Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said that former special counsel Robert Mueller walked back his comments about indicting the President because he didn’t want to implicitly call Trump a “felon,” though that’s what Lieu thinks Mueller “actually believes.”
I absolutely agree with Ted Lieu’s assessment of this.
I think someone (the assistant? LowBarr?) got to Mueller in the break and reined him in.
But the first reaction (and IIRC, Lieu asked him the question twice) was Mueller’s honest opinion.
It does mean we have a felon in the White House. Except he hasn’t been convicted yet. And Republicans showed yesterday that they are OK with that.
Madame Speaker:
Review your messaging re/ impeachment. Get out in front of the train.
Very hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. I tend to agree with Sen. Lieu. Most of the time the initial response is what’s the most accurate assessment of the speaker’s thoughts on a matter.
Which only makes Mueller’s report and testimony worse. If he believes Trump committed felonies, then do your job and say it.
Yup.
Lieu is right. I’ve been replaying the Judiciary committee hearing and he actually volunteered that position that OLC prevented him from indicting Trump in his opening response to Nadler. He went further than the literal scope of Nadler’s question and then repeated that position when asked a direct question with a causal link from Lieu and Escobar. It’s clearly what he believes.
He walked it back partially (and it was really only a few steps back) because he didn’t want to step into the role of the body that makes the ‘charging decision’.
It’s a sad day when Barr
Covers up for felon
When Mueller is muzzled
For a felon
And Pelosi chooses
Delay, delay Delay
To cover up.
Endless talk
No action
Courts delay
Delay
Democracy burns.
It’s not smoldering
It’s aflame.
Anything short of cancelling the recess for a special session focusing on impeachment is political malpractice.
Mueller lost my respect when asked to explain in plain terms the American people can understand what he meant by saying the president was not exonerated.
Mueller: “the president was not exculpated”
Review your messaging re/ impeachment. Get out in front of the train.
Run her over.
Agree with Rep Lieu. Also, Mueller has to be very careful with his words because he probably does not want his words to be used as a defense for future indictments.
Clearly, Mueller Report has meticulously laid out the evidence, reasons for the gaps (lying, pleading the 5th, tampering with evidence), and pointed the way to address Trump et al’s criminality - which are through congressional actions and the American people because of the OLC memos. Truth be told, the OLC memos were/are self-serving to the people who wrote them and to the Exec Branch!
IMHO, Mueller is playing the long game here…indict after impeachment or losing in 2020!
I think that the 3 conditions have been met:
Ripe aroma
Hollow sound when knocked
Good orange color
We definitely have a melon in the White House
I sure wish that Congress would find a way to negate the OLC paper on the legal immunity of a sitting president. The idea of legal immunity (their word, not mine) for a president makes a joke of the words carved above the Supreme Court door
It also make a joke of the 14th amendment’s first section.
For those not familiar with what the DoJ Office of Legal Council wrote concerning the legal immunity of a sitting president, here it is as a .pdf:
While the facts all point to having a criminal in the White House, it doesn’t count until he is shown to have committed crimes beyond a reasonable doubt and convicted. That’s what the prosecutor do. Some of Trump’s alleged crimes such as money laundering seem pretty abstract to most people, but the distortive effects on an economy are devastating as economic advantage slips away from the legitimate public and private economies to the crime sector. It is the macro-effects of money laundering that are so corrosive, particularly how they detract from optimal growth of the economy. As we’ve seen in Russia, the economy also fails to diversify and develop special skills that give it advantages against the rest of the world. In America’s case, it makes the country anything but great again.
I’m not sure the House would have that much of a problem with making the legislation. But McConnell will let it gather dust just like the election security legislation.
Thing is, sure we could run on the fact that McConnell is sitting on it, but the minions are totally ok with it, so the conversation is pretty much a non-starter, I think.
Now, if the government ever gets to be controlled fully by the Dems - House, Senate and POTUS - that’s another story.
For me, something that stuck out was the number of active FBI investigations into the activities of members and former members of the administration to which Meuller deferred. Maybe I’m not paying attention but that’s huge - the OSC report is the beginning, not the end, of the Executive Branch investigation.
If he ever is prosecuted and convicted I hope that is grounds for taking away his presidential privileges that ex-presidents are entitled to.
It is a dream to straighten the OLC thing out. It’s also a dream to see McConnell lose reelection and to take a majority in the Senate. And let’s us not forget voting trump out.
If all this comes true I may overdose on a combo of schadenfreude and dancing in the street.