Mueller Investigation Part 2: Release The Report

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Mueller report updates: Nadler subpoenas full findings; top Judiciary Republican calls it ‘overbroad’"

Quote

10:35 a.m.: White House says Democrats’ subpoena is ‘political grandstanding’

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley lashed out at House Democrats for subpoenaing the unredacted version of Mueller’s report, saying they are engaged in “more political grandstanding.”

Gidley’s comments came shortly after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), announced a subpoena seeking Mueller’s full, unredacted report and underlying documents.

“When does this ever stop?” Gidley said during an appearance on Fox News. “The Democrats have nothing to talk about. They don’t want to talk about their agenda, making America socialist. ... They’d rather talk about trying to go after this president.”

“We’re not going to deal with Jerry Nadler in that manner,” he added. “This is just more political grandstanding.”

Gidley asserted that Mueller’s report proved Trump “completely innocent of any crime.”

Many Democrats, including Nadler, have said Mueller’s report suggests that Trump obstructed justice and provides a road map for Congress to follow up on that issue.

Asked how Trump plans to spend his day, Gidley said he is spending time with his family at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

“I imagine he may play a little golf today,” Gidley added. “We’ll see.”

9:35 a.m.: Top Judiciary Republican says subpoena of full report is ‘wildly overbroad’

Rep. Douglas A. Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, accused Democrats of issuing a “wildly overbroad” subpoena to Barr.

Collins’s statement came shortly after the committee’s Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), announced the issuance of a subpoena seeking Mueller’s full report and underlying documents.

“It commands the [Justice Department] to provide Congress with millions of records that would be plainly against the law to share because the vast majority of these documents came as a result of nearly 2,800 subpoenas from a grand jury that is still ongoing,” Collins said.

He also argued that the May 1 date of production is unrealistic.

“This is politically convenient for the chairman because the attorney general has offered to appear before our committee the following day, allowing the chairman to grandstand and rail against the attorney general for not cooperating on an impossible timeline,” Collins said, adding that Nadler needs to “give the department a meaningful chance to respond.”

9 a.m.: House committee subpoenas full Mueller report after Justice Department releases redacted version

The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the full Mueller report following the release of a redacted version on Thursday by the Justice Department.

Earlier this month, the committee authorized its chairman, Nadler, to subpoena Mueller’s report and the investigation’s underlying documents from Barr.

The subpoena requests that Barr turn over the documents by May 1 at 10 a.m.

The fight over the Mueller report could land in the courts.

In a statement, Nadler said he is “open to working with the Department to reach a reasonable accommodation for access to these materials, however I cannot accept any proposal which leaves most of Congress in the dark, as they grapple with their duties of legislation, oversight and constitutional accountability.”

“My Committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice,” he added, calling the redactions “significant.”

“Even the redacted version of the report outlines serious instances of wrongdoing by President Trump and some of his closest associates,” Nadler said. “It now falls to Congress to determine the full scope of that alleged misconduct and to decide what steps we must take going forward.”

— John Wagner and Rachael Bade

8:30 a.m.: Oversight GOP lawmakers: Trump didn’t commit a crime

Top Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Mark Meadows (N.C.) tried to make the case that Trump didn’t obstruct justice because the nefarious things he allegedly asked others to do were never carried out.

“Asking matters, Jim,” CNN’s Chris Cuomo said during a joint interview of the two lawmakers. “If I ask you to punch Mr. Meadows and you don’t do it, the request was still wrong.”

“Yeah, the request may have been wrong, but it’s not a crime unless he assaults me,” Meadows responded.

“Is that our standard?” Cuomo asked.

Meadows didn’t directly answer that, but said the report should be used to “identify some of those areas where an administration should go and shouldn’t go, but let’s use this as a learning lesson and not go into this and say let’s prolong this investigation another two years.”

Jordan and Meadows have led GOP efforts in Congress to push back against Democrats’ probes into Trump.

8:10 a.m.: Trump profanely pushes back against descriptions of his behavior in the report

President Trump sought Friday to discredit portions of the Mueller report in which others described his behavior, calling their claims “total bullshit.”

In morning tweets, Trump complained that he was not able to respond because he chose not to testify during the probe. Mueller tried to get the president to sit for an interview for more than a year, but Trump and his lawyers resisted.

“Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue,” Trump wrote. “Because I never agreed to testify, it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the ‘Report’ about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad).”

Trump did not specify which portions of the report he is disputing, but he was likely pushing back against descriptions of acts that Mueller catalogued as possible instances of obstruction of justice.

In a television interview, Trump personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani also sought to discredit portions of the report, calling it “highly biased” and “not a fairly written report.”

“It can’t be possible with all the detail that some of it isn’t wrong,” Giuliani said during an appearance on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”

Giuliani also tried to excuse some of the conduct described.

“You have to see it in the light of a man who is being accused of a crime that he did not commit,” he said.

8 a.m.: Cummings: ‘I am begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on’

House Oversight Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) blasted Barr for the way he handled the release of the Mueller report and urged Americans to “pay attention to what is going on.”

“I think we are in a very difficult time in this country’s history, and I’m begging the American people to pay attention to what’s going on,” Cummings said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Cummings accused Barr of going “overboard in trying to represent the president when he should have been representing the people of the United States of America.”

“I was so disappointed in Attorney General Barr,” he said. “It was phenomenal, and most lawyers will tell you that part of our duty is that we’re always officers of the court, and we’re always supposed to be telling the truth.”

Cummings said his committee will continue to probe Trump’s finances — something the Mueller report did not do — to see if there are any outside forces influencing his decision-making.

“We want to figure out whether there were conflicts of interest,” Cummings said. “When he makes certain decisions, are they in the interest of the American people or the interest of himself.”

7:20 a.m.: Nadler says full Mueller report will be subpoenaed in ‘next couple of hours’

Nadler said Friday morning that his panel will subpoena the entire unredacted report by Mueller “in the next couple of hours.”

“We need the entire report, unredacted, and the underlying documents in order to make informed decisions,” Nadler said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“We will subpoena that entire report today,” Nadler said. “That subpoena will come in the next couple of hours.”

He said the subpoena will include grand jury evidence, which Barr has said he does not believe should be shared with Congress.

Nadler also said that in his view, Trump committed obstruction of justice.

7:15 a.m.: Sanders calls for the country to ‘move on’

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday that she hopes the country can “move on” now that the Mueller report has been released, ending a nearly two-year investigation into Russian election interference.

“The big takeaway … is that there wasn’t collusion with Russia, and it should be a day that every American can celebrate and not be sorrowful like we’ve seen over the last 48 hours from the Democrats that are actually sad that the president didn’t work as a foreign agent,” she said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I hope collectively as a country we can move on because great things can happen under this president,” she added.

Sanders was also pressed on a claim she made in May 2017 that the White House had heard from “countless members of the FBI” who had lost faith in former FBI director James B. Comey.

According the Mueller report, Sanders’s statement was “not founded on anything.”

“It was the heat of the moment, meaning that it wasn’t a scripted talking point,” Sanders said on ABC. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t a robot like the Democrat[ic] Party that went out for two and a half years and stated time and time again that there was definitely Russia collusion between the president and his campaign.”

7 a.m.: Kremlin dismisses Mueller report, says it offers nothing new

MOSCOW — Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Friday that the Mueller report “does not contain any new information” and “does not present any conclusive evidence of the alleged interference by the Russian Federation in the electoral process in America.”

Peskov also said that Russian business executives mentioned in the report shared their U.S. contacts with President Vladimir Putin and chalked up their activities to normal international business practices.

According to the Mueller report, the “Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome,” and “the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”

 

[SilverBeach]

7 hours ago, fraurosena said:

unless something so damning, so irrefutable is found that the Repugs will simply have to act

Damning and irrefutable was passed a hundred miles ago.  Rachel Maddow brought up how the Russians had a disinformation campaign going before Dump was nominated, with the goal of undermining and weakening our society and democracy (back in the 60s, Kruschev said "we will bury you", and they are still trying). When the presidunce's nomination was announced, they jumped on it like white on rice. Why? because they knew electing Trump would destabilize America. They sure didn't reach out to Hillary's campaign.

Also, Congressman Danny Davis, said that if the Russians reached out to him when he was running a campaign, he would report it immediately to the FBI and not engage in any way. Why didn't Trump and his minions do this? Because they are NOT loyal Americans who believe in the Constitution, democracy, or the rule of law.

Repugs who hold to the see no evil hear no evil position are just as bad as the presidunce and his minions and should not ever be forgiven for being complicit in these treasonous misdeeds.

And lying-ass Sara Fuckabee can indeed go fuck herself. What kind of God do these people worship?

Edited April 19, 2019 by SilverBeach

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, SilverBeach said:

What kind of God do these people worship?

The greedy greenback.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Mueller’s report paints a damning portrait of Trump’s presidency"

Spoiler

The Trump presidency long has been an exercise in normalizing extraordinary behavior, with President Trump repeatedly stretching the limits of what is considered appropriate conduct by the nation’s chief executive. The report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III puts into high relief the degree to which Trump has violated the norms.

The principal focus of the special counsel’s investigation was on questions of criminality. But there is more than the issue of what rises to the level of criminal conspiracy or criminal obstruction when judging a president and his administration. These are questions that go to the heart of what is acceptable or normal or advisable in a democracy. On that basis, the Mueller report provides a damning portrait of the president and those around him for actions taken during the 2016 campaign and while in office.

The 448-page document is replete with evidence of repeated lying by public officials and others (some of whom have been charged for that conduct), of the president urging advisers not to tell the truth, of the president seeking to shut down the investigation, of a Trump campaign hoping to benefit politically from Russian hacking and leaks of information damaging to its opponent, of a White House in chaos and operating under abnormal rules.

It shows a White House where officials sometimes — but not always — resisted the president’s more nefarious orders and concludes that Trump was not able to influence the investigation as much as he wished because advisers declined to carry out some of those orders. It also suggests, despite his many claims to the contrary, that the president felt vulnerable to an investigation. When informed just months after taking office that a special counsel was to be appointed, Trump exclaimed that it would mean “the end of my presidency.”

The legal findings in the report are important and significant. Mueller’s team found no criminal conspiracy on the part of Trump campaign associates in Russian efforts to sabotage the 2016 election. Attorney General William P. Barr concluded, based on his reading of the report, that there was insufficient evidence to charge the president with obstruction. The president, in tweets and public statements Thursday morning, embraced the findings as full exoneration. “Game Over,” said one tweet triumphantly.

Still, the investigation should be looked at in its broadest outlines, as one that was examining basic questions about political campaigns, political operatives, presidential candidates and presidents, along with the overriding issue of foreign interference in America’s democracy and the president’s reaction to it.

The Mueller report provided overwhelming evidence of how the Russians carried out their effort to interfere with the election. The details in the report buttress the earlier findings by the U.S. intelligence community of Russian meddling with the intent of helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. It is a finding the president has never fully embraced, repeatedly equivocating as to whether Russians were responsible, for reasons that remain unclear.

That’s just one of the elements that underscore the president’s departure from traditional rules. The number of contacts between associates of the Trump campaign and Russians connected with their government are anything but normal in presidential campaigns. The contacts were “numerous,” according to the report, though not conspiratorial. What should Americans make of that, even if it did not amount to criminal conspiracy?

The biggest questions about the president’s behavior involve the issue of obstruction. On this, Mueller and his team came to no conclusion, allowing Barr to make the most controversial judgment of the investigation, based on his reading of the evidence and the law and in consultation with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.

Mueller’s report looks at episodes in which the president’s actions might be construed as an attempt to obstruct the investigation. Those include his conduct related to the firing of Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser; the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey and subsequent appointment of a special counsel; the president’s efforts to remove the special counsel; efforts to prevent disclosure of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians; Trump’s efforts to force then-White House counsel Donald McGahn to deny that he had been ordered to fire Mueller.

Some of the episodes examined by Mueller’s team happened in plain view of the public. Much else took place behind the scenes, although any number of episodes were later revealed by news organizations. At the time those stories were published, the president often called them “fake news.” The Mueller report now documents them as accurate.

Barr said Thursday that he found that the evidence was insufficient to conclude that the president had engaged in criminal obstruction, largely because of offsetting circumstances. One major mitigating factor, he said, was that the White House had cooperated fully with the Mueller investigation, including allowing White House officials to be interviewed by investigators.

What Barr did not point out was that the president never agreed to be interviewed by investigators. Trump provided written answers to questions about Russia-related topics, but the report notes that he did not agree to offer written answers to questions about obstruction. Beyond that, Mueller and his team found some of the president’s written answers inadequate but chose not to pursue an interview in the interest of finishing the investigation in a timely way.

Barr also said that the president was justifiably angry and frustrated because he was being investigated for something he believed he had not done and that things he said or did should be weighed with that in mind. Trump, the attorney general said, was also irritated by all the public speculation and discussion about what might come of that investigation. Trump’s allies have often questioned whether someone can be guilty of obstruction of an investigation into a crime he or she did not commit.

Barr’s conclusion about obstruction was a judgment call that others are questioning. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) held a news conference to question Barr’s interpretation of Mueller’s conclusions about obstruction. House Democrats, who will forge ahead with their own inquiries, could put the obstruction line that Barr says the president did not legally cross in a different place.

The Mueller report represents findings in the most charged examination of a president since the investigations of Presidents Bill Clinton in 1998 and Richard Nixon in 1974. It provides the fullest accounting to date of a controversy that has raged since Trump was sworn into office, one that will continue for as long as he is in office. How much it will change things politically is a far different matter.

Long before the release of the report, the president had effectively politicized the Mueller investigation. For many of Trump’s loyalists, retribution is the next order of business. The president said, “This hoax . . . should never happen to another president.” His reelection campaign sent out an email Thursday headlined, “Time to Turn the Tables,” saying it was time “to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation.”

Many Americans already have reached their own conclusions about the president, pro and con. They are likely to take from the Mueller report whatever they can find to reinforce those judgments. The legal findings have provided good news for the president, but he will still face the judgment from voters in November 2020 about what they want of and expect from a president. Russia might not be at the top of voters’ minds when they cast those ballots, but the Mueller report will stand as documentation of a presidency that is anything but normal or customary.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

And this is why the presidunce has been saying lately that he might stay on for another fourteen years or so. It would be nice to know what the statute of limitations is, to see how he came up with that exact period...

[Dandruff]

1 minute ago, fraurosena said:

And this is why the presidunce has been saying lately that he might stay on for another fourteen years or so. It would be nice to know what the statute of limitations is, to see how he came up with that exact period...

If he isn't out of office before the 2020 election, and loses, I could see him dragging things out in court ad infinitum.  I'm pretty sure he'd prefer that to a yellow jumpsuit.

Wonder what he'd do if his older sons were facing jail time on state charges.

[fraurosena]

15 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

Wonder what he'd do if his older sons were facing jail time on state charges.

Honestly? After first throwing a big stink on twitter about it, he won't do nothing much. Why should he? He only cares about number one, nothing and nobody else even comes close. 

[GreyhoundFan]

46 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

Wonder what he'd do if his older sons were facing jail time on state charges.

He'd tweet, "Eric who? I think some guy named Eric brought me a Diet Coke one time."

26 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Honestly? After first throwing a big stink on twitter about it, he won't do nothing much. Why should he? He only cares about number one, nothing and nobody else even comes close. 

He certainly is a "look out for number one" being, but I think Ivanka kind of matters to him. The boys, not so much.

[fraurosena]

4 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

He'd tweet, "Eric who? I think some guy named Eric brought me a Diet Coke one time."

He certainly is a "look out for number one" being, but I think Ivanka kind of matters to him. The boys, not so much.

Oh, he'll get all sad and nostalgic if something happens to her, saying what a waste of a beautiful woman. He'll sigh once or twice. And then forget all about her.

[Dandruff]

Would he care if his grandchildren grew to hate him?

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, Dandruff said:

Would he care if his grandchildren grew to hate him?

Nope. He's barely a father to Barron. What makes you think he's a grandfather to those kids? I think he's barely aware of their existence.

(let's be honest though, that's a good thing)

[AuntK]

One thing that strikes me about all the revelations contained in the redacted Mueller report is that Trump and his cronies make Richard Nixon look like an amateur.  

And let's not even mention Clinton's attempted impeachment because he lied about sex. . .please!  If you know ANY man that has never lied about sex, please speak now.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

And the blame Obama game already started.

Do these people ever take responsibility for their actions? This one is McConnell's minion saying that Obama should have done something against Russian interference. I mean YOU, after being warned about it, chose a Russian asset as nominee. YOU kept supporting the said Russian asset's government through all the innumerable scandals of  the last two years and a half AND you dare blame someone else? Some people truly have the face like the arse.

[AmazonGrace]

This is strangely anticlimactic for me...I have been waiting for this report for so long but now I'm just not even interested to take a look. I already know they're all crooks and that they will get away with it.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

10 hours ago, AuntK said:

If you know ANY man that has never lied about sex, please speak now.

Tbf I know plenty of men who never lied about sex with a 21 year old with a power dynamic so vast I don't even have words...and then completely leave her reputation in shreds and left to pick up the pieces as the entire nation turns her into a dirty joke.

And I know plenty of men who never had sex in the workplace, or with their employees, or outside their marriage so there would be no need to lie.

Trump is a total scumbag, but that doesn't make what Clinton did acceptable.

 

2 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

And the blame Obama game already started.

Do these people ever take responsibility for their actions? This one is McConnell's minion saying that Obama should have done something against Russian interference. I mean YOU, after being warned about it, chose a Russian asset as nominee. YOU kept supporting the said Russian asset's government through all the innumerable scandals of  the last two years and a half AND you dare blame someone else? Some people truly have the face like the arse.

This.  And he's still calling the whole thing a hoax and should never have happened.  Meaning he thinks the Russian interference should never have been investigated.  Shouldn't a decent president be glad we have details on the interference so we can try to stop it from happening again?  

Edited April 20, 2019 by HerNameIsBuffy

[GreyhoundFan]

5 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

Do these people ever take responsibility for their actions?

I didn't have the patience to search for a rolling on the floor laughing emoji, but these people wouldn't take responsibility for their own bowel movements. Everything is a democrat's fault.

[fraurosena]

8 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

And the blame Obama game already started.

Do these people ever take responsibility for their actions? This one is McConnell's minion saying that Obama should have done something against Russian interference. I mean YOU, after being warned about it, chose a Russian asset as nominee. YOU kept supporting the said Russian asset's government through all the innumerable scandals of  the last two years and a half AND you dare blame someone else? Some people truly have the face like the arse.

McConnell's even worse than you think, Not only did he do what you said, but he actively dissuaded Obama from taking any action, because... there were elections that year, and doing anything might affect them.  

[fraurosena]

 

[AuntK]

13 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Tbf I know plenty of men who never lied about sex with a 21 year old with a power dynamic so vast I don't even have words...and then completely leave her reputation in shreds and left to pick up the pieces as the entire nation turns her into a dirty joke.

And I know plenty of men who never had sex in the workplace, or with their employees, or outside their marriage so there would be no need to lie.

Trump is a total scumbag, but that doesn't make what Clinton did acceptable.

No, but Clinton's infidelity didn't threaten the security of the nation. And Monica was a sohisticated 22-23, not an unwilling participant, and she has parlayed this episode into a career more than 20 years later.  Even to this day, it is Monica that will not let it go.

The point is, the misdeeds of Clinton aren't even comparable, yet Miss Lindsey & McTurtle were clutching their pearls in horror claiming the demise of democracy. While, of course, their leader, the married Newt Gingrich, was busily spearheading impeachment while boffing his aide, the future 3rd Mrs. Gingrich and ambassador to the Vatican. 

I think you would be very surprised at the sex lives of men you think you know.  

[Howl]

Some charts are showing up on twitter.  This one seems to be the best, so far: 

 

[Howl]

I really thought I was past face palming or head desking, but no: 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

Here it is slightly enlarged: