Sunday, March 24, 2019

Trump's Attorney General Exonerates Trump on Obstruction of Justice Despite Conclusions of Mueller Report

The Attorney General released his memo on the principle findings of the Mueller report, and Mueller concluded that there was insufficient evidence to purse a charge of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. 

According to AG Barr's letter, Mueller also said that there was insufficient evidence to bring a charge of obstruction of justice, but that didn't mean he was exonerated on that charge. It should come as no surprise that Mueller couldn't come up with evidence of intent on the obstruction charge given that he failed to obtain an interview with Trump.

Attorney General Barr-- being the Trump loyalist that he was expected to be-- went the extra step to unilaterally exonerate Trump of obstruction charges even though Mueller explicitly chose not to make a determination on that point.  If the decision on obstruction of justice is one left to Congress, and Mueller wasn't weighing in on that issue-- why did Barr make that conclusion (especially having barely 48 hours to review the underlying evidence)?

The fact remains that Trump lied about his contacts with Russians, Mike Pence lied about his contacts with Russians, Jeff Sessions lied in his confirmation hearing about his contacts with Russians, Paul Manafort lied about his contacts with Russian, and Jared Kushner lied on his background paperwork about his contacts and meetings with Russians.  The question remains:  why would all these people lie about meeting/talking with Russian officials if there wasn't something to cover up?

Of course, White House officials and Republicans are figuratively spiking the ball on the news.  Trump himself couldn't just take the victory and go home-- making the bizarre claim that the Mueller investigation was an attempt at an "illegal takedown" and that he hoped someone would investigate that.  Fat chance, Orangeman.





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