Mueller contradicts self in smearing Trump publicly

Let us always remember when discussing the Mueller report the most important things; the democrats, media and many others spread lies about crimes of Russian collusion and now seek to bury those lies by talking about obstruction.

That is the bottom line, and all else on this subject is of far less importance.

But as long as the media is putting all of their eggs in the obstruction basket, its worth showing how they are wrong on that front as well. (worth remembering here they think that mean tweets by trump are obstruction, but hillarys team destroying subpoenaed evidence was not)

Page 214 of the Mueller report explains why he did not consider a sealed indictment of Trump for obstruction.

Third, we considered whether to evaluate the conduct we investigated under the Justice Manual standards governing prosecution and declination decisions, but we determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes. The threshold step under the Justice Manual standards is to assess whether a person's conduct "constitutes a federal offense." U.S. Dep't of Justice, Justice Manual§ 9-27.220 (2018) (Justice Manual). Fairness concerns counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought. The ordinary means for an individual to respond to an accusation is through a speedy and public trial, with all the procedural protections that surround a criminal case. An individual who believes he was wrongly accused can use that process to seek to clear his name. In contrast, a prosecutor's judgment that crimes were committed, but that no charges will be brought, affords no such adversarial opportunity for public name-clearing before an impartial adjudicator.5

The concerns about the fairness of such a determination would be heightened in the case of a sitting President, where a federal prosecutor's accusation of a crime, even in an internal report, could carry consequences that extend beyond the realm of criminal justice. OLC noted similar concerns about sealed indictments. Even if an indictment were sealed during the President's term, OLC reasoned, "it would be very difficult to preserve [an indictment's] secrecy," and if an indictment became public, "[t]he stigma and opprobrium" could imperil the President's ability to govern."6 Although a prosecutor's internal report would not represent a formal public accusation akin to an indictment, the possibility of the report's public disclosure and the absence of a neutral adjudicatory forum to review its findings counseled against potentially determining "that the person's conduct constitutes a federal offense." Justice Manual § 9-27.220.

www.justsecurity.org...

So in other words seeing as how mueller believed he was not allowed to charge a sitting President with a crime, he also felt that sealed indictments and internal reports of such things would be very bad, because they could be leaked to the public, and would hamper the Presidency along with putting the President in the terrible position of being judged in the court of public opinion as opposed in front of a court where he would have the tools to prove his innocence,

Now others pointed out that this excerpt from the Mueller report seems to directly contradict the idea of making the report available to the public. In other words, how are not all of the problems with having a sealed indictment (judged in public, no fair trial, etc.) not just a prevalent by releasing the suggestion there could have been obstruction without making a determination to the public as Mueller did?

I did not jump on that band wagon for one reason; Mueller had not publicly said he wanted the report released. Even though I too wanted the report released, Mueller hadn't said he did, and that was purely AG Barr's decision as far as we knew.

Therefore Mueller was not contradictory; he gave his findings to Barr, and Barr decided to let the public see.

However, if this story from the Washington Post is true, then all of that goes out the window.

The Washington Post is reporting that Mueller wrote to Barr on March 27, 3 days after Barr's intial letter describing the summary of the Mueller report. In Mueller letter to Barr, he apparently said he was frustrated with how the media was interpreting Barr's letter about Mueller's findings.

The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
What's in the Mueller report?


The letter made a key request: that Barr release the 448-page report’s introductions and executive summaries, and made some initial suggested redactions for doing so, according to Justice Department officials.

www.washingtonpost.com... -6b7b-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e1776e78c110

So contrary to what Mueller himself said in his report, he now wants potential dirt released on dirt that he knows will be spun to affect Trumps presidency, and which Trump will not be afforded the right to fight in court to be released to the public.

Now you might say well Mueller on did this as a result of Barrs misstatements in his letter. But according to the Washington Post, after Mueller sent his letter to Barr, they had a phone call, in which Mueller admits nothing Barr said was inaccurate.

A day after Mueller sent his letter to Barr, the two men spoke by phone for about 15 minutes, according to law enforcement officials.

In that call, Mueller said he was concerned that media coverage of the obstruction investigation was misguided and creating public misunderstandings about the office’s work, according to Justice Department officials. Mueller did not express similar concerns about the public discussion of the investigation of Russia’s election interference, the officials said.

When Barr pressed Mueller on whether he thought Barr’s memo to Congress was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not, but felt that the media coverage of it was misinterpreting the investigation, officials said.

Did you get that?

Mueller was concerned with THE MEDIA, and how they were reporting, even though he concedes Barr said nothing inaccurate in his letter.

In other words, Mueller couldn't have the media saying Trump was innocent, he needed the dirt to get out to the public. And we know from Mueller's own words in his report, that I listed above, exactly what would happen; it would allow the court of public opinion and a biased media to smear Trump and him to not be able to defend himself in court, and stymie his administration.

Yet another example in a growing list of things showing Mueller was incompetent or corrupt (I believe corrupt) in his handling of this entire investigation.

a reply to: Grambler

Or the Post is making up more fake news. Has Mueller publicly admitted sending a letter?

a reply to: Grambler

I like the second half of your Post. It explains a lot. The importance of the first half is still being assimilated.

But thanks for pointing out that Mueller hates the media as much as many Americans do.

When Barr pressed Mueller on whether he thought Barr’s memo to Congress was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not, but felt that the media coverage of it was misinterpreting the investigation, officials said.

This says it all right here.

But we all know that no one made it down that far on the WaPo article. In fact, none of the Democrats even read the Mueller Report, redacted or otherwise, but they will take the headline and run with it like they know what they're talking about.

How Silly.

a reply to: Grambler

No charges
Its over
We dont do exonerations here

Mueller can give all the dirty interviews he ikes it will only help trump at this point
Mueller caved

No charges
Trump won

Assuming wapo reporting is accurate...

It don't agree that releasing the report publicly is the same or has the same outcome as sealed indictments and internal reports.

With sealed indictments and internal reports leaked to the media you will get the typical out of context and highly edited version of the report. With a fully public report the media has less leeway in their interpretation of it, because their more informed audiences can go read the report for themselves.

Look at how the WAPO article contradicts itself between the headline and first paragraph and the middle part where they describe the full conversation between Mueller and Barr. Look at how they have not released the letter leaving no way to verify how accurate any of the reporting is. That's what happens with leaks; they are hard to defend oneself against because their is no definitive accusation in the first place.

With the public report it may play out in the court of public opinion; but at least the information is correct and available for all to read. It makes it much easier to defend one's self.

In an ideal world Mueller may have preferred to keep it all closed until the DOJ or Congress acted on it and brought Trump to court if they thought such an action was warranted... letting Trump defend himself in court. But knowing that information would be leaked... because the world is not ideal ...he chose/agreed to make it public because at least then everyone would know what was in it rather than a few leakers cherry picking what they wanted people to know. Making the best of the bad situation.

This would also explain the tension between Mueller and Barr over Barr's memo. Putting out the memo instead of the report right away let the media spin it with their own misleading opinions. Clearly Mueller was unhappy about letting that door open and wanted the full report out right away.

originally posted by: projectvxn

When Barr pressed Mueller on whether he thought Barr’s memo to Congress was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not, but felt that the media coverage of it was misinterpreting the investigation, officials said.

This says it all right here.

But we all know that no one made it down that far on the WaPo article. In fact, none of the Democrats even read the Mueller Report, redacted or otherwise, but they will take the headline and run with it like they know what they're talking about.

How Silly.

Barr will give all Dems and liberal MSM a severe case of nausea during his testimony tomorrow.

a reply to: DanDanDat

So mueller should get fat jerry to change the doj secial council procedures.
Barr followed the procedures to the letter.

originally posted by: DanDanDat
This would also explain the tension between Mueller and Barr over Barr's memo. Putting out the memo instead of the report right away let the media spin it with their own misleading opinions. Clearly Mueller was unhappy about letting that door open and wanted the full report out right away.

Barr was attempting bend over backwards for the wrong people. The Dems and MSM wanted a summary, then stabbed Barr in the back after delivering it to everyone.

I hope the Attorney General has learned that this isn't the civilized Democratic party he dealt with in the 1990's. This crop is evil, and needs to be treated as one treats EVIL.

a reply to: carewemust

It wouldn't have mattered; when you have a WaPo article wherein the middle pargraphs they contradict their own headline and leading paragraph its clear to see that the media would spin and sensationalize no matter what Barr and Mueller did.

As you said Barr was trying to appease calls for a summary and they used it against him.

But had they staid silent until the redacted report could be made public the media would have used the silence to spin and sensationalize.

It was a no win situation.

Clearly the problem is with our news media being unable to tell an impartial story of events. They really are an enemy of the people... not because they dislike Trump and work against them ... but because in their zeal to make money and defend advertisement dollars from the blogosphere they don't care if they are misinforming the public. To them the public are a comodity, they no longer serve us ... they sell us. They made a twilight zone episode about this "To Serve Man".

a reply to: DanDanDat

It would have been more painful for them after spinning up fake news for 3 weeks, to have Mueller's report suddenly dropped on their heads. We would have witnessed epic meltdowns like in Nov 2016.

If Barr plays his cards right tomorrow, the same effect can be accomplished.

Fingers crossed!

roflmao

MSM is using this fake BS to say Barr lied to Congress !!

Now we know why the WP and CNN pushed this BS 😆😆😆😆😆

The Post is nothing more than the Dem's propaganda
and the owner hates Trump...

Hard to say if he is really the source behind Wa Po's
trashy write up but if he is he is going to have a
hard time fading to black, facing the music that
he is no longer relevant.

a reply to: burntheships

Attack of the "Amazons" !!!! 😆

a reply to: xuenchen

You've been Primed !



People still fall for it though.
Its all smoke and mirrors at this point!

I am going with Mueller being corrupt,
as well as the Wa Po being trash.

originally posted by: burntheships
a reply to: xuenchen

You've been Primed !

People still fall for it though.
Its all smoke and mirrors at this point!

I am going with Mueller being corrupt,
as well as the Wa Po being trash.

Here's an easy to understand explanation ................ (especially the whistling)

What if the Washington Post is looking at this wrong, or out of context?

Let’s keep in mind IG Horowitz has a report due out this year regarding too close of ties between the FBI and the media, the earlier Horowitz report on the Clinton email investigation stating “dozens” of contacts.

The only reason I’m doubtful of Mueller’s thinking Barr wouldn’t release the report is realizing the President has declaws powers and he would know he wouldn’t want this hanging over his head into 2020 for the Dems to use and abuse. They would have made a spectacle of taking it to the Supreme Court and Trump would have released it well before then.

While Mueller could definitely be a black hat, the media has shown themselves to be a much greater enemy. When I think of the main media coverage in the two days following Barr’s 4-pg. memo, think about it. Some were acting like Mueller was compromised in some conspiracy or didn’t do his job well; they were REEEEEing with such confusion if you read his words again, they could mean only a frustration of how the media should have covered the obvious relief of no Trump campaign “collusion,” yet immediately pivoted to obstruction.

“The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”

Am I off base?

It felt like due to Barr not just waiting and releasing the full report when it was ready, the memo just led to more chaotic and inaccurate reporting by the media. I don’t know.

originally posted by: ucanthandlethetruth

Am I off base?

In a word, Yes! The Mueller team never intended Barr to write his own summary, they included summaries for every volume in the report with suggested redactions for public release..The AG's intended job was to finish up the redactions for public release of the full report. Barr decided to write his own summary which seemed to be cherry-picked for the good stuff and left out the bad stuff, which in turn, created chaos in the media.

It's basically a psyops 101 tactic, get Your story out first, when the real story comes out the rubes have already went to seed and aren't coming back from BSville. That's why you see so many speculative threads on this board, sorta like this one, get Your story out, get all of your frens to go REEEEEEEEE in unison and bam, you've set the narrative.

originally posted by: w00dhAK

originally posted by: ucanthandlethetruth

Am I off base?

The Mueller team never intended Barr to write his own summary, they included summaries for every volume in the report with suggested redactions for public release..The AG's intended job was to finish up the redactions for public release of the full report. Barr decided to write his own summary which seemed to be cherry-picked for the good stuff and left out the bad stuff, which in turn, created chaos in the media.

It's basically a psyops 101 tactic, get Your story out first, when the real story comes out the rubes have already went to seed and aren't coming back from BSville. That's why you see so many speculative threads on this board, sorta like this one, get Your story out, get all of your frens to go REEEEEEEEE in unison and bam, you've set the narrative.

So the official narrative now is
1. Mueller works closely with Barr and RR
2. Mueller concludes report with several summaries instead of just one overall summary
3. Barr writes an overall summary and in summary says he plans to release as much as the report publicly as he can by law
4. Barr’s summary tried to spin the actual report before it was released in full, knowing it would be dissected when released. All 448 pgs.

Ok.

a reply to: w00dhAK

Except we have the media putting out a narrative for 2 years already. So you are right, it just wasn't Barr doing it, it was the Democrats.