Mueller Investigation pt 6

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I would be more than willing to make a bet that Mueller will never answer the question of "If Trump weren't POTUS..." He's a lifetime lawman and would have nothing to gain. He's played everything by the book so far and I don't see that changing at all. He'll side step the question.

I don't know how this will play out, but I know it's not for much more than soundbytes for the Left. Hopefully we'll find out something new, but my only hope for that is as it relates to the other canceled investigations. The rest we've already read in the report and I don't see Mueller going off script at all, for any reason.
 
plague311 said:
Yup, that's exactly what I see happening.

"I apologize congressperson, I don't want to get into hypothetical situations."
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That's certainly possible (and maybe even the most likely) answer that he could give. (Not that I wouldn't want a more concrete yes-or-no answer.)

But, there are a couple of reasons he might answer differently:

- He is no longer employed by the government so he could be making his statement purely as an expert witness (rather than as a government employee)

- He is being questioned by people in congress, who both have more legal authority than reporters, and have the ability to actually launch impeachment proceedings
 
He's not going to comment on a hypothetical about Trump not being president because Trump is the president.


Again...

Mueller said:
And beyond Department policy we were guided by principles of fairness. It would be unfair to potentially — it would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of the actual charge.
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I think Mueller has been clear that he feels he is constrained from making a judgement on Trump's guilt in these charges regardless of how cleverly the question is phrased.

What I'd like to see, (and I think it might take a legal and constitutional expert to craft the question correctly), is the clarification of the course of action following the report that Mueller in his capacity as special counsel (or now former special counsel) expected and recommends.

The republican representation is that Barr making a determination was expected and appropriate. I suspect Mueller may be free to say that was not expected nor appropriate.
 
Segnosaur said:
Personally I would like Mueller to answer one question:

"If you were a prosecutor, and Trump were not president, and you were presented with the evidence as provided in the report, would you have prosecuted him."

You can point out all the evidence you want, but it will always leave the republicans with an 'out'.... "We don't think it warrants impeachment/laying charges". Answering the above question would make it pretty much impossible for the republicans to hide.
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A better question would be "had Trump not been president, would you have sought prosecution?" That's not presenting a hypothetical, it's asking whether and in what way Trump's job factored into his decision-making.
 
Squeegee Beckenheim said:
A better question would be "had Trump not been president, would you have sought prosecution?" That's not presenting a hypothetical, it's asking whether and in what way Trump's job factored into his decision-making.
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That would be accusing the president of a crime and Mueller has said exactly why he won't do that. Unless Mueller has changed his mind about how fair he wants to be he won't be answering that question until Trump is no longer president. If he had changed his mind he'd have probably issued a press release by now.
 
There are good cases to be made against Don Jr., Kushner and others from what we know from Mueller's report. Dems could hammer him for not indicting them.
But they are probably worried about the optics.

But at the very least, they could ask Mueller if he was worried that Trump would shut down the investigation if he went after his family or his business.
 
Segnosaur said:
Personally I would like Mueller to answer one question:

"If you were a prosecutor, and Trump were not president, and you were presented with the evidence as provided in the report, would you have prosecuted him."

You can point out all the evidence you want, but it will always leave the republicans with an 'out'.... "We don't think it warrants impeachment/laying charges". Answering the above question would make it pretty much impossible for the republicans to hide.
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I predict: Democrats will ask Mueller this. Mueller will sidestep, saying it's not his place.

He'll probably sidestep a lot.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
Why do you think Mueller will change his answer (I assume you expect a change or there would be no point in asking). He is still a DOJ employee. (ETA that turns out to be wrong I think, but it still seems his reasons for his prior answer would apply).
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There is a possibility Mueller will feel betrayed by Barr. It's slim but not zero.
 
Trump Tweets

“I completely read the entire Mueller Report, and do you know what I concluded after reading both Volume 1 and Volume 2? There is no there there. NO THERE THERE! We completely wasted everybody’s time and taxpayer’s money.” @trish_regan
 
I like Wired's suggestions for questions for and (likely) answers from Mueller:

https://www.wired.com/story/robert-mueller-testimony-congress-questions-trump-russia/?verso=true

for example:

Follow-up: “Wow, Mr. Mueller, thanks for sharing that—it certainly sounds to me like President Trump committed multiple acts of obstruction of justice, which Congress has twice before considered an impeachable offense. My understanding is that the criminal code treats attempted obstruction the same as successful obstruction, is that correct?”

Mueller: “Yes.”
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plague311 said:
I would be more than willing to make a bet that Mueller will never answer the question of "If Trump weren't POTUS..." He's a lifetime lawman and would have nothing to gain. He's played everything by the book so far and I don't see that changing at all. He'll side step the question.
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That's why calling him to testify is pointless. Hearings like this pretty much always end up the same unless the witness is on the same side as the committee anyway. They should be able to compel a testimony.
 
Question: If there were no DOJ rule against indicting a sitting president, would your investigation have resulted in an indictment against Donald Trump?
 
Question: As part of your investigation, did you review Trump’s banking activity with Deutsche Bank or was that outside the scope of your investigation?
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Tweets

“I completely read the entire Mueller Report, and do you know what I concluded after reading both Volume 1 and Volume 2? There is no there there. NO THERE THERE! We completely wasted everybody’s time and taxpayer’s money.” @trish_regan
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How could she have "read the whole thing" considering significant parts are not available to the public?

Sent from my LG-K121 using Tapatalk
 
Upchurch said:
Question: If there were no DOJ rule against indicting a sitting president, would your investigation have resulted in an indictment against Donald Trump?
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I still believe that would result in the same side step.

Upchurch said:
Question: As part of your investigation, did you review Trump’s banking activity with Deutsche Bank or was that outside the scope of your investigation?
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I don't know if that would get an answer but it absolutely should.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
He's not going to comment on a hypothetical about Trump not being president because Trump is the president.


Again...
Mueller said:
And beyond Department policy we were guided by principles of fairness. It would be unfair to potentially — it would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of the actual charge.
Click to expand...
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But it seems to me, that's the same as saying, "Yes, I would indict." If he wouldn't indict, it would be unfair to Trump to not say so.
 
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