Monday, June 3, 2019

Russiagate: The Barr is Set

AG Bill "Honey Badger" Barr continues to lead the Russiagate news. George Parry at AmSpec discusses Attorney General Barr’s Remarkable CBS News Interview:
So, after trying to decode and make sense of Mueller’s tank car of quasi-legal bilge, it came as an intense pleasure and relief to watch Attorney General William Barr’s interview with Jan Crawford on CBS This Morning. Barr’s answers to all questions were crisp, crystal clear, logical, thoughtful, and well-founded in the principles of American law. His sober demeanor, obvious intelligence, and utter lack of conceit or pretense gave weight to his remarks and made manifest that he is the right person to meet the crisis of police-state lawlessness that has pervaded and corrupted the federal law enforcement and intelligence communities.

Michael Goodwin NYPo, William Barr determined to unravel truth behind Russia lie
Jan. 3, 2017, just weeks before Trump took office, when Sen. Chuck Schumer warned the president-elect against feuding with the CIA. “You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” he said.

Perhaps Schumer knew then how far intelligence leaders under Barack Obama had gone in spying on Trump and how far they were willing to go to bring down a president they opposed. The effort continues to this day by those same people — James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper — even though they are out of office.

While there is still much we don’t know, Barr seems absolutely determined to learn it all — and tell the public as much as he can.
Speaking of which,  James Comey rips William Barr for 'echoing conspiracy theories' (Daniel Chaitin, WaEx). It's not a theory when they're really out to get you.

And Mueller. What can we say about Mueller that hasn't already been said? Quite a lot, apparently! Jonathon Turley at Da Hill says Robert Mueller's 'no questions' routine is absolute nonsense
Last week, I wrote that it has become sacrilegious to question the motives or performance of Mueller. His press conference was the greatest test of such blind faith. Mueller announced that “the report is my testimony” and that he would not answer questions from Congress either, beyond what is already in his final report. From anyone else, such a statement would be denounced as arrogant, evasive, or both. However, many members of Congress and the media accepted it as the gospel according to Mueller.

The problem is that Mueller was uttering absolute nonsense about his inability to reach a conclusion. He likewise did not offer a principled basis for refusing to answer any questions. This includes obvious questions such as why he refused to comply with the request from his superiors to identify grand jury material, which delayed the release of his report. The disconnect in the coverage of his remarks was striking. Attorney General William Barr testified for hours on his role and has answered dozens of questions. He was promptly dismissed as evasive and even perjurious. Mueller declared he would tolerate no questions and declined to address any of the criticism of his work with very little objection from the media.
Clarice Feldman at AmThink reminds us of Mueller's checkered past in A Made Man (Mueller) Unmakes Himself before discussing the report:
In the past weeks he tried to outsmart Attorney General William Barr. He’d earlier tried to sandbag Barr into not revealing the gist of his very flawed report. He delayed redacting the grand jury testimony in the belief that he would get the first public statement on the report. Barr outfoxed him by releasing a summary after first offering it to Mueller, an offer he refused.

This fiasco should be the last of his blundering career.

Clearly unhappy that Barr had exposed the 2½ year investigation as an expensive, partisan sham when he released early his summary of it, Mueller called a no-questions-allowed presser in which he unethically tried to muddy the waters again on obstruction, tarring the president with tales of suspicious (in his mind) behavior instead of evidence of wrongdoing. He was nervous, never departed from a written text, which he stumbled over reading. It appeared he was unfamiliar with its contents and at times appeared to be a hostage of some outside forces. He did all but blink an SOS.

The gist of his halting presentation was the implication that but for the DoJ policy that a president cannot be indicted, he had ample evidence of obstruction.

Barr batted that back . . .
Robin Ridless at Da Federalist says Yes, Mueller’s Waffling On Obstruction Was An End-Run Around The Attorney General
Mueller’s waffling on obstruction, which “surprised” Attorney General William Barr, was, Goldsmith speculates, an end-run around Barr. Two points need to be made here.

One, according to the special counsel regulations, the attorney general is boss. He is the one empowered to decide whether to bring charges and determine next steps in accordance with Justice Department policy.

Two, had Mueller consulted with Barr about his iffy theory, which he was legally obligated to do, Barr could have legitimately quashed it. By avoiding a recommendation, Mueller was able to “make damning insinuations about the criminality of the president’s behavior without taking an ‘investigative or prosecutorial step,’” a move that would have triggered the regulations’ requirement of review.

In other words, Mueller finessed Justice Department oversight in order to get damaging allegations about the president into the public space. Given the political manipulations marking the entire “Russia Hoax,” that Barr was surprised by Mueller’s sleight is no surprise.
Via Sundance at CTH, Sidney Powell Discusses DOJ in The Lawfare Era: “Guilty Until Proven Innocent”… Long but worth the time.



Curtis at Flopping Aces notes that Dershowitz is completely fed up with Mueller
Until today, I have defended Mueller against the accusations that he is a partisan. I did not believe that he personally favored either the Democrats or the Republicans, or had a point of view on whether President Trump should be impeached. But I have now changed my mind. By putting his thumb, indeed his elbow, on the scale of justice in favor of impeachment based on obstruction of justice, Mueller has revealed his partisan bias. He also has distorted the critical role of a prosecutor in our justice system.
To Dershowitz—who, whatever his politics (and he remains a Democrat as far as I can tell) is a strong defender of liberty and the safeguards against abuse of power by the legal system—that latter offense, “distoring the critical role of a prosecutor in our justice system,” may even be worse than the first offense, because it is systemic. When you destroy a system of protection, there is danger to everyone, not just to partisans.
From Hot Air, citing ABC,  Schiff: Mueller Still Needs To Testify "My head hurts just reading this because it’s like Schiff can’t let the fact no collusion was found in the Mueller Report. He’s almost like a child bawling at a parent for being sent to bed while it’s still light outside despite the fact bedtime is, and has always been, 8:30 p.m. ", while at WaPoo (new 30 day pass!), EJ Dionne Jr. whines Dear Robert Mueller: Your report can’t speak for itself. More substantially, Jonathon Turley says Mueller must testify publicly to answer three critical questions about his 1) Refusal to identify grand jury material, 2) Surprise letter sent to the attorney general and 3) Refusal to reach an obstruction conclusion.  But don't worry, I can think of many more.

And so on to "Spygate". Margot Cleveland has this piece at DaFed, further exploring how Michael Flynn was set up by the deep state. Lawsuit Exposes How The Media And Deep State Hatched The Russiagate Hoax "Step 1: A Credentialed Individual Launches the Narrative . . ." in comes Stephan Halper. At Pj Media VDH reports that Federal Rats Are Fleeing the Sinking Collusion Ship "The rats are scampering from their once safe refuge -- biting and piling on each other in vain efforts to avoid drowning." One can hope. At the Epoch Times Ivan Pentchoukov echoes Rep. Collins Suspects That Peter Strzok Is the Serial FBI Leaker:
Rep. Doug Collins (R-Georgia) substantiated his suspicion in a letter (pdf) to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, whose office released a summary showing that someone with the same title as Strzok–deputy assistant director (DAD)–leaked sealed court information in violation of federal law, maintained contacts with dozens of reporters, and accepted a gift from a reporter in violation of FBI policy and federal statutes.

“While the DAD is not named in the Summary, there are several indications the DAD in question is former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok,” Collins wrote. . .
Note that this episode was referred to in Sydney Powell's video above. The DAD in question was not prosecuted. There can't have been too many DADs in that period. At Red State, Elizabeth Vaughn reminds us of the ‘Odd’ Susan Rice Email To Herself Describes Final Russia Collusion Meeting, and that Biden Was A Participant.

On the impeachment front, according to S. Noble, Nadler said he “certainly” has grounds for impeachment, will “educate” us dopes, but then, he pretty much claimed to have grounds before Trump was elected.
“Nadler emphasized that he intends to use the next few weeks to bring special counsel Robert Mueller’s report ‘to life,’ providing for a television audience the dramatic evidence that Mueller compiled about Trump’s efforts to thwart the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election,” Politico reported
From Twitchy, Toothpaste = OUT of the tube: Desperate Adam Schiff tries to clean up the mess HE helped create

Hot Air cite WSJ's David Rivkin and Elizabeth Foley in Congress Can’t Outsource Impeachment
If the House can outsource impeachment, the deepest concerns of the Framers will become reality. Impeachment would have few limits and no political accountability. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Mueller legitimately obtained information from a grand jury, wiretaps and other forms of surveillance unavailable to Congress. If Congress can secure these materials by simply commanding the executive branch to turn them over, it would tremendously augment its power.

Turnover of prosecutorial materials would allow Congress to hide behind the fact-finding and legal determinations of the other branches, thereby diminishing its own political accountability. Because the nation’s law-enforcement officials have concluded Mr. Trump has not committed any crimes, Democratic representatives cannot legitimately draft articles of impeachment accusing him of criminal conduct involving the same offenses of which he was cleared by the Mueller investigation. The House could impeach him for misconduct that doesn’t violate criminal statutes—say, abuse of power or inappropriate behavior. But lawmakers must be candid about what exactly the charge is.

Proceeding in such a fashion—not hiding behind criminal accusations that prosecutors have rejected—would require House Democrats to assume the full political risk for their impeachment efforts. Instead, they are pressing Mr. Mueller to testify, hoping he will say something beyond what is contained in his report, and to obtain his investigatory materials. By second-guessing the prosecutors and recasting Mr. Trump’s conduct as criminal-law violations, Democrats seek cover for their raw political push to unseat a president.
John Zeigler at Mediaite, A Great Country Would Have Already Impeached Trump, But Maybe We Should Just Admit We No Longer Qualify but Fred Hiatt writes at the WaPoo We knew who Trump was but elected him anyway. We can’t impeach him for that.

And finally, White House Special Counsel Emmet Flood to Leave Job
President Trump said that Emmet Flood, a lawyer who joined the White House to help with the Russia investigation, would leave the job on June 14, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Tweeted Trump: “He has done an outstanding job – NO COLLUSION – NO OBSTRUCTION! Case Closed! Emmet is my friend, and I thank him for the GREAT JOB he has done.”
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