueller was complaining that the media were reporting that there were no valid arguments for prosecuting on obstruction, not that Barr had lied in any part of the 4 page summary. Indeed, Barr used Mueller's own language about not exonerating Trump. In short, Mueller had no real complaint about Barr other than the fact that Barr actually did the job as described by Mueller's own fucking mandate. Mueller is a coward.

Yancey Ward said...

That should read the collusion part of the investigation was wrapped up by September 2017, not 2016.

stevew said...

The minority of people that care about this is shrinking, rapidly. I find the politics of it all quite interesting, but few people I know (other than youse guys) do too.

Did all those folks (Comey and Brennan and Clapper, etc.) know there was no collusion - at least of the provable kind? If so, what did they expect to happen when this investigation (of no established crime) found nothing? Did they not anticipate how Trump's position would be improved, dramatically, by finding nothing and proving his point about the 'witch hunt'?

The stupid, it burns!

Yancey Ward said...

And that letter- a normal human being would have picked up the phone and called Barr after the 4 page summary letter if he had a quarrel. Mueller wrote that letter with the plan of leaking it at an opportune time, like Tuesday night. We now know where James Comey learned his little write memo/leak to press routine. It was at the knee of Papa Mueller.

I will now make a prediction- Mueller never testifies before Congress unless Nadler changes the rules and doesn't allow the opposition to ask questions. If he testifies at all, it will be behind closed doors with only Democrats in the room

Cassandra said...

So glad you linked the WSJ editorial - it was excellent.

So was this one from Jonathan Turley in The Hill.

I enjoy Turley's writing precisely because he's not in the tank for either party, and his analysis is generally principled, evenhanded, and fair, if occasionally painful for people on both sides of the political spectrum.

I don't want someone telling me what to think or validating my feelings. It's so much more valuable to be challenged to take a closer look at the facts and my take on them.

Mike Sylwester said...

Even after William Barr settles the DOJ/FBI problems adequately, there will continue to be a fundamental problem in the Office of the Director on National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA.

Their hysterical, paranoia about Russia meddling in our elections justified the DOJ/FBI framing and spying on Trump and his associates.

The assessments of Russian meddling should be reviewed and corrected.

The assessments were not done by proper procedures of the Intelligence Community. Instead, a super-special group of Trump-hating yes-men was selected to concoct a hysterical assessment that could be used to justify an investigation of Trump -- and to justify sanctions against Russia that would complicate Trump's presidency.

rhhardin said...

Cruz calls him General Barr.

Yancey Ward said...

Stevew,

I think what would ultimately be found in a real investigation is that people like Joseph Mifsud, Felix Sater, Stephen Halper, Alexander Downing, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and probably others, were all working at the behest of the FBI, the CIA, MI6, GPSFusion, and/or the Clinton Campaign. I think if you look deep enough, you will find that Carter Page's invitation to that Russian conference was issued at the behest of someone working for the US or British government. Mifsud was asserted in the Mueller report as a Russian agent, despite the fact that Mifsud works at a university and in a program that the CIA, the FBI, and the State Department use for international study courses on a routine basis- as does the British Government. Just on a prima facie argument, it is far more likely that Mifsud is either a British operative or a US one.

At every point in the Mueller report, he fails to show any curiosity whatsoever about these various people, and he should have done so because the opportunity was there to actually prove Mifsud was a Russian agent, or that Veselnitskaya really had no connection to Glenn Simpson. There are lots of unasked basic questions about these people, and it is impossible to not conclude that Mueller didn't ask them because the answers were inconvenient to him and his team of Clinton partisans.

StephenFearby said...

Throwing another log on the fire:

Daily Caller 2:21 PM

'...The Mueller report claimed, “The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

As Emmet Flood, the president’s special counsel, explains [in his April 19th but only released today letter to Barr], Mueller is not in a position to “conclusively [determine] that no criminal conduct occurred” because he is operating as a prosecutor.

“Making conclusive determinations of innocence is never the task of the federal prosecutor,” Flood wrote to Barr. “What prosecutors are supposed to do is complete an investigation and then either ask the grand jury to return an indictment or decline to charge the case.”

Flood continued, “In the American justice system, innocence is presumed; there is never any need for prosecutors to ‘conclusively determine’ it. Nor is there any place for such a determination.”

Flood went on to slam Mueller for declining to reach a conclusion on obstruction of justice, arguing that failing to do so violates the investigation’s obligation to make a prosecutorial decision.

“The one thing the SCO (Special Counsel’s Office) was obligated to do is the very thing the SCO — intentionally and unapologetically — refused to do. The SCO made neither a prosecution decision nor a declination decision on the obstruction question,” he said.'

https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/02/white-house-slammed-mueller-report-in-letter-to-attorney-general-barr/

The full text of the Flood letter to Barr:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/02/politics/white-house-letter-to-ag-barr/index.html

Anonymous said...

All the yelling and screaming by the Dems indicates to me that they are scared shitless about the investigations that Barr intends to conduct. Barr appears to be the real deal, savvy about the politics and committed to getting at the truth of the Hillary and Trump investigations. Those of us who are only partly aware of what happened in the FBI/DOJ/Obama White House are pretty sure that there was a lot of bad behavior. Some clearly reached the criminal level. It will be interesting to find out how much. I have no doubt that Obama was directly entangled in parts of this mess. Suits his style to a T.

Yancey Ward said...

Like I wrote in the previous thread- I don't know if Barr really will try to drag this conspiracy out into the open. However, there are a lot pro arguments for him doing so- the primary one being this- Barr is 70 years old and this will be his last public job, so I don't think any threats made against him are likely to intimidate him at this point in his life. In addition, he has just under 2 years to clean this up. If he is going to act, it has to be now. This is the reason for yesterday's clown show by the Democrats- they feel like they have to kill Barr now, not later.

gilbar said...

IF
Mr. Barr's four-page explanation to Congress of the principal conclusions of the Mueller report on March 24 'DID FULLY capture the context, nature, and substance' of a 400(?) page report; it would seem to mean that Mueller needed an Editor, Right?

Let me analogize

Cliff's four pages of notes did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of Homer's Iliad

see what i mean?

JRoberts said...

"readering said...
Mueller report a best-seller even though available for free online."

Yeah, but a free download doesn't "virtue signal" like a hard copy sitting on your coffee table at home.

StephenFearby said...

The NYT in better-late-than-never Russiagate investigative mode:

F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016

By Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt and Mark Mazzetti May 2, 2019

"WASHINGTON — The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?

The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.

The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it “Spygate.”

The decision to use Ms. Turk in the operation aimed at a presidential campaign official shows the level of alarm inside the F.B.I. during a frantic period when the bureau was trying to determine the scope of Russia’s attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, but could also give ammunition to Mr. Trump and his allies for their spying claims.

Ms. Turk went to London to help oversee the politically sensitive operation, working alongside a longtime informant, the Cambridge professor Stefan A. Halper. The move was a sign that the bureau wanted in place a trained investigator for a layer of oversight, as well as someone who could gather information for or serve as a credible witness in any potential prosecution that emerged from the case.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Mr. Halper, Robert D. Luskin. Last year, Bill Priestap, then the bureau’s top counterintelligence agent who was deeply involved in the Russia inquiry, told Congress during a closed-door hearing that there was no F.B.I. conspiracy against Mr. Trump or his campaign.

The London operation yielded no fruitful information, but F.B.I. officials have called the bureau’s activities in the months before the election both legal and carefully considered under extraordinary circumstances. They are now under scrutiny as part of an investigation by Michael E. Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general. He could make the results public in May or June, Attorney General William P. Barr has said. Some of the findings are likely to be classified..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/us/politics/fbi-government-investigator-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Quite unlike the NYT to also include a comments section on a story that impeaches their previous narratives.

Michael K said...

I think what would ultimately be found in a real investigation is that people like Joseph Mifsud, Felix Sater, Stephen Halper, Alexander Downing, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and probably others, were all working at the behest of the FBI,

Rush Limbaugh was going on about NY Times story today about a honey trap the FBI set for Papadopolous with Mifsud and Halper. His theory is that the Times was trying to get out in front of the OIG report, which is coming soon.

The hysteria by Nadler, et all, is telling. They know the anteater is coming and the ants don't knowit.

bleh said...

Did all those folks (Comey and Brennan and Clapper, etc.) know there was no collusion - at least of the provable kind? If so, what did they expect to happen when this investigation (of no established crime) found nothing? Did they not anticipate how Trump's position would be improved, dramatically, by finding nothing and proving his point about the 'witch hunt'?

I don't know about "all those folks." I'm sure some just had a really low opinion of Trump and were too eager to believe anything bad about him regardless of what the evidence showed.

- I believe the principal objective early on was to use Hillary's missing emails to ensnare Trump or someone in his campaign in illegality or (attempted) collusion with Russia. There were, apparently, a number of FBI-sanctioned approaches made to peripheral characters like Papadopoulos. (It remains to be seen what if anything they did to ensnare someone senior like Manafort, e.g., did they try anything like the Trump Tower meeting?) They were hoping someone would take the bait and they could turn Hillary's emails around into a liability for Trump (they failed).

- At the same time, once they had the dossier, which they knew to be unreliable hokum, it was just too good for them to keep under wraps. So they leaked the dossier's allegations to damage Trump before the election.

- When all that failed and Trump won the election -- and having already laundered the dossier's allegations -- they hoped to use the Russiagate investigation to force his resignation or impeachment.

- So they went hard after Flynn and Sessions over relatively innocuous contacts with Russian officials, which definitely fed into the budding Russiagate conspiracy theory.

- For good measure, high-level holdover officials like Comey and Yates behaved like petulant, disobedient children defying Trump and practically daring him to do something extreme to them.

- Trump's biggest mistake was not firing Comey on January 20. By keeping him on and then firing him later, Trump made matters worse for himself.

Mike Sylwester said...

Yancey Ward at 2:09 PM
... people like Joseph Mifsud, Felix Sater, Stephen Halper, Alexander Downing, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and probably others, were all working at the behest of the FBI, the CIA, MI6, GPSFusion, and/or the Clinton Campaign

Let's not forget to name Henry Greenberg (born Gennady Vasilievich Vostretsov).

bleh said...

"Mueller report a best-seller even though available for free online."

Yes there are many stupid people in the world.

Yancey Ward said...

Even the NYTimes realizes just how serious this Barr threat is:

"The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?

The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia."


I guarantee you this story would have been deep sixed even just 4 months ago. It only surfaces now as an attempt by someone to get out in front of the fact that a lot of these contacts were US government agents. I pretty much think it certain that Mifsud and others are just like Azra Turk. In the case of Turk, he record of employment makes her impossible to hide, and hiding her is now too dangerous to someone.

JPS said...

Yancey Ward,

"In addition, he has just under 2 years to clean this up."

My sense all along has been that Mueller is the kind of institutional loyalist who mainly wanted to paint the FBI/DOJ actions in the best possible light: Sure, mistakes were made, but you can understand why they were concerned, can't you? Look at all this smoke....

And now I'm thinking Barr is the kind of institutional loyalist who is appalled at what his old department has become, and thinks cleaning it up would be a good last act for a long public career. I don't think it's mainly about Trump for him.

Yancey Ward said...

Yes, Greenberg, too.

Yancey Ward said...

JPS,

It is important to clean this up definitively, and I hope you are right about Barr. I am just prepared for disappointment in this regard. If Barr were 50 years old, I would probably be even more pessimistic- such a man has a lot to lose. At 70, he is less prone to being intimidated.

stevew said...

@Yancey Ward

So this was an elaborate slight of hand designed to obfuscate or keep hidden malfeasance by all those characters and including the Clintons, Obama, and, maybe Biden? I suppose I shouldn't doubt that, but that takes evil and treasonous to a whole new level.

Did they (do they) just hate Trump so much and believed him to be so much of a threat - to Clinton's POTUS run not to the US - that they felt this was justified?

Bay Area Guy said...

Barr was confirmed as AG on 2.19.19.

So, he's been on the job for 2.5 months.

Has any Government official kicked so much ass in only 2.5 months?

They guy is like our favorite General, Sherman, just mowing through this weak resistance.

StephenFearby said...

Washington Examiner

'...In reaction to the article by the Times, Papadopoulos insisted that Turk was not working for the FBI. "I agree with everything in this superb article except 'Azra Turk' clearly was not FBI. She was CIA and affiliated with Turkish intel. She could hardly speak English and was tasked to meet me about my work in the energy sector offshore Israel/Cyprus which Turkey was competing with," he wrote in a tweet.

Turk attended a second of Papadopoulos and Halper's meetings, and it was at a third Papadopoulos wrote in his book that he cut the meeting short after Halper pressed him on hacked emails.

After meeting Papadopoulos, Turk exchanged emails with him, calling their meeting the “highlight of my trip" and said "I am excited about what the future holds for us :)..."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbi-informants-assistant-who-met-george-papadopoulos-was-undercover

So we really don't know if Alza Turk is her real name or not (among other things).

Temujin said...

I was wondering where all of these 'end of democracy' Democrats were during the Eric Holder years. I see that question is being asked around now. Barr followed the law. Eric Holder arranged some serious gun-running (among many other things). The gun running seemed to be acceptable to the Dems then...and now.

I get very confused on their stance on guns.

tim in vermont said...

I have read that Lisa Page has already flipped on Strozk, et all. Fucking your co-conspirator is as dumb as office affairs.

“Never trust a female!” - O Brother, Where Art Thou

Drago said...

BAG: "Has any Government official kicked so much ass in only 2.5 months?

They guy is like our favorite General, Sherman, just mowing through this weak resistance."

Careful. Those kinds of comments can be devastatingly triggering for lefties/LLR-lefties.

tim in vermont said...

readering said...
Mueller report a best-seller even though available for free online.


Tells you something about the level of wits of the people lapping this stuff up from cable news.

Bay Area Guy said...

@Drago,

I'm not swatting at irrelevant gnats, I'm going for the big bears:)

Yancey Ward said...

I would guess Turk was playacting. Here I apply the "arguments against interest" method- I believe the NYTimes story because it cuts against the paper's long term narrative that the Trump Campaign wasn't spied on- now the argument is, it was "spied on", but it was good "spying". The retreat in narrative lends authenticity to, at the very least, the claim that Turk was working for the US government. This is a detail that can be proven with an employee search. She was probably chosen precisely because of GP's interests in the eastern Med.

Yancey Ward said...

And, of course, we already know Halper was sent by "someone" in the US government- just who exactly isn't clear since no one has deposed this guy who is likely to die unexpectedly.

narciso said...

Company considering he was operating overseas and was the son in law of ray Cline, remember the crocodile tears that an investigation would be compromised if they revealed helpers name?

Sebastian said...

"Ms. Lynch cowered before the bullying of then FBI director James Come"

Huh? Comey knew Lynch, being a team player rather than a cowering coward, would not prosecute, so the best his righteous self could do was to deliver the evidence in a way that would keep higher-ups from having to dirty their hands while making Hill's obvious guilt obvious.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Nice summary of Barr's performance”

Personally, I would call it a highly partisan hack job. Not surprising from a well known liberal whack job (BENJAMIN WITTES is the editor in chief of Lawfare and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.) Whittes disingenuously ignores that the DoJ is forbidden from saying that there isn’t enough evidence to believe that they could convict, but want to make the suspect look bad anyway. He studiously ignores that the instances he selects to show Obstruction are episodes where nothing was actually done to Obstruct Justice. Trump would tell his people to do something that Wittes considers Obstruction for a Republican, but they don’t do anything. And don’t get fired for doing nothing. Only a highly partisan liberal whack job would try to make such an insane claim. He might have an argument, if, for example, Trump had had Mueller fired or reined in, as he had wanted. But that wasn’t the case. Criminal Law 101 teaches that you need both an Actus Rea and Mens Rea for a criminal conviction (ignoring strict liability crimes like some of Crooked Hillary’s National Security and election law crimes). Both have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Neither is even close to being shown to be proven by even a preponderance of the evidence. Wittes tries to write off the fact that there was no provable underlying crime (he makes a big thing that they weren’t provably false either, but that isn’t the burden of proof or persuasion in our Anglo/American legal system). And tries to ignore that other justifications that are at least as plausible as those Wittes believes negate the required Mens Rea. What Wittes seems to believe, at least for Republicans, is that the required evil intent (Mens Rea) can essentially be inferred from Trump’s opposition to everything that Wittes believes to be right and wonderful. Oh, and AG Barr is apparently a seven layer liar because he insists on respecting centuries of Anglo/American criminal jurisprudence and standing DoJ rules and regulations, as well as ABA ethics requirements.

iowan2 said...

This is getting to be an echo chamber. Where is the other side of the discussion? I can't learn a thing unless challenges with an opposing point to view are debated.

Come people step up!

Mike Sylwester said...

StephenFearby at 2:26 PM
The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?

This article should have mentioned that Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller persecuted, prosecuted, convicted, fined and jailed Papadopoulos.

Yancey Ward said...

Bruce, I am not one that considers you long winded- I actively search comments frequently- but paragraphs are your friend, not an enemy.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

readering said...
Morkoth4682, new to this?

5/2/19, 1:08 PM

------

I see you dodged my question... typical... all you guys have are tin-foil-hat conspiracies and accusations... when asked for proof, you got nothing... which is exactly what Mueller got...

Now the freight-train is heading back your way... and unlike Trump, there are a whole lotta Dem's who are scared shitless because they do have something to hide... and when that train hits, the hammer of Justice is going to be swift and brutal...

So buck-up buttercup... You won't be able to keep denying reality for much longer...

Original Mike said...

Blogger Yancey Ward said..."Bruce, I am not one that considers you long winded- I actively search comments frequently- but paragraphs are your friend, not an enemy."

But that would cost a few more characters.

(Just pulling your chain, Bruce. I appreciate your comments as well.)

I also read the Wittes article. I should have saved my time and stopped a third of the way in when he was still pushing the collusion narrative.

Nonapod said...

This is getting to be an echo chamber. Where is the other side of the discussion? I can't learn a thing unless challenges with an opposing point to view are debated.

I've noticed over the past few weeks that the opposition around here has become somewhat desultory. Whether this is because of a lack of strong counter-arguments, a general lack of enthusiasm with current events, or feelings of malaise and hopelessness, or some other reason I can't say. But it's safe to say that things haven't been going their way lately. At any rate, it seems like a good counterpoint is hard to find lately.

Bay Area Guy said...

Let's keep it simple.

1. Special Prosecutor Mueller DECLINED to prosecute Trump on collusion.

2. Special Prosecutor Mueller DECLINED to prosecute Trump on obstruction. But he wrote a turgid book report to hopefully induce the DOJ to prosecute Trump (Plan B- which failed), or to generate enough dirt to get the House to impeach (Plan C - which is failing).

Sorry, folks, Mueller let you down. It happens.

Yancey Ward said...

Rather than the WSJ editorial, here is a better essay on the matter.

McCarthy goes into the why of Mueller's little snotty letter.

tcrosse said...

I cut and paste Bruce Hayden's comments into a text editor so that I can enlarge the font and insert paragraph breaks to make them easier to read.

fourth try

etbass said...

I am chagrined to say I don't believe any indictments are forthcoming. Yes, there will be reports, maybe a few people fired or demoted. But I do not believe there is enough fire in the belly of Republicans, including Barr, to get anyone put in jail. When they convene a federal grand jury or charge someone with a crime, or appoint another prosecutor, I might change my mind. Obama presided over the origination of all this but gave his assent by a nod of the head or a wink. He did not do anything in writing or in the presence of more than one witness. All the other principals have made sure that records have been destroyed, and there won't be a case that can be made in court unless... unless, someone begins ratting out a former boss. None of this will happen without indictments first.

Original Mike said...

This was in the Wittes' article:

"...Mueller believes he lacks the authority to indict the president. Because of that, he goes on to explain, he did not evaluate the evidence to render a traditional prosecutorial judgment. The report offers no support for the notion that Mueller stayed his hand on obstruction out of concern for the strength of the evidence."

What a load. If the evidence were strong he would have made the argument and then said, "But I'm not allowed to prosecute."

n.n said...

As the warlock trial became less viable with each passing trimester, the witch hunt, nevertheless, persists, and progresses in the dark recesses of the twilight fringe.

Amadeus 48 said...

"I've noticed over the past few weeks that the opposition around here has become somewhat desultory. Whether this is because of a lack of strong counter-arguments, a general lack of enthusiasm with current events, or feelings of malaise and hopelessness, or some other reason I can't say."

Maybe Team Soros has cut its troll allocation. They are going to have to back to being duped by billy goats at bridges.

rcocean said...

The R's are NEVER going to indict anyone over this. Sessions basically went AWOL & handed it to Rosenstein who started the whole mess. So, Barr just came in and has more important things to do. He'll set up some taskforce and 2 years from now, we'll get some tepid report. That's it.

Meanwhile, it takes the Republican Senate all its strength and energy to confirm judges and administrative officials. Unless the Big Donors are bribing them, they can't muster the energy to do anything.

We got into this mess and wasted 2 years on the Defense against a non-existent charge of "Collusion" because Sessions was a coward, Rosenstein a traitor, and McGahn a selfish OLC who was out for himself. IOW, it was your typical Republican cluster-fuck. Unlike the D's, no Republican will ever fall on his sword for the POTUS, and we always have tons of "Mavericks" and assorted cowards who don't want to fight.

Richard said...

The Democrats have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. They have gone from Trump committed treason by colluded with the Russians to demanding that Barr be given a failing grade on his four page book report.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

his is getting to be an echo chamber. Where is the other side of the discussion? I can't learn a thing unless challenges with an opposing point to view are debated.

In theory you would think so, but in practice the opposing debaters that show up here are... suboptimal.

gspencer said...

No matter what Trump or his cabinet secretaries or his WH staff ever do, the Ds and the media will make a stink about it.

Amadeus 48 said...

I think Barr will work the expose and admonish model. He wants to restore the standards at the DOJ, not throw his old colleagues in jail. He is already hinting that this was limited to a few people at senior levels who have left the DOJ and the FBI.

To see James Comey and Sally Yates doing a perp walk would be sweet, though.

rcocean said...

Look at the difference in the House. The 2013-2016 Republicans couldn't investigate anything. Everyone had to scream and moan for months before Trey Gowdy or whoever would hold a meeting or investigate Hillary emails, Benghazi, or Learner and the IRS. And then it was all over as quickly as possible, because the R's wanted to be Responsible and "Reach across the aisle".

Nadler get in and boom. Talk of Impeachment and subpoenas. They're going to investigate Trump for everything and the R's don't like it - tough. Already the R's are whining about "This has never been done before..." As if the D's care. And no Democrat "mavericks" or wise old Greybeards saying "this is a waste of time. We need to reach across the aisle.

Bruce Hayden said...

“To me, Carter Page was the real tip-off that there was no pony in all that shit. Named as a potential spy to get the FISA warrant, but no charges of any kind. I expect that’s the true reason Mueller was stymied in his effort to get Trump.”

One reason that you know that the FISA warrant applications for Page were fraudulently obtained is that they admit that for the four years up until March, 2016, a half a year before filing the first FISA application, he had been an FBI informant and cooperator. And in the next six months reached out to the FBI to see if they wanted to talk with him. This was mysteriously missing from what we have seen of the FISA applications. Making it worse - he was apparently cooperating with the National Security Branch, and most likely the Counterintelligence Division - the same people who filled out the paperwork for the FISA applications, including the Woods file that is supposed to include all exonerating evidence. If he had cooperated recently in the past with this part of the FBI, why did they need to electronically surveil him? Why not just ask him to come in and talk, or, maybe worse for them, why didn’t they accept his offer to talk? The answer is obvious - they weren’t really targeting Page, but rather Trump. Which, of course, means that they were, again, lying to the FISC

Back to the Wittes article in the Atlantic. He condemned AG Barr for claiming that the FBI had spied on Trump. He then seemed to attempt the usual libtard defense here - essentially that electronically surveilling and wiretapping Trump couldn’t have been spying because it was authorized with warrants issued by the FISC. That, of course, is verbal gymnastics and gobble gook. They lied on the FISA applications. That doesn’t mean that the surveillance is somehow not “spying”, but rather that they committed additional felonies in order to pull off the spying.

rcocean said...

BTW, Turly's column was terrible. He's basically a reasonable Democrat, so he's always going to play the "Both sides were wrong" when the Democrats are almost entirely wrong.

rcocean said...

Anytime Republicans or Conservatives outnumber Liberals they whine about "Its an echo Chamber!"

Yeah, Althouse is the ONLY comment section on the internet. You CANT go ANYWHERE and debate Mueller, or get the Liberal side of things. The Liberals are shut out of the MSM and the internet. Well, except for ABC/NBC/CBS/PBS/MSNBC/CNN/NPR/The Alantic/New Yorker/NYT/Wapo and a million liberal websites like HuffPuff, The Daily Beast, etc.

Michael K said...

Unless the Big Donors are bribing them, they can't muster the energy to do anything.

Bingo ! This has been the problem all along. Why there is no wall and E Verify is fake.

They got the tax cut and went home.

Bruce Hayden said...

Blogger Yancey Ward said..."Bruce, I am not one that considers you long winded- I actively search comments frequently- but paragraphs are your friend, not an enemy."

I am properly chastised. My only defense is that I spent most of the last three decades in a part of the law (patents) where short paragraphs are often counterproductive. I do try to chop things up, and on rare occasions, succeed. A little.

The amazing thing to me is that I won the writing competition for the corporate internship program in my last year of law school. And did it by writing short sentences in short paragraphs, which I had learned to do working for my MBA.

TJM said...

Inga,

How are you handling this? We're concerned you might off yourself now that your libtard fantasy is crumbling.

Wince said...

I assume those are Democrat's tears he's drinking?

Michael K said...

I've noticed over the past few weeks that the opposition around here has become somewhat desultory.

The lefties around here have been crazy since 2016. It got so bad the month before the election, I left.

I wouldn't mind some reasonable argument. Instead we get Ritmo and Inga and Freder.

I think Garage Mahal made more sense. Some of it is that the Democrats have driven away their middle of the roaders. Remember Zell Miller ? In California, Jerry Brown became the only one making sense and that is a reach. When I was on the CMA Commission on Legislation, we used to work with Democrats most of the time. I knew sharp Democrats. I supported a few.

What happened to the Pat Brown Democrats ?

Original Mike said...

Inga's reponse to the Mueller report was a hoot. She let loose with an all-caps I TOLD YOU SO and then went to ground.

tim in vermont said...

I assume those are Democrat's tears he's drinking?

You can only drink it at a ten percent strength or it. will give you diarrhea, but at that strength, it’s like gatorade.

tim in vermont said...

Inga should come back and charge a dime a dance for all of you guys who miss her so much.

Bruce Hayden said...

“2. Special Prosecutor Mueller DECLINED to prosecute Trump on obstruction. But he wrote a turgid book report to hopefully induce the DOJ to prosecute Trump (Plan B- which failed), or to generate enough dirt to get the House to impeach (Plan C - which is failing).”

The DoJ wasn’t about to indict Trump for Obstruction of Justice. Mueller put to the side, and didn’t consider, that all Executive power and discretion Constitutionally belongs to the President, and he only loans or delegates it to his subordinates. If he wants to fire someone for wearing the wrong colored tie, he legally can. This is Article II, Sentence 1 Constitutional law. About as basic as you can get. Mueller, in his report, essentially said that ignoring this almost unfettered Presidential power, under DoJ guidelines, he couldn’t have been convicted anyway, even if he hadn’t been President, given the facts at hand.

Which leaves the illegitimate purpose of providing dirt to the Dems for impeachment.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I cut and paste Bruce Hayden's comments into a text editor so that I can enlarge the font and insert paragraph breaks to make them easier to read.”

Maybe I should send you my comments and you then cut them up in more readable chunks, and then publish them?

My problem is that I do try to better split my long posts into more readable chunks. I really do. But so often the pieces seem to me to belong together. And the result is the frustration that many of you feel trying to decipher what I said.

Henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Henry said...

For the record, Bruce, I find your comments cogent and well-argued.

mockturtle said...

The chasm deepens between left and right and there is no known cure for TDS. Short of a civil war or a voluntary secession of blue counties [not states] I can't see any end to this. Let the blues elect their own leader and let them have their own nation. It will fail and they'll all be trying to seek asylum in ours.

Henry said...

But it's a low-attention-span venue.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

While Inga's disappearance was at a suspicious time, I do truly hope that nothing serious happened to her and that she is healthy and safe.

Ray - SoCal said...

It’s amazing how far Andrew McCarthy has moved on this debacle.

From Mueller will do a fair investigation, to the Mueller investigation and Report were just a political hatchet job.

And Andrew McCarthy is not a Trump fan.

tcrosse said...

Maybe I should send you my comments and you then cut them up in more readable chunks, and then publish them?

Sure. Then the lefty commentariat would be baying for the unredacted version. No thanks.

Original Mike said...

I think Inga has been back more than once. There have been some posts that are suspiciously her style.

Jim at said...

Inga should come back and charge a dime a dance for all of you guys who miss her so much.

Eff that. I don't miss her arrogance, stupidity and dishonesty one bit.
Good riddance.

Michael K said...

It’s amazing how far Andrew McCarthy has moved on this debacle.

Yes, isn't it ? There is one NeverTrumper left at Ricochet and he will probably never admit he was wrong.

Chuck is loopy, like some of the NR clan. I used to read Jonah Goldberg every day.

Bay Area Guy said...

@Bruce Hayden,

The DoJ wasn’t about to indict Trump for Obstruction of Justice. Mueller put to the side, and didn’t consider, that all Executive power and discretion Constitutionally belongs to the President, and he only loans or delegates it to his subordinates.

I can't tell if we agree or disagree, but I normally agree with you, so let me take a crack at being more clear.

I agree with your Executive Authority comments under Art 2.

But I would suggest that Mueller could have easily recommended indictment of Trump (based on the facts) for obstruction of justice and then let the DOJ deal with whether to indict a sitting President or wait till's he's out of office.

Had Mueller done so, Trump would be in a world of political hurt, because the House would have impeached, and possibly, weak-kneed GOP Senators would have joined with the Dems to vote to remove.

But Mueller did not do so. He fumbled the ball on Obstruction, by raising a buncha issues, debating them, but then ultimately deferring the decision to Barr.

I hypothesize that Barr surprised Mueller and the Dems by saying, in effect, I have found no factual grounds to indict Trump on obstruction. So, the case is over. But, yes, had I found such factual grounds, I still would not have indicted Trump based on the Opinions by the OLC.

I think this scenario best explains why the Dems are so pissed.

The analogy is the awkward dynamic between Comey and Lynch on whether to indict Hillary, which was botched, too, but for different reasons.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Bruce Hayden,
"Maybe I should send you my comments and you then cut them up in more readable chunks, and then publish them?"

Or you could first publish a summary of the comments, and then we could fight over how accurate it is.

Amadeus 48 said...

McCarthy had the scales removed from his eyes regarding his old buddies from the DOJ. It was sort of like Althouse's eye operation. All that procedural stuff that he relied on at the beginning proved to be completely wrong.

That FISA court clearly has been a rubber stamp for years. It's worthless as a defender of Americans' rights. All that stuff that critics of the Patriot Act were worried about (I am looking at you, Glenn Greenwald) turned out to be true, except it wasn't the rights of Muslim Americans that were stepped on, it was the rights of Republicans.

So I give McCarthy high marks for learning something (he's doing better than Jonah or Lowry), and I give Glenn Greenwald and some other lefty civil liberties types high marks for consistency and for being right.

Amadeus 48 said...

Chuck is a complete mystery to me. I don't know anyone else who thinks the way he does. It is tempting to think he is a troll, but I gather that Althouse and Meade have some history with him as a commenter. He certainly thinks about things in a unique way.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

None of Muellers work was for the House of Representatives. Why should he care how it plays there or in the press?
He should have issued a report that announced his decisions to to prosecute. Thats it.

Also, according to Muellers theory, Nancy Pelosi just obstructed Justice by calling Barr a liar.

magamamma said...

They are trying to discredit Barr so when the hammer is dropped, and it's coming, they think people won't believe him. haha

Original Mike said...

"That FISA court clearly has been a rubber stamp for years. It's worthless as a defender of Americans' rights."

Something really struck me way back at the beginning of all this. Comey was still employed and testifying before Congress. He seemed preoccupied with the upcoming reauthorization of some spying tool, FISA I think. Makes sense now.

Rance Fasoldt said...

I notice that many on both sides (I'm looking at you, Ben Shapiro) say things like, "McGahn stopped the President from..." and "Chris Christie prevented Trump from..." as though these statements were true. But since Trump does not report to either McGahn or Christie, and neither of them tied Trump to a chair or physically restrained him, we're left with the fact that President listened to them and decided not to do what he had threatened, or been thinking about. Sounds good to me. Ever think of doing something and think better about it later? Yeah. Me, too.

Fen said...

Inga should come back and charge a dime a dance for all of you guys who miss her so much.

She talked trash for 2 years, and now that her team got spanked, she doesn't have the decency to come back and eat a little crow. Typical lefty.

Fen said...

And the result is the frustration that many of you feel trying to decipher what I said.

Nah, English Lit major here, never had a problem with your style, and the content always gave me something I could sink my teeth into. Don't change a thing, you're MARVELOUS baby!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left are massively corrupt and they lie.

gadfly said...

"Facebook bans extremist leaders including Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos . . ."

Leaders require followers, and in my wildest, off-the-wall scenario, these cats would barely be meowing. Perhaps Bill the Walrus could use them to help land the plane.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Here's my favorite Inga quote

"After reading this thread, I think you nutbags are are going to lose whatever marbles you still have left when the Mueller report is made public. I think whoever ends up in the role of President before 2020 might need to declare martial law, until you Cultists get yourselves deprogrammed. Have hope, there might still be a normal life after Trump for you poor souls."

-Inga

Marshall Law. Cultists. LOL.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

People who ban speech are worse than the people whose speech is banned.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Obstruction of what? .... Justice!

or - payback for Hillary losing.

iowan2 said...

Speaking of impeachment.
Nadler is pitching the very predictable tantrum. Which for his base is fine. But not effective. If being effective is getting results of his stated goals. That's not his goal. His goal his to continue to use public hearings to continue to slime POTUS, and now to pre slime Barr, so when the indictments hit, the Dems can say, " I told you he is a partisan".

Nadler would get every single things he wants if he is working from articles of impeachment. Can the Republicans do anything to initiate the articles of impeachment? I would love the Republicans force the Dems hand to force them to put up or shut up.

CWJ said...

"Is this the same James Comey who once tried to hide in the curtains to avoid Trump?"

Thanks for reminding me of what must be one of the most revealing episodes* ever of what a morally overrated bunch our deep state "betters" are? The only thing more stupid is that each and every taxpayer pays any of them a salary. Our "elites" suck every bit as much as any "ancien regime" courtier.

* - It also reminds me of the Praetorians discovering Claudius hiding in the drapes after Gaius' assassination. But in that case, Claudius proved more worthy than Comey.

Bay Area Guy said...

"As much as I would like to see the villains in all this get their just due....."

Yeah, that's where I am too. Firing Comey, McCabe, Yates and Strzok is great, but I'm not banking on them or Brennan/Clapper going to jail.

I'd like to see Simpson and Nellie Ohr nailed, but I'm not sure what crime they committed, so I'm not banking on that either.

Maybe, the leak investigation will nail some of these clowns, but who knows?

If the House does not impeach Trump, then I think the best revenge will be a Trump victory in 2020. That will have a much more lasting positive effect on the country, then sending these Deep Staters to jail.

I could easily be wrong on all this, it's more of a soft opinion.

Skeptical Voter said...

It's a nasty job reading the New York Times, and I swore off it for my sanity's sake some years ago. But having read the Wall Street Journal's take on the Barr-Whitehouse-Blumenthal-Crazy Mazie tiff yesterday, I thought I'd see what the NYT had to say.

Well once I stopped laughing at the Times front page characterization of the Mueller Investigation as "one of the most consequential ones in American history", I did find an interesting nugget or two.

Team Mueller has hurt feelings that the Barr summary letter did not accurately reflect the "nuances and context" of Mueller's report. Barr testified that he'd asked Mueller whether there were any inaccuracies in his summary letter. Mueller said there were none. Mueller had declined an invitation to review Barr's summary letter before it was released.

Okay, why was Team Mueller in such a tizzy, leaking their complaint a day or two before Barr's testimony. Well the NYT story reveals that Team Mueller had prepared "Executive Summaries" of their report(s) which they thought Barr should have released instead. The audacity of Barr! How could he do that! The dastardly villain etc. No wonder the boys got a little snippy (I like that word better than "snitty").

Let's put this in a law firm context where some of the Mueller Team had practiced. A senior associate or a young partner writes up a "dynamite killer brief" that will surely win the appeal etc. Or so the young one thinks. It's then presented to the senior partner who will actually conduct the appeal---and the old dastard chops it up, rejects it, doesn't use much of it etc. These young uns wanted Barr to use their Executive Summaries--and he didn't. Boo effin' hoo.

CWJ said...

readering wrote in response to a request for specifics -

"Morkoth4682, new to this?"

Thanks for confirming that you're a troll and nothing more.

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger iowan2 said...

"...Where is the other side of the discussion?"

Some posts become workrooms where commenters line up the pieces of the puzzle, so debate is limited.

For some posts there is no other side.

Right now the Democrats are simply play acting for their base. The Democrat base was promised an impeachment. They were told the evidence was overwhelming. They were told indictments were imminent. They were promised the Mueller Report would be the end of the Orange Man. The Democrat base is in disarray and is angry. The Democrats are attempting, by any means possible, to placate the true believers like Inga and Freder.

narciso said...

there was no investigation, the asset, who was the basis for dominikas handler, in red sparrow, was a walkin, so he gave up the network, and there was no dangle to incriminate Hillary's inner circle, well remember uranium one,


https://twitter.com/watchful1/status/1124019124642963456

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Nice spin on yesterday's news, when it turns out that Barr can't manage to accomplish the basic duty of honoring his subpoena today.

I'm sure you'll want more time to figure out how to spin that one. Another day, perhaps?

Spin! Spin! Spin!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

In the meantime, you're cultivating a commentariat that can't even manage to spell out even a most pathetic of legal bases for all their ignorant, layman/strongman mob-tyrant defenses of Barr's and Trump's lawlessness actions. Nice job!

Politicizing the law. It never ends. Trump will "fire" the concept of the subpoena!

Bye-bye, Magna Carta.

iowan2 said...

These young uns wanted Barr to use their Executive Summaries--and he didn't. Boo effin' hoo.

Barr did use the executive summaries.They are used in full along with the rest of the report. Barr explained clearly, he was never going to release the report piece meal. All of Muellers work would hit the public at the same time. I would argue to do anything else is a dereliction of the duties of the Attorney General as laid out by the special counsel statute.

Everyone sang their paises of Mueller. Honest, reliable, smart, experienced.

Barr saw through Muellers tactics and strung him up. Disagree with Barr, but don't forget he has the law, and the facts on his side. Tuesday's hearing Barr made the statement, that it is a fact, the Mueller investigation was a hoax, and President Trump was well within his constitutional power to stop the investigation.

That is a statement of fact. Barr is too smart to make such a statement without indisputable facts. There are, knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. Democrats are in the area of unknown, unknows.

Michael K said...

Bye-bye, Magna Carta.

I see McDonalds is out. The day shift, at least.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Tuesday's hearing Barr made the statement, that it is a fact, the Mueller investigation was a hoax, and President Trump was well within his constitutional power to stop the investigation.

Right. An investigation can be a "hoax." What false facts and conclusions were made in the report, and attested to as that - either by Barr or anyone else you lawless mob tactician.

Does Trump have or not have the power to obstruct justice? And who determines whether it is or is not the course of justice that he is obstructing? You? Trump?

Just admit that checks and balances doesn't work for you and you think that one person should control the executive, legislature AND judiciary.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Inga should come back and charge a dime a dance for all of you guys who miss her so much.”

“She talked trash for 2 years, and now that her team got spanked, she doesn't have the decency to come back and eat a little crow. Typical lefty.”

Inga doesn’t bother commenting here much anymore because you people are fucking lunatics.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I see that almost-dead Michael Swango K's sundowning period has arrived and he is still thinking about his fast-food dinner, as always. Maybe his wet nurse can parcel it out into little bite-size bits and spoon it into his drooling mouth before he dribbles it all over his bib.

IN any event, he obviously has no legal insight into the tyrant's henchman or even a credible defense of his actions but what else is new? He's just a lawless toddler who lives and breathes retribution and playground rules and can't figure out how to make a respectable reputation for oneself in a lawful republic.

Still asking your not-yet-retired doctor friends to prescribe a bunch of opioids for chronic pain, Mikey? Talk about a license to kill. I wouldn't be surprised if both California and Arizona revoked his as a "predicate" for his early retirement.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

For Michael Swango K. McDonalds is a dietary staple. He even gets his wet nurse to do the airplane thing when she spoons it into his fat little mouth.

Watch the airplane, Mikey! Watch it go zooming into your mouth!

Mmmmm. Yummmmm. Mikey's favorite food!

Yancey Ward said...

That's right Inga- we were the lunatics for two fucking years. Merry Muellermas!

Drago said...

"Inga doesn’t bother commenting here much anymore because you people are fucking lunatics."

Did you read that in a dossier?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Inga's reponse to the Mueller report was a hoot. She let loose with an all-caps I TOLD YOU SO and then went to ground.”

I DID tell you so. And I was right and if you weren’t such Trump lunatics you’d recognize what has happened here. Barr is Trump toady and complicit in obstructing justice. Everyday that goes by is worse for Trump and Barr. If you idiots weren’t do fucking dumb you’d see the handwriting on the wall. Mueller will be testifying soon.

You morons.

Drago said...

The pro-infanticide, pro-MS13, You Can Change Your Biology Just By Wishing It Crew chimes in!

Just in time to discuss the astonishing levels of anti-semitism on the left at the very moment Israel is naming a town after Trump and on the heels of a solid majority approving of the Trump economy.

narciso said...

The basis of the investigation was a hoax, halper for instance had ties to a deputy svr head as high as you can go, mifsud had ties from the UK to Russia, and diener from his native Australia to China (where he was a director with huawei)

Drago said...

Inga: "I DID tell you so. And I was right and if you weren’t such Trump lunatics you’d recognize what has happened here. Barr is Trump toady and complicit in obstructing justice"

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Trump obstructed! Barr obstructed! They obstructed! He obstructed! She obstructed!

Obstruction obstruction OBSTRUCTION!!!

LOLOL

Yep, nothing lunatic about that. At all.

Yancey Ward said...

Remind me again, Inga, who turned out to colossally wrong about the Mueller investigation for two years? It wasn't us- hell, we told you how it would turn out, and it did exactly that.

narciso said...

Downer, meanwhile this detail made the Russian suspicious, because of swoboda the far right successor to the oun, much like the ustachi.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/441892-ukrainian-embassy-confirms-dnc-contractor-solicited-trump-dirt-in-2016

Drago said...

I understand there is a new theory on the left/LLR-left that Trump/Barr/(insert your name here) obstruction has not only destroyed the venezuelan Peoples Economy but also forces San Franciscans to defecate on sidewalks!!

Yancey Ward said...

Poor, Inga. Mueller could have recommended charging Trump. He didn't do it. Now tell us why he didn't do that, Inga? Was Mueller Trump's toady, too?

narciso said...

Now under this administration javelin missiles have been delivered to the Ukrainians instead of #hashtags and food rations.

Yancey Ward said...

Man, that wily Trump had his toady running the Mueller investigation! That's got to be it! Investigate Mueller!

God, it is so much fun to watch Inga sputter like a moron.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Yes indeed you were and still are. How brainwashed can you fools possibly be?

They're anti-logic, can't think for themselves, and believe that if someone rich enough demands their loyalty, they will agree to everything he says.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Mueller could have recommended charging Trump. He didn't do it. Now tell us why he didn't do that, Inga?

Release the report and then we'll tell you why, you secretive, imbecilic pussy.

iowan2 said...

Barr can't manage to accomplish the basic duty of honoring his subpoena today.

An attempt to troll. Yes I know. Get your facts straight first. Barr was not under subpoena today. It was a negotiated voluntary appearance. Nadler changed the terms after an agreement was reached. The change was to have Staff lawyers asks questions for an hour. Something that violated house rules, and only happened during impeachment hearings.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Trump obstructed! Barr obstructed! They obstructed! He obstructed! She obstructed!

Obstruction obstruction OBSTRUCTION!!!

LOLOL

Yep, nothing lunatic about that. At all.


Nothing lunatic about getting angry for hearing legal concepts you don't comprehend and instead chanting and shouting PARTY LOYALTY party loyalty party loyalty all day long over and over again like a fucking parrot on crack cocaine.

FullMoon said...

"Ritmo Re-Animated said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Careful, Allie. There is a history on this blog of evenings sipping wine leading to other things...

Why haven't we exchanged numbers, yet? "

More to come, for fun....

Original Mike said...

Blogger Trump International Crime Syndicate said...
"Nice spin on yesterday's news, when it turns out that Barr can't manage to accomplish the basic duty of honoring his subpoena today.

I'm sure you'll want more time to figure out how to spin that one. Another day, perhaps?

Spin! Spin! Spin!"


Are you claiming Barr was under subpoena to testify today?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Staff lawyers asks questions for an hour. Something that violated house rules, and only happened during impeachment hearings.

What a fount of knowledge you are. SO Christine Blasey Ford was being "impeached?" Lol. Do tell us more nuggets from the profound wells of your deep civic wisdom.

Yancey Ward said...

Oh, yeah, the redactions, Ritmo. Keep hope alive! By the way, the Democrats can go see the unredacted report, they refuse to do so. Probably just like you refused to read the sections that aren't redacted. I read the report- the redactions don't hide anything material to determining that neither Trump nor his staff were guilty of collusion, and the redactions certainly hide nothing in regards to why Mueller decided not to proceed on obstruction. Volume 2 is almost entirely clear of redactions of any kind since there are no continuing matters involved in that, nor is there grand jury testimony to redact, either- all of the material is from interviews, not grand jury testimony. Of course, you wouldn't know that since you didn't read the report.

Michael K said...

Watch the airplane, Mikey! Watch it go zooming into your mouth!

It is amusing to see the bitter envy from this failure of a young man. You think you know something about me but you don't.

Middle class families in the 50s often had colored maids and nursemaids. Read "To Kill a Mockingbird." You seem to have had some biology education but obviously failed at whatever your plan was. Successful people don't show this kind of bitter envy,

So we know you are a failure.

As for money, I went through college and medical school on scholarship. Full scholarship.

You failed at that, too.

You make a big deal out of age difference. Yes, I am old. You, on the other hand are a young failure. You seem to be going nowhere, as I have been everywhere.

I feel sorry for you but you make it hard.

FullMoon said...

SO Christine Blasey Ford ...

A paragon of virtue, and typically "truthful" lefty

Yancey Ward said...

Too funny! If Trump is reelected, in 2024 it will still be "the walls are closing in", "it is only a matter of time before Trump is indicted". Never admit to being wrong- that is the Inga method.

Original Mike said...

Inga said..." DID tell you so. And I was right and if you weren’t such Trump lunatics you’d recognize what has happened here. Barr is Trump toady and complicit in obstructing justice. Everyday that goes by is worse for Trump and Barr. If you idiots weren’t do fucking dumb you’d see the handwriting on the wall. Mueller will be testifying soon. "

You are entertaining. I hope Mueller testifies, but I'll believe it when I see it. No upside for him or the Democrats.

What do you think he has to say that he didn't put in his report?

FullMoon said...

You seem to have had some biology education but obviously failed at whatever your plan was. Successful people don't show this kind of bitter envy,

Duh! they wanted to be a doctor and couldn't cut it...

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Moon's going wild with anticipation at some sloppy seconds - the only action he gets.

Little known fact: Moon's wearing plaid flannel here in this scene.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

By the way, the Democrats can go see the unredacted report, they refuse to do so.

12 of them can, and only a fool Republican would agree to a deal that says "but you can't discuss it with Congress."

Boy oh boy. So many little rules, so many secrets. What are you hiding, other than the fact that you have no use to anyone and can stall longer than the pope on prom night?

FullMoon said...

Try not to laugh, keeping in ming ritmo is mid fifties..

Ritmo Re-Animated said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Mmmm hmmmm. I see. But in the same thread, he said he has a girlfriend. I mean, (he is) a good guy, has been a doting husband in the past, but methinks you'll want a guy that you won't want to kill in the first week - and for reasons other than your breasts.

Although that part (If the tits are OK, and still in their original position (that is above the belly button), let's get married.) did get me slightly hot.

We'll have much more to do and agree on. It'll be a blast. Shouting's a charming guy with a guitar and a motorcycle, but then, so am I.

And so much more...

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Middle class families in the 50s often had colored maids and nursemaids. Read "To Kill a Mockingbird." You seem to have had some biology education but obviously failed at whatever your plan was. Successful people don't show this kind of bitter envy,

Lol! Only entitled elitists fantasize this much about being envied.

So we know you are a failure.

So we know you're an entitled elitist.

Your greatest fear in life is that people will figure out that no one kisses your own puny little ass as much as you do.

Yancey Ward said...

Well, dumbass, the truth is out there for the Democrats to find. It is interesting none of them want to go do that. Seriously, if the redactions are hiding Trump's guilt, then one of those Democrats can go read it and leak it, right? It isn't like the NYTimes won't publish a leak and protect the leaker, right? You make Inga look smart, and that is nearly impossible to do.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Middle class families in the 50s often had colored maids and nursemaids.

Lol! Did Michael K Swango actually use the word "colored?" LOL!

I think his brain stopped making synaptic connections about 60 years ago. What a fucking dinosaur.

A weak, little, pathetic, over-privileged grifting dinosaur.

FullMoon said...

A weak, little, pathetic, over-privileged grifting dinosaur.

A respected Dr., surgeon, instructor.

As opposed to a wannabe who could not take the presseure of med school and is reduced to being a professional climate hysteric. Almost sympathetic..

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

A respected Dr., surgeon, instructor.

Proof?

As opposed to a wannabe who could not take the presseure of med school...

Oh yes! Everyone wants to go learn how to do rectal exams and get vomited on!

Is that the reason YOU wanted to go to medical school so badly?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Says who?

FullMoon said...

Oh yes! Everyone wants to go learn how to do rectal exams and get vomited on!

Oh, sure, that's why you quit. Uh huh.

Dr. K, saving lives, making a difference. Respected amatuer historian..
Ritmo middle aged man engaging in middle school flirtations with senior citizen Inga.Hysterically clinging to climate change hysteria...

How many dating sites you on, Romeo? Chat 'em up but never meet in person? Sad!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Inga buys whatever Maddow and Co are selling. Poor thing.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh, sure, that's why you quit.

I quit wanting to do rectal exams? I didn't realize that was something I ever wanted to do.

Unlike you, of course! You'd love that shit.

How many dating sites you on, Romeo?

Awww. The gimp (or plaid shirt guy) feels left out of conventional physical activity.

Yep, that's Full Moon. In the plaid shirt.

Or maybe the gimp.

Which one is it?

FullMoon said...

Lol! Did Michael K Swango actually use the word "colored?"
LOL!


This, from a person who said he can "pass for white"...Sad!

Be proud of your heritage, no need to "pass"

FullMoon said...

The Rit goes full throttle. Stop laughing, you guys !


Ritmo Re-Animated said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Yes. Make love to my brain. Or something.

Should I have proposed marriage right off the bat? I hope you're not like that.

I'm only green once a year during Mardi Gras. Or at bedtime.

Think of all the love we'll be able to make out in the garden, or by the lake, at nightfall if need be. Or not.

(others) would consider that much too primeval. But you and I can be natural like that. Together. You think these detractors call the hippies "dirty" on account of hygiene?

No ma'am.

Imagine being covered in the flowers that you're being made love to on top of.

I dare you to pass that up.

Plus, I've got the finances and the taste to enjoy that old house. I love Wisconsin. And I travel with room for two as often as you'd like. When we're not getting stuck in the charming shops of Madison or other, more rustic corners of the state.

I'm just starting.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

CNN Poll: Overwhelming Majority Want Investigation into Obama DOJ Spying on Trump

Why would joke network CNN admit this poll? I have no idea. Do hacks take naps?

FullMoon said...

Middle school eloquence seems to be working...

Inga said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Ritmo, I fear I may be too old for you, whew, all this nature talk is giving me a hot flash though.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

That Full Moon! He really likes to watch!

Did Zed get you your plaid shirt, Moon? Did he help you mind the store?

It's fun getting Zed angry like this.

Achilles said...

You people take too much enjoyment in poking these idiots.

They haven't even posted anything. Just some stupidity and unhinged rants.

We know they support spying on political opponents and they support an end to the rule of law and an end to due process.

Meh.

FullMoon said...

"Why would joke network CNN admit this poll? I have no idea. Do hacks take naps?"


Wondered the same thing.Very unusual.

Speaking of hacks, very annoying to hear Republicans say Russia hacked Podesta's email. Hacking is an intrusion requiring some skill. Phishing is something almost anybody can do.

narciso said...

Because they are taking crowdstrikes affirmations as definitive,

FullMoon said...

"You people take too much enjoyment in poking these idiots."
.................................................
Hah! As if you never did it when you were bored. I remember you intentionally making the Rit cry more than once.

Ya can't deny it..

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Fullmoon bores even himself.

His wife rolls her eyes at him.

FullMoon said...

Because they are taking crowdstrikes affirmations as definitive,

If you are responding to my hack complaint, yeah, I know, that's the problem.

Politicians should know the difference, same as any teenager.
Saw Lindsy Graham say it yesterday.

FullMoon said...

Threesomes? Inga, you got a lotta 'splaining to do!

Ritmo Re-Animated said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Someone who suggests threesomes considers herself too old for me and my detailed talk of actual scenarios too hot for her? Who'd have thunk it.

You are just selling yourself short.

Michael K said...

Hilarious. Before I walk he dog. You might think about how ridiculous you sound.

The "colored" now want to be called "People of Color." Got it.

Maybe, if you are interested in history, you could look at this, but you won't.

You need to want to learn and I think that is your problem.

iowan2 said...

What a fount of knowledge you are. SO Christine Blasey Ford was being "impeached?" Lol. Do tell us more nuggets from the profound wells of your deep civic wisdom.

Blasey Ford was testifying in front on the Senate committee hearing to confirm SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the victim of the previous Democrat invented hoax investigation

Senate in not the House.

Thanks for playing

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