Mueller Investigation pt5

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Cavemonster said:
I can guarantee you he's been advised on how to respond to a question like that about wikileaks.
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Of course he's been advised, but he often doesn't follow advice. "I know nothing about ..." is one of his pre-presidential go-to phrases. He remembered to say something about it being up to the attorney general, but I'm not sure detailed advice does much good with him. Without a script in front of him, and sometimes with one, he can't be trusted to stay on the talking points. And some people like that about him. Maybe I would, if I didn't already despise him.
 
phiwum said:
Politicians with a decent sized staff and a willingness to listen to them don't tweet about airborne water tankers while Notre Dame is burning, to be fair. (Not that Trump is the only pol making ill-considered statements these days, though he's obviously the most prominent and I'd say most prolific.)
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His twitter feed breaks a lot of norms, but I don't think he's as freewheeling everywhere as he likes to try to project.

The mix of clearly scripted talking points (even taking over his twitter feed when someone thinks it's important) makes it clear that he hasn't diverged so far from the model any comparable politician uses.

It may be possible that he often chooses to reject the spin his team gives him. But I find it vanishingly unlikely that no one talked to him about the way he should address that specific question when he was about to be surrounded by press.
 
Minoosh said:
The MSM takes the off-the-cuff lies more personally than the general public, because he has lied to the faces of many members of the media, and they HATE being lied to.
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You make it sound like the only problem with Trump lying is that the MSM takes it personally. Whether they do or not, the problem is much larger than that.
 
Most of the media chatter I've seen leading up to tomorrow's release has already assumed it'll be one big pile of [REDACTED] and as such is merely the prelude to a legal fight over the unredacted version. +1 for the media finally catching on, at least this once.
 
https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1118629364340547585

Attorney General Barr wrote to me on April 1: "I do not believe it would be in the public’s interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report." I agree. So why is the AG holding a press conference tomorrow morning to go over the Mueller report? #ReleaseTheReport

I’m deeply troubled by reports that the WH is being briefed on the Mueller report AHEAD of its release. Now, DOJ is informing us we will not receive the report until around 11/12 tomorrow afternoon — AFTER Barr’s press conference. This is wrong. #ReleaseTheReport
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Mueller will apparently not be present at Barr's press conference tomorrow.
 
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Skeptic Ginger said:
Reminds me of Comey, totally screw Clinton over and hide behind job procedures even though wasn't even true.

So here is Mueller turning over a lot of incriminating evidence and hiding behind job procedure by handing it over to Trump's chosen ally but acting like it wasn't your fault.
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Well, Comey did get fired for losing everyone's trust. Maybe our next president will do the same thing for Mueller.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Reminds me of Comey, totally screw Clinton over and hide behind job procedures even though wasn't even true.
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Mueller is following protocol. If you want to call that hiding, fine, but what is Mueller supposed to do? Call a press conference? That's what Comey did and it was a mistake, IMO.

Mueller handed over a confidential report to the guy he is supposed to give it to under the statute. It's on Barr now. This is the system we have in place.

theprestige said:
Well, Comey did get fired for losing everyone's trust.
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How do we know what he got fired for? The only guy in a position to know offered multiple explanations to different people. Which one do you believe?

theprestige said:
Maybe our next president will do the same thing for Mueller.
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You mean the next president after Trump :confused: ? Under what scenario do you see a president causing "everyone" to lose trust in Mueller?
 
Minoosh said:
Mueller is following protocol. If you want to call that hiding, fine, but what is Mueller supposed to do? Call a press conference? That's what Comey did and it was a mistake, IMO.
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That's why the cop-out works.

Clearly we don't see this the same way. I see Mueller's job as independent. Then he went and turned it all over to someone who was as far from independent as it gets (on the record, not just suspiciously). He could have given a copy to Barr and Congress (Nancy Pelosi, for instance) at the same time.

Turning it over to Barr essentially says, Trump is a crook but I'm going to let someone else call him that. Can't risk tarring Mueller's professional reputation, can't risk controversy. If the law is screwed up letting a POTUS rig the corruption game as if that's what the Founding Fathers actually wanted, not Mueller's problem.
 
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Paul2 said:
You make it sound like the only problem with Trump lying is that the MSM takes it personally. Whether they do or not, the problem is much larger than that.
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What I meant was that a lot of people probably don't care that he said, "I know nothing about Wikileaks." It's a small lie compared to many others with more substance. It would annoy me if I'd had to pay close attention to his bloviating for my job, otherwise I wouldn't think much of it.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Turning it over to Barr essentially says, Trump is a crook but I'm going to let someone else call him that.
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Yes, I know you think that and you might be right, but Mueller's duty is pretty clearly spelled out under the law. He gives a confidential report to the AG. We don't really know what it says.

Skeptic Ginger said:
Can't risk tarring Mueller's professional reputation, can't risk controversy.
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I don't think he's worried about his reputation, I think he is following the law. If he flouts the law what does that do to his credibility? I suggested a couple of weeks ago that Republican senators may be leery of signing off on a report without knowing what's in it. That's something that will play out over the next few weeks, but I don't think Mueller having a press conference and giving Nancy Pelosi a copy of a confidential report is necessarily a good move, either for him professionally or perhaps the country.

My belief is, it's out there, it will come out. Don't know when but sooner rather than later, IMO.
 
My biggest curiosity for the report is -- How many different colors will they use in the redacting and what will the colors represent?

I'm actually going to try to avoid any reports until Barr's press conference (if he does actually have it), and then until after the report is publicly released. 99% of the speculation will be moot within a few hours.
 
Minoosh said:
Yes, I know you think that and you might be right, but Mueller's duty is pretty clearly spelled out under the law. He gives a confidential report to the AG. We don't really know what it says.

I don't think he's worried about his reputation, I think he is following the law. If he flouts the law what does that do to his credibility? I suggested a couple of weeks ago that Republican senators may be leery of signing off on a report without knowing what's in it. That's something that will play out over the next few weeks, but I don't think Mueller having a press conference and giving Nancy Pelosi a copy of a confidential report is necessarily a good move, either for him professionally or perhaps the country.

My belief is, it's out there, it will come out. Don't know when but sooner rather than later, IMO.
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You would have to believe Mueller doesn't know Barr is a lying SOB, more than willing to cover up for his boss. Barr is on the record both saying Trump is allowed to obstruct justice, and Barr lied once before claiming he hadn't distorted a report then it turned out he did.

How does Mueller not know Barr's history, and if he does, how does he think it's his duty to bury his own report?
 
Squeegee Beckenheim said:
https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1118629364340547585



Mueller will apparently not be present at Barr's press conference tomorrow.
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Apparently no one on the Special Counsel team will be there:
https://twitter.com/dsamuelsohn/status/1118643223218536448

If for some reason you weren't yet convinced this is a coverup, there you go.

Skeptic Ginger said:
How does Mueller not know Barr's history, and if he does, how does he think it's his duty to bury his own report?
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My guess: he's shopped out all the charges he can stick to a couple dozen independent prosecutorial teams, and the "report" is only what's left that he couldn't 100% prove.
 
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Skeptic Ginger said:
You would have to believe Mueller doesn't know Barr is a lying SOB, more than willing to cover up for his boss. Barr is on the record both saying Trump is allowed to obstruct justice, and Barr lied once before claiming he hadn't distorted a report then it turned out he did.

How does Mueller not know Barr's history, and if he does, how does he think it's his duty to bury his own report?
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I suspect there are back channels we don't know anything about. People who have worked together for years through multiple administrations. That's a guess, obviously I don't know anything.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
You would have to believe Mueller doesn't know Barr is a lying SOB, more than willing to cover up for his boss. Barr is on the record both saying Trump is allowed to obstruct justice, and Barr lied once before claiming he hadn't distorted a report then it turned out he did.

How does Mueller not know Barr's history, and if he does, how does he think it's his duty to bury his own report?
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How about, he doesn't?

He has to follow the law to maintain his own credibility. At first, if nothing else.

It's too early for him to go off the reservation. We still don't know what Barr is going to turn over, even if we have strong suspicions.

After that it will be time for Mueller (and others) to consider if they want to be law-breakers.

As others have said, it will all come out, and it won't take long, but there's no reason for Mueller to take a bullet ... yet. It would serve no useful purpose at this time.
 
quadraginta said:
How about, he doesn't?

He has to follow the law to maintain his own credibility. At first, if nothing else.

It's too early for him to go off the reservation. We still don't know what Barr is going to turn over, even if we have strong suspicions.

After that it will be time for Mueller (and others) to consider if they want to be law-breakers.

As others have said, it will all come out, and it won't take long, but there's no reason for Mueller to take a bullet ... yet. It would serve no useful purpose at this time.
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And yet the report is indeed being buried.
 
varwoche said:
Fixed it for you... Craig's involvement with Manafort is old news. You might want to do a brief check on the internets before posting whimsical, fact-challenged speculation.
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But Craig's indictment was breaking news. Yes, let's not sweep the indictment of a Democrat from the Mueller Report under the rug. It has happened. I suspect more are coming.

Chris B.
 
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