Pelosi: No Reason To Trust Barr, That Boot-Licking Hack
As you’ve surely heard, late Friday Robert Mueller finally submitted the results of his long-awaited investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and obstruction of justice by Donald Trump, his campaign, and his administration. Thus far, the report has remained private, leaving Americans to rely on a summary of the special counsel‘s findings written by Attorney General William Barr. According to Barr’s letter to Congress, Mueller investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government,” but did not come to a conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice, leading the A.G. and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, to decide on their own not to charge him. And, weirdly, not everyone is content to take their word for it!
Speaking to House Democrats during a private meeting on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr’s “words cannot be taken at face value,” in light of the fact that the guy literally got the job by sending an unsolicited 19-page memo to the Justice Department last June in which he called the special counsel’s inquiry into potential obstructions of justice “fatally misconceived,” described Mueller’s actions as “grossly irresponsible,” and insisted “Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction.” Given the choice between charging Trump—who seemingly admitted to obstructing justice on TV—with the crime or not, it’s not totally far-fetched to assume Barr would be inclined to go with the latter. “We have to see the report,” Pelosi told lawmakers. “We cannot make a judgment on the basis of an interpretation by a man who was hired for his job because he believes the president is above the law and he wrote a 19-page memo to demonstrate that.”
Kaine, who said during an interview on “The Big Picture with Olivier Knox” that whether or not Trump is charged with obstruction is “for Congress to decide, and the fact that Barr apparently has decided to make a decision on that, ‘oh no, this isn’t indictable under obstruction,’ is a little bit suspicious given Barr‘s earlier letter to the D.O.J. . . . So there’s there’s a kind of a question about whether Barr prejudged the obstruction matter, and we want to see the Mueller report itself on that subject so we can explore whether there’s sort of a difference of opinion between Mueller and Barr on that.”
Link to tweet
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has said he plans to call Barr to testify publicly about the investigation and report, and according to Senator Lindsey Graham, Barr is willing to do so. At this point, though, it remains unclear if we’ll be hearing from the elusive Bob Mueller himself or, at the very least, get to read his report. On Monday, six Democratic committee chairs sent a letter to Barr demanding he cough up the report by April 2 and vowing to move forward with their investigations into Trump, in spite of the “no collusion” findings.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/nancy-pelosi-barr-mueller-report?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=pol&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_mailing=thematic_ballot_03272019&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9f8cb24c17c6adf0e5d24&user_id=25394153&utm_term=Thematic_Ballot_Subscribers