Is Attorney General William Barr playing politics with the Mueller Report? Angry Democrats say YES!
Politics
Robert Mueller and his team completed their 2-year collusion/obstruction of justice investigation into Donald Trump nearly a month ago. To date, Attorney General Barr has only provided the US Congress with a 4-page summary of his own opinion of the entire investigation. That is scheduled to change today — but only slightly.
On Thursday morning, Attorney General Barr will finally release the several hundred pages of the Mueller Report to Congress. Except, the report will be heavily redacted.
For reasons that appear political and designed to protect Donald Trump, William Barr believes Congress should not see the report in its entirety and has oddly consulted with Trump and White House officials over the past several days to decide what information should be seen and what information should be redacted.
If that weren’t enough, the attorney general has scheduled a press conference for Thursday morning to “spin” the contents of the report BEFORE Congress and the general public are given an opportunity to see even a single sentence of Mueller’s findings. Additionally, Donald Trump himself will give a rebuttal and provide his own spin on the report’s details. Again, this will all happen BEFORE anyone has seen anything.
Can you spell P-L-A-Y-I-N-G P-O-L-I-T-I-C-S??
Traditionally, a report of this nature is handed to Congress in its ENTIRETY. Members of the press are also given a report that is redacted as necessary to protect national security. No press conference and no spin by the attorney general or by the subject of the investigative report has ever been necessary or ever been done.
So, why now?
According to the legal team that worked with Robert Mueller on the Trump investigation, the 4-page summary William Barr released in March gave the illusion that Donald Trump has been exonerated. In fact, Trump himself has been boasting about with his chest pumped out that he is totally innocent. However, the legal team has let on that their investigation was much more troubling for Trump than Barr ever let on and the report will prove as much.
Understandably, Democrats are seething mad. They’re angry at the attorney general for withholding a report they are legally obliged to see and for him stonewalling the American people by clearly stalling and playing politics with the report that is almost assuredly unfavorable toward Trump.
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AG Barr has thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else. The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin. https://t.co/fgXwiLuQfr
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 17, 2019
On Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr has “thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else.”
“The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin,“ Pelosi wrote on Twitter.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee hastily convened a news conference Wednesday night to level similar broadsides against Barr.
“I’m deeply troubled by reports that the White House is being briefed on the Mueller report AHEAD of its release,” Chairman Jerry Nadler said. “This is wrong,”
OK WASSUP! will discuss at length the contents of the Mueller Report and its fallout over the coming days as it becomes available.
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Had hoped to get to this sooner but it’s been busier than usual at work this morning. Fortunately, I’m outta here at NOON today and won’t be returning until next Monday. But I digress.
DJ asked: “Is Attorney General William Barr playing politics with the Mueller Report?”
Yep. And that’s what he was hired to do.
However, given what DIDN’T happen (Mueller’s investigation never really got close to Trump or his kids or Jared) WHY the need for all the redaction, and the delayed release, of the report?
I think it’s much to do about nothing. But we shall see.