Spin control most definitely
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Just ignore everything youāve heard on the no indictments until we actually get something. All the breathless reporting so far appears to be sourced from one Senior Justice Department Official talking anonymously because he/she isnāt authorized to speak to the press.
Given how few people would be read into the details at this point, itās simply impossible that Barr and Rosenstein donāt know exactly who it is (or would have a really short list for interrogation).
Iām not putting any credence on the points until we hear something more concrete and legitimate.
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Gotta get their stories straight.
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So, either 1) Barr reads at the third grade level, or; 2) The report is really, really long and Mueller didnāt include an executive summary, or; 3) Barr is trying to think of a way to soften the blow to the Trump Administration, or; 4) Barr is trying to hide as much as possible from Congress, and that is an effort that requires a very careful and deliberate approach.
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Individual 1 is about to make an Individual 2 in his pants.
(h/t Lee Mays)
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Ohhh, TMI, Chief.
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or 5) Barr is getting the FBI raid team together to swoop in on Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower and the Kushner residence all at once, and it takes careful planning to make those happen simultaneously and without forewarningā¦
(A boy can dreamā¦)
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Probably because Barr had a nervous breakdown over the fact that he canāt fix this. Heās screwed no matter what
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Iām guessing/hoping 3 or 4
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Mueller wouldnāt have been at this investigation this long to have indictments stop months ago, his office still operates after those, and then a nothing burger.
Yesterday to hear there werenāt indictments was a blow, but we have to keep the faith. Mueller seemed to hand off information to other agencies and Iām hopeful there are some good surprises in this report calling out King Dumb Dumb and the klan.
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Its quite possible (even likely) that Barr hasnāt actually shared it with the WH yet.
I donāt like the guy, but he is an institutionalist , and he knows he works for a crazy person. If its damaging, (and I suspect it is), then I can see him keeping it away from the WH until he reports to Congress (which he has to do, in some fashion).
This delay concerns me, in that it goes to one of my bigger fears since this startedā¦this is going to be a lot of dark secret crap involved that the DoJ and IC are going to be extremely reluctant to reveal to Congress at large (because anything going to Congress at large, is going to be in the press within hours). Methods and sources and all that.
There is also the other big fear Iāve had for awhile. Digging into influence on the 2016 campaign has a high probability of leading to the doorsteps of sitting Congress critters. And that makes reporting to them extremely complicated. 
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Somebody named Barr has been handed a hot potato and itās long read.
Koshkin said Russian President Vladimir Putin ārepeated several times that we donāt care about the domestic affairs of the United States, ostensibly. But in reality, I think (the Kremlin) does care.ā
Ha, no shit, and that is some lame language coming from Putin, āostensiblyā my ass. Weak!
Everyone feeling a little better today?
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Barr dangled his paper precisely to get the attention of Trump and get brought into the family for exactly this moment.
He doesnāt expect to still have a job the moment the details get out there.
He didnāt come out of retirement to help out his old BFF Mueller for any other reason (which is also why he asked Rosenstein to stay on, as he expects to be gone by Monday, and Rosenstein has proven oddly to be a real survivor there).
Itās probably more about framing to get the maximum out there right now and at once to get the clear picture public, before Trump fires him and begins the Great Cover-Up.
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To be clear the Justice Department does not believe it can indict a sitting President. Therefore it will not recommend an indictment. Or hasnāt filed one.
That is one of many reasons we need to see the report. It is driving me nuts to see that the Press seems to be ignoring this.
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I thought of that - that Barr hasnāt shared it with Trump yet.
This delay doesnāt really concern me since itās not much of a delay. Yet. If it keeps going then yes, Iāll be concerned. But I expected a fight over releasing the report anyway.
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Precisely.
As I stated yesterday, such a claim cannot reasonably be made at this time, given the things the SCO still has on its plateā¦the biggest example being the Stone prosecution. Nobody can guarantee that more indictments wonāt come of that. Good grief, I think its highly likely Stoneās antics between now and the end of the trial will result in more indictments on him alone!
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So did Barr. That Dems are going to the mat about releasing the report isnāt a secret to anyone. So I think people hyperventilating about Barr doing a cover up need to relax a bit. There are far too many people with knowledge of the report (Mueller and his team, Rosenstein, etc.) for Barr to attempt any serious misleading or omission to Congress.
Remember, he said he didnāt particularly want or need the job (he definitely doesnāt need it), so I donāt think he is going to be jumping on any grenades for Trump stupidly.
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I agree. Thereās no real reason for Barr to do that - to cover up anything on Trumpās behalf.
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Taking my time to observe how this weekend goes before writing anything up but if this report exonerated Trump, the GOP and Barr would say so. Mueller submitted his report about 6-7 weeks before my predicted target period (May). Trying to figure out whether that was the plan, or whether my prediction was off b/c Barr applied pressure to partially short circuit Muellerās plan.
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I tend to agree with your view point on that. It makes little sense that Barr would submit himself to the firestorm for someone like Trump. The closest logic I could come to on that is he is a zealot of one type or another. Not sure if I can find anything that says that is the case.
On the other hand, I think it was Schiff last night that was pointing out that there are the DOJ interests and then others such as IC interests wrapped into all of this. Mueller was tasked with a focus on criminality. But he may have developed a tremendous amount of information collaterally for other purposes. So the entire process can be extremely fluid and complex. We always focus on basic themes centering on a relatively few people.
But over this last two years, there are serious signs of a diverse as well as intense operation from the Russians in influencing and affecting our national interest. China is lurking about in this as well. Pull back out from the news of the day and look at it overall and it becomes vast. Main players, supported by an unknown number of support cast, many paths versus a handful and it is overwhelming. A true blended threat.
If there is one thing that may be affecting Barr, it may be that aspect. Look down the rabbit hole and you find a squirming pile of worms instead of cute, fluffy bunnies. Since Barr is relatively recent being in the know, consider how he must think in that scenario after starting to be read in. If I take him as a reasonably decent guy, then the eggshells he is walking across must be excruciating to him. Look at Whitaker, despite a highly anticipated lean to Trump, while he did token things, he barely had any effect on the investigation that we know of. Grifter or not, I bet he sucked wind through his teeth when he saw what he stepped in.
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