Category: Mueller Report

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Justice Department Mueller Report Russia Investigation

AG Merrick Garland Is Being Urged To Charge Trump And Barr With Crimes Detailed In The Mueller Report

While he’s been unfairly blamed by some progressives for not going after failed, one-term former President Donald Trump as his first order of business since being sworn in as attorney general, rest assured that Merrick Garland and prosecutors with the Justice Department are indeed taking a close look at possible federal crimes Trump can be charged with.

And now we have a former top DOJ official laying out a roadmap for Garland the Department of Justice to follow as it relates to the Mueller investigation and possible crimes detailed within the Mueller report.

Noah Bookbinder is a former prosecutor in the Department Of Justice’s Public Integrity Division. He currently works as executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW). And he has written a brilliant column published in USA Today that makes clear there’s plenty of fire where we see smoke as it relates to the Russia investigation.

In his op-ed, Bookbinder urges AG Garland to take another look at the Mueller investigation:

“Many of us have long suspected that Barr deliberately set out to spin the contents of the Mueller report and manufacture bogus legal analysis in order to protect Trump from facing consequences for the crimes laid out in the report. We now have proof that Barr did exactly that.”

Bookbinder also quotes a letter signed by 1,000 former federal prosecutors which reads in part:

“The conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting president, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice.”

But the most powerful portion of Bookbinder’s piece is saved for the conclusion. He writes:

“There is vast evidence that Donald Trump committed crimes. Time, and litigation, have removed both the legal protection he had as president and the illusory claims of exoneration spun by Barr. Now is the moment for America to see equal justice in action. It’s time to finish what Mueller started.”

Those among you who may have given up on Merrick Garland need to cut him some slack. He’s a good man who believes in the rule of law. And that alone is very bad news for lifetime crooks like Donald Trump and his handpicked puppet, Bill Barr.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Mueller Report Russia Investigation

Ex-White House Counsel: Trump ‘Screamed Like A Third-Grade Girl’ When Mueller Was Appointed

Perhaps you’ve wondered from time to time how failed, one-term former President Donald Trump handles pressure. He loves to brag that he’s a great deal maker (he isn’t) and that he’s a shrewd businessman (he never has been and never will be), and he also likes to put on a tough facade to suggest that he can handle any situation, no matter how daunting or terrifying.

However, as with everything involving Donald Trump, the truth is dramatically different than the “image” he’s created around himself over the decades.

For example, we know that Trump often had childish meltdowns in private and in public, berating White House staffers and all but bursting into tears when the chips were down. He also behaved like a spoiled toddler when he faced President Joe Biden in a debate.

So it should come as no surprise to learn that the ex-president reacted like a whiny little girl when he was informed that former FBI Director Robert Mueller had been appointed as special counsel for the Russia investigation.

According to transcripts of testimony former White House Counsel Don McGahn before the House Judiciary Committee, Trump did not take news of Mueller’s appointment like a man:

We also know that Trump made other remarks when news of a special counsel being appointed reached the Oval Office:

“The President sunk back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.”

For all of his braggadocio and claims of being the ultimate macho guy, Donald Trump is nothing but a wimp. He’s a gutless, overgrown baby who belongs behind bars.

 

Categories
Corruption Justice Department Mueller Report The Trump Adminstration

Judge Orders Release Of DOJ Memo Showing William Barr Lied About The Mueller Report

On Tuesday, a federal judge made it clear that she’s sick and tired of the Department of Justice (DOJ) dragging its feet on the release of a memo from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel which supported the decision by former Attorney General William Barr to not prosecute former President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice for incidents laid out in the final report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Politico reports that not only did U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson issue the ruling, she also accused Barr of being “disingenuous” when he described Mueller’s findings to the American people and Congress.

Specifically, Jackson wrote that the Justice Department’s memorandum to Barr was little more than a document created to justify a decision the former attorney general had already made:

“The review of the document reveals that the Attorney General was not then engaged in making a decision about whether the President should be charged with obstruction of justice; the fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given.”

Jackson also noted that the DOJ’s refusal to hand over the memo in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, was little more than an attempt to mislead the court:

“Not only was the Attorney General being disingenuous then, but DOJ has been disingenuous to this Court with respect to the existence of a decision-making process that should be shielded by the deliberative process privilege. The agency’s redactions and incomplete explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum, and the excised portions belie the notion that it fell to the Attorney General to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision was on the table at any time.”

As we’ve long suspected, William Barr declared Trump innocent of all crimes before the Mueller report was ever made public, and he also withheld (via redactions) large sections of the final document in order to create a false narrative that Trump hadn’t engaged in any illegal conduct, even though Mueller’s team found otherwise. That alone proves that Barr is guilty of crimes against the United States.

Judge Jackson should be hailed for her ruling, and even though it can be appealed, it seems unlikely any appellate court will keep the memo or the full Mueller report from being made available to the American public which, after all, paid for the the Russia investigation and the salaries of both Barr and Trump.

 

Categories
Donald Trump Mueller Report Russia Investigation

Previously Hidden Portions Of The Mueller Report Suggest Trump Committed Perjury

Previously redacted portions of the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Attorney General William Barr had hoped to keep hidden until after the November election have been released as the result of a Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit, and they show that President Donald Trump likely lied under oath in the written responses he gave to questions from Mueller.


CNN and The Hill both report that the sections involve Trump’s responses to questions about WikiLeaks and longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, and Mueller himself suggested that the president had misled investigators:

“According to the report, Trump had said he did not remember talking with Stone about WikiLeaks. But Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, had separately recounted to Mueller that he ‘recalled a conversation in which Roger Stone told Trump that WikiLeaks planned to release information soon [and] Trump had asked him [Cohen] to stay in touch with Stone about WikiLeaks.'”


While the Special Counsel noted in his final report that Trump simply could have forgotten about contacts he had with Stone regarding WikiLeaks and the release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton, he could also have tried to hide his knowledge because he knew it gave the appearance that he was part of the larger conspiracy:

“The President’s conduct could also be viewed as reflecting his awareness that Stone could provide evidence that would run counter to the President’s denials and would link the President to Stone’s efforts to reach out to WikiLeaks.”


Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the newly unredacted portions of Mueller’s report make it clear that Barr and the White House wanted the revelations to remain hidden because they do incriminate the president and attorney general:

Why didn’t Mueller charge Trump with perjury? Because he was prohibited from doing so by a Department of Justice memo which states a sitting president cannot be indicted or charged with a crime. But the second Trump is out of office, any U.S. Attorney or a new attorney general can bring that and other charges against Trump. So while the president may have managed to avoid criminal charges so far, all he’s really done is kick the can down the road.

As many have suspected, Barr and Trump knew that if the full report from Special Counsel Mueller was made public, it would probably have destroyed Trump and led to more articles of impeachment being drawn up against him.

But the law isn’t finished with Donald Trump or William Barr. And karma will eventually come back visit them both.

Categories
Donald Trump Mueller Report Russia Investigation

Court Orders Barr To Give Congress Sealed Grand Jury Material From Mueller Report

Attorney General William Barr got rebuked by a federal appeals court Tuesday and has been ordered to turn over all grand jury materials from the investigation conducted by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.


CNN reports:

“The appeals panel sided with an earlier ruling from the chief judge of the DC District Court, who had roundly criticized the Justice Department’s legal theories to keep the Mueller materials under seal and who had endorsed the House’s investigation into President Trump. The appeals court agreed that the House Judiciary Committee has a ‘compelling need’ to view the secretive details prosecutors had collected from witnesses and about the President.”

The three judge appellate court ruled 2-1 that the Department of Justice must hand all grand jury materials as part of ongoing investigations being conducted by House committees. Interestingly, however, the lone Trump appointee on the court, Neomi Rao, dissented from the other judges.


Rao’s dissent was addressed by Judge Thomas Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee, who wrote in response to Rao:

“Taken to its logical conclusion, the dissent’s theory would seem to require outright dismissal of this case—a result that the dissent agrees is contrary to history and precedent.”

Judge Griffith also accused Rao of attempting to chase jurisdictional phantoms in an attempt to keep the Mueller grand jury materials from Congress, which has every legal right to review them.

Even though the administration will likely appeal the case to the Supreme Court, today’s ruling is yet another sign that federal courts will not allow Barr to hide relevant materials just so he can protect the president. Apparently, Barr has forgotten that his client is the Constitution, not Donald Trump. But the courts are reminding him he has no right to act in such a manner.

But perhaps most frightening for Trump is that the Supreme Court may hear an expedited appeal to this latest ruling and demand the information be given to the House Judiciary Committee within the next couple of months, which is then free to discuss them in open session. That could be incredibly damaging to both Barr and Trump.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote:

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Justice will win out no matter what obstacles Donald Trump or his protectors attempt to place in its path.