Baba, I think you're spot on. This will continue to unfold and develop into something devastating for Twitler. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part but I don't think so.
Also, remember the judge-ordered release of the Flynn material.
I interpreted what he said differently too Baba. He clearly noted the constraints he faced, and the parameters he had to work within. He wasn't allowed by DOJ rules to indict a sitting president, and it is not fair to say someone committed a crime when they won't be able to defend themselves via due process. He is playing by the rules he was hired under. He clearly said "If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not committed a crime, we would have said so."
Yes, it is not in the constitution that you can't indict a sitting president, but he presented the DOJ stipulation that it is. He's working within the framework he was constrained by. He's now no longer a DOJ employee. He has no intention of speaking again on the matter as he's a private citizen. What is needed is in the report. However, I believe that if he were to be subpoenaed, he would comply, as it is in his nature to follow the law.
He's telling congress there's some there there, and they need to act, as it is out of his jurisdiction to do so. He's telling those that haven't read the report, that they need to. He's refuting their talking point that he said there was no collusion, no obstruction. It's a sound bite they can't erase and twist to their own meaning. Listen to how he says they indicted co-conspirators, because that was permissible under DOJ rules and regs.
I get the feeling that he's reticent to do more for a few reasons. First he'll be at the center of a firestorm, which is not how he envisioned his golden years. He was head of the FBI and had faded into the background before being asked to undertake this job. He wants peace that back-yet he stepped up to the mike to make himself heard-read the report-he didn't indict because he wasn't allowed, not because there was no case. He states in the report that no one is above the law. Second, he has had friends -like Barr- who have played fast and loose with the issues, and once everything is exposed, he'd rather not be the one swinging the axe. He knows that when the chips fall, there will be a number of his party that will not fare well. I think he'd prefer that Congress police their own instead of having to play the heavy himself.
He's not only telling congress that they need to take up the mantle, but that they need to pass laws so that no crook can be in the Oval Office, and no one has the right to shield them from the law. I get that the laws in place are there to protect the president, and for valid reasons. No president who has to make the decision to send troops into battle should be able to be charged with murder. This is one of the reasons such laws exist. However, these same laws shouldn't be used as loopholes for an individual who believes that it means they can do whatever they want and not have to worry about being charged with a crime. By clearly stating that his hands are tied -he's allowed to investigate as special council-but not indict- he's telling congress that it's time to close those loopholes legislatively. What good is it to have a new sheriff in town if they aren't allowed to charge criminals with crimes?
He could have closed the office, and resigned quietly (tho it still would have been in the news), but he's telling his fellow party members that they need to take note of what his work encompassed. He knows the Dems read it.
That’s not how I interpreted what he said. He basically said, everything that you need to make this right is in the report. They didn’t choose their words lightly. He indicated that he did everything that he could given the constraints of the DOJ policies and that the only group with the power to act now is congress. He also openly reiterated that he did not clear the president. Congress needs to act now.
Baba, agree with you. It's in the report. I read the report. It shows impeachable offenses. It doesn't show everything. It doesn't follow Trump's money, as far as I could tell. Buit it shows clear obstruction of justice by the President. I don't know how much clearer it could get. It also shows circumstantial evidence for coordination with the Russians. Perhaps Mueller felt he didn't have enough to indict on conspiracy. But then again, he never interviewed the president or his kids.
And this is the redacted version.
The Trump campaign met with the Russians. The Trump campaign shared polling data with the Russians. The Trump campaign members welcomed damaging information from the Russians on Clinton. They never interviewed Trump or his kids so the report is incomplete. They never studied his tax records and bank records so the report is incomplete. But there's enough in there to convict Trump of obstruction of justice.
Pelosi needs to move forward with impeachment. If she does not, I feel she will regret it. It won't be pretty for the dems whether they do or do not impeach, because the Rethugs will be out there firing in their ugly fake news way.
But the House needs to use the report the way it was meant to be used -- to bring charges forward. The Senate won't convict, but at least Trump's crimes will be in the news throughout the whole proceeding. FOX will block and spin it, but at least half the country will have the full story in the news.
It's not that Mueller is a zero. They made the decision that he isn't going to be the president's prosecutor. He took a limited view of his job, the view he was handed by the AG - that he was the investigator . And well, he's not the hero we need right now. We need Pelosi to do her job.
Here's the Mueller statement. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/us/politics/mueller-transcript.html
I was with a client when it was released so I am just reading it now. I thought he was speaking at 5 pm EST, but I think that was supposed to read 5 pm CET (Central European Time).
I just heard that because Mueller was hired as special counsel, not as special prosecutor, he saw his job strictly as an investigator. Just gather the facts, and bring those to Congress. However … Mueller’s special counsel investigation was able to bring about indictments of 34 individuals. Eight have pled guilty to or have been convicted of felonies, including five Trump associates and campaign officials. But of course, we’re constantly reminded of the DOJ rules -- ConDon can’t be touched. And even though there were indictments of T’s associates, there’s no proof of a conspiracy, according to Mueller.
And to make things even more swampy, what about ConDon’s kids?
I’m speechless. Pelosi had better get moving.
ConDon? ?
I laughed out loud. That's one I haven't heard.
ConDon absolutely can be touched. He can be impeached by the House, tried and removed from office if found guilty by the Senate, and once he is no longer president, he can be criminally indicted and convicted. (Impeachment is not a criminal process. It means that that they believe the president is guilty of betraying the public trust, or abusing his office by committing what the Constitution says are "high crimes or misdemeanors." It gives Congress the ability to remove a president from office and then after that he can be criminally indicted.)
We know the Senate will not remove him. But the House can draft articles of impeachment and charge him with abusing his oath of office. Obstruction of Justice is a serious crime and an impeachable offense. The Mueller Report shows he obstructed justice.
Polarberry,
I wish I could take credit for it. I believe it was NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio who came up with that one.
Thanks for making me laugh! It pulled me out of my bad mood.
Wow, I missed that de Blasio called him that. Perfect!
How many thousands of times I've wished that Fred Trump had worn a condon.
Does anyone else take Trump's tweet as a lightly masked admission of guilt?
"Nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent. The case is closed! Thank you."
I think he's such an arrogant, narcissistic a-hole that there's a huge part of him that gets off admitting, or coming close to admitting, his crimes because he's so sure that he's going to get away with it all. He knows he has a Rethug-held Senate, which is controlled by that chinless hemorrhoid McConnell, and attack dogs like Jordan and Cotton to slobber him anytime he demands.
He's forgetting about a lot of things, like the many investigations still ongoing, SDNY, VA, DC, Mueller's grand jury, Flynn, Cohen, the redacted portions of the report (although I'm sure his personal Barrbel has filled him in) and the sealed indictments (for his kids, I believe)
Polarberry,
What sealed indictments? I read when the report came out that there were none. Did I miss something?
Also, you owe me a new bottle of Coke, as I promptly spit mine all over myself as I read "chinless hemorrhoid" amd laughed harder than I have in a while.
Chinless hemorrhoid? God how I needed that!
"chinless hemorrhoid McConnell"
HAHAHA!!! I couldn't think of a better description myself!
I truly despise McConnell. He makes me shudder whenever I look at him. Yikes!
******
Back to Mueller:
For every reading I have done on 45, the card of Judgement has always showed up (I've also have received the same card for Kushner).
There's another psychic blog I've been reading for a few years and one of the visions they continue to receive for the past year has been of a huge financial scandal for 45 that starts this summer and wraps up in the fall with him resigning.
If I'm not mistaken, there are visions on here of 45 being gone by the fall so there seems to be a collective lineup.
I truly do believe that 45 is going to receive his comeuppance and that it has been a long time in the making. It may not happen in the way we want it but I have a great feeling it's coming no matter what.
Hopefully, 45's VP will go away too and not take 45's spot.
lol, sorry, I guess my loathing of McConnell comes through in my speech. The Merrick Garland bs still infuriates me. And he is definitely in bed with Russia and the oligarchs.
MAS, I have no proof other than a gut feeling and the fact that so much of the report was redacted. I had also read that Barr shared a redacted part with Twitler. I think they are indicted for financial crimes through SDNY. Hope we find out very soon.
I woke up this morning with a strong sense that if the Dems don’t begin an impeachment inquiry, they will be viewed as cowards by the public who voted for them in 2018. And that will ultimately hurt them in the end.
This morning I heard a Republican strategist comment that in light of Barr muddying the waters, Mueller had a responsibility to explain a lengthy and sometimes complicated legal report to the general public. She felt that he didn’t do that, so he failed to complete his job. Another person mentioned that Mueller was like a professor who was frustrated because his students (the general public, maybe even Congress) didn’t “get it,” and he was finished explaining it to us. As in “Did you do your assignment? Did you read the material?!? “ It is Mueller's strong belief that it’s up to Congress to explain it to us.
1. Dems need to start listening to the people and move forward with impeachment. If you give the fascist goldfish and his people ... especially the kentucky devil, whom I hold responsible for everything, even more than the cheeto in chief ... any leeway, they will spin the narrative in their favor. They are already doing that, as well as wagging the dog with this Iran stuff. Impeachment articles need to start NOW. Everyone needs to call their reps and Pelosi and Nadler and everyone on House Judiciary NOW. They need to hear from us that we have their back; even people in blue states.
2. Pelosi might be giving the president* space to step down gracefully, but he's a malignant narcissist; there is no way he would admit defeat. To get him to leave, they need to throw him something that counts: his kids won't be charged, he won't lose his businesses or his money - which is what he's most worried about, something. What he cares about is his image, and they need to give him an out that doesn't take away that image.
3. Mueller did what he could do with the constraints he had. It is very likely that after his retirement, he will be able to say and do more because he will no longer be bound by the rules of his position. As I read on Twitter yesterday, Mueller was playing Taboo yesterday, and his word was "impeach." He literally laid everything in front on Congress and told them, "Here is your roadmap. Take it."
4. Justin Amash, while terrible, is doing the right thing, and his constituents approve. More representatives need to follow his lead. We can't let a Repub look like the sane savior on this. However, Amash is also making a very big point in his statements: "If you READ the Mueller Report, you will come to the same conclusion I did. Stop watching Fox News, stop listening to the pundits and talking heads ... READ the report."
5. There is a very intelligent woman named Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin who breaks down the legal speak every day on a podcast called Resistance Live. Currently, it streams on a few platforms, including Patreon, and runs on Facebook Live, but she is in the process of moving off of Facebook. She is a wealth of information and analysis, and ends every broadcast with action items that people can and should do. She is very intuitive/empathic, and there are days when you can tell she feels absolutely shattered by things that are happening, and days when she feel hopeful. She is ALWAYS fired up and ready to fight. It's worth finding her and listening to her broadcasts to understand the larger picture as well as the minutiae that "lay people" will miss. She also has the interesting juxtaposition of having practiced law in many of the districts that are involved in the current investigations, including Virginia and the SDNY, and was involved professionally and was friends with Ivanka Trump before all of this started, so she has a more keen insight into what drives Daddy.
I feel the same way, Deetoo. The dems need to step up and get going. It's now or never. Mueller gave them the foray to impeach and also they need to force him to testify regardless of whether he wants to. All they need to do is get him to repeat what he said and then they need to comment on it and the press needs to write about it --
- That the Russian's interference did happen and was a serious attack on our country.
- That he did not go so far as to say no collusion happened, only that they didn't have enough evidence to say it did happen.
- Lay out the evidence for obstruction of justice. Just read it. It's voluminous and needs to be summarized. It shows why Mueller said obstruction of justice could not be ruled out (i.e., he is guilty of it, they just can't say it, only Congress can say it.).
- When a subject of an investigation [The President and his team] obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. (Mueller's words)
I feel they need to impeach in order to open the public's eyes about Trump. If they don't do it, they have failed to do what we elected them to do, and they are handing a criminal another four years and expediting a global climate catastrophe.