Discussion: WHY WAS BARR THE DECIDER? Legal Experts Puzzled By Attorney General's Obstruction Decision

[hquain]

Add in that the entire MSM is completely and utterly complicit

Wow, is this true.

WaPo (The Fix, Aaron Blake):“All your big questions about the Mueller report, answered.”

NYT (Schmidt & Savage):“But in the end, the special counsel reached no conclusion — instead producing a report that merely marshaled evidence on both sides.”

Neither has more than the slightest idea what’s actually in the report, having — like the rest of us — not seen a single complete sentence of it. No one even knows how long it is. Yet off we go!

You have to stare in amazement at the slickness of the Republican operation. Releasing next to no information, with perfect timing they commandeered the Monday papers, knowing full well that ‘journalism’ requires an instant conclusion, setting the default narrative forever.

I feel myself drifting to the much-ridiculed gloom-and-doom side. Will some of the anti-gloom-and-doomers please step forward and point to a plausible way out?

[trnc]

I’m sure Mueller will be asked by Nadler to testify, and I’m sure Barr will do everything he can to block it.

[jtx]

CNN is reporting that Mueller informed Barr that he would not make that decision three weeks ago

Mueller told Justice three weeks ago he wouldn't reach a conclusion on...

[trnc]

WaPo (The Fix, Aaron Blake):“All your big questions about the Mueller report, answered.”

NYT (Schmidt & Savage):“But in the end, the special counsel reached no conclusion — instead producing a report that merely marshaled evidence on both sides.”

NPR also took Barr’s letter at face value before doing the most cursory job of asking a republican house member a few questions and assuming he was also arguing in good faith. The interviewer just barely stammered out a question about why we shouldn’t see the report and seemed to accept classified information as an answer (as though there’s no such thing as redaction).

[brian512]

[seamus42]

How about this: “By making the decision himself, Barr feeds into the cynical
verifies the narrative that President Trump appointed an AG who would protect him.”

[dicktater]

@georgeh was correct all along, Mueller wasn’t going to save us. But what he did do was waste 2 yrs of time while everything was on timeout so he could come to a milquetoast go-along-to-get-along surrender to the treason weasels. He had every power at his command, perhaps the most powerful investigation ever launched in our history, and came up with nothing more than than a pick-6 for the treason weasels. Sure, all that powerful investigation material may come to light, but there are vast powers working to bury or disappear it. They have all the tools, secrecy, darkness…and in all this time nobody has come forward from the R side of the aisle to unburden themselves, it ain’t going to happen now.

I am not going to be listening to any more 3D chess talk about institutions or even congress, Nadler, Pelosi, Schiff etc. Doesn’t mean I am not rooting for them and going to do what I can do…but I ain’t listening to any more “maybe Nancy has nuclear subpoenas aimed at Chump’s crotch and is just waiting to deliver the coup de grace”

[seamus42]

I feel myself drifting to the much-ridiculed gloom-and-doom side. Will some of the anti-gloom-and-doomers please step forward and point to a plausible way out?

I think I found one!

[thomaspaine]

OK. Since we are dealing with con men in a confidence game, Rep. Nadler should calming ask Mr. Barr to produce the report for the HJC and come down for a lilttle chat on his 24 hour decision. When Barr refuses or obfuscates, Nadler should vote out an impeachment vote of BARR for Perjury and Obstruction of Justice. The Democratic House will easily pass it and then discovery is forced in the Senate, opening up the whole can of worms.

In the meantime, the Dems call the whole thing a cover-up in that Mueller’s investigation was cut short to protect the President.

This chess match has just begun. When the majority of Americans already think Trump is a crook, the Dems can and should play hardball.

[amandacorliss]

I disagree.

I guess I saw Heller’s passage from his 1953 book Catch 22 as a perfect characterization of Trump.

“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” - Joseph Heller

[tena]

Last night the local news did a phone poll which they do quite often and the question was whether the Mueller Report (never mind we haven’t seen it) caused you to change your mind about Trump. 98% of those who responded said No.

This didn’t do much to change anybody’s feelings about Trump.

[seamus42]

This chess match has just begun. When the majority of Americans already think Trump is a crook, the Dems can and should play hardball.

Though I totally agree that hardball is in order, I find it most troubling that the already-dominant narrative is that the Moron has been deemed innocent of everything (apparently, even the stuff we already know he’s done).

So now the fences have been moved much farther away from homeplate, and our game of hardball needs a homerun.

[tena]

Though I totally agree that hardball is in order, I find it most troubling that the already-dominant narrative is that the Moron has been deemed innocent of everything (apparently, even the stuff we already know he’s done).

It’s not according to my phone. The narrative this morning is Barr went beyond the report to protect the president.

[fiftygigs]

Russian intelligence is truthful. The American government lies.

Thanks for straightening that out, Republicans.

[thomaspaine]

Hi, Tena. I read a good analysis by Nate Silver last nite and he predicted that Trump would get little or no bounce out of this because the electorate is already deeply cynical and locked in stone. With Trump you either love him or hate him - there is little to no middle ground of persuadables. If anything this will cement the resolve to get rid of him and the circus around him via the ballot box among the 57% or so that despise him.

[inversion]

. A question that keeps going thru my head is how many times did Mueller leave it up to the AG when assigning guilt to the Gambino crime family?

“Well Mueller and Barr are good friends, so it was expected that the former felt that the latter was going to do the right thing. Unknowingly to Mueller, Barr sees nuttin wrong with Trump, soooooooooo…”

[chjim]

It would appear, following AG Barr’s reasoning, that legislation must be developed and placed into law to tighten up how much the appearance of crime must precede consideration of obstruction; this, in order to go after all the other wily white collar criminals who so far are able to get away with criminal behavior. Also, while at it, make it legally impossible for the president or any one else to claim they are above the law. I’m not a lawyer; but I hope there are enough of those who are to protect us as a nation under the rule of law from those who would place anyone above the law.

[jtx]

I am sure there will be a poll out soon to confirm or deny, I for one think Trumps numbers will improve. The question is for how long.

[c_stedman]

They better take boxing gloves to their next bridge game. It bothers me that they can be friends with Barr being a known rat fucker from the old days.

[seamus42]

Then I’m going with your phone!