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PostPosted: 03/27/19 8:06 am • # 51 
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Why do you think Mueller left it up to the AG as to whether or not any further indictments were made?
— asked on Reddit by Kayku25
Myers Wood:
A repeated criticism of other special counsels and independent counsels is that they dragged on too long and wandered into unrelated areas. By closing the report and handing many significant investigations off to other prosecutors, Mueller signaled that he answered the two core questions he was asked, and appropriately referred side prosecutions elsewhere.


I guess he decided to play it safe and punted the ball. I am sure he knows more what is what than I do legally and otherwise. I guess my expectations were too high as to just what he would uncover - or not afraid to uncover.


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PostPosted: 03/27/19 9:03 am • # 52 
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BEP, do you still have a link to your reddit post above? ~ if so, please add it on your post ~ I tried to access reddit but it seems to be having problems this morning ... at least with Firefox and/or Edge ~

Thanks ~

Sooz


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PostPosted: 04/09/19 12:35 pm • # 53 
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I'm convinced one of the DiC's most treacherous traits [consistent lying being the first] is that he has NO clue of what he is saying means when [and following] he says it ~ :ey ~ Sooz

How Donald Trump Relearned to Hate The Mueller Report In Just 10 Days
Ten Days of Quotes, Tweets and Outbursts
By TPM Staff / April 9, 2019 9:35 am

Over the two and a half weeks since Attorney General Bill Barr released a four page “summary” of the Mueller report’s findings, President Trump has gone from jubilant claims of exoneration and calls for the release of the full report to increasing resistance to the report ever being released and renewed claims that the members of the Special Counsel’s Office are guilty of “dishonest and treasonous acts.”

The key shift took no more than 10 days.

Here is a quick list of the President’s comments as he relearned to hate Bob Mueller, his investigation and his report all over again.

March 20th: “Let it come out. Let people see it. That’s up to the Attorney General.”

March 24th: “No collusion, no obstruction, complete and total exoneration.”

March 24th: “It was just announced there was no collusion with Russia, the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. There was no collusion with Russia. There was no obstruction, none whatsoever.”

March 25th: On releasing the Mueller report: “That’s up to the attorney general but it wouldn’t bother me at all.”

March 28th: “After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead.”

March 28th: “The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction.”

April 2nd: “Robert Mueller was a God-like figure to the Democrats, until he ruled No Collusion in the long awaited $30,000,000 Mueller Report. Now the Dems don’t even acknowledge his name, have become totally unhinged, and would like to go through the whole process again. It won’t happen!”

Quote:
Robert Mueller was a God-like figure to the Democrats, until he ruled No Collusion in the long awaited $30,000,000 Mueller Report. Now the Dems don’t even acknowledge his name, have become totally unhinged, and would like to go through the whole process again. It won’t happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2019

April 2nd: Demands to release the report a “disgrace”, release “somewhat of a waste of time.”

Quote:
Trump: demands for release of the full Mueller report are a "disgrace" pic.twitter.com/dxkC6XL26L

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 2, 2019

Quote:
"somewhat of a waste of time" …. Trump comments on whether Mueller Report should be released. pic.twitter.com/ISCzdUKUMK

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 2, 2019

April 2nd: “There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!”

Quote:
There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2019

April 4th: “There is nothing we can ever give to the Democrats that will make them happy.”

Quote:
There is nothing we can ever give to the Democrats that will make them happy. This is the highest level of Presidential Harassment in the history of our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2019

April 6th: “Why should I be defending a fraudulent Russian Witch Hunt. It’s about time the perpetrators of this fraud on me and the American People start defending their dishonest and treasonous acts.”

Quote:
Why should I be defending a fraudulent Russian Witch Hunt. It’s about time the perpetrators of this fraud on me and the American People start defending their dishonest and treasonous acts. How and why did this terrible event begin? Never Forget!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2019

April 8th:

Quote:
“Jerry Nadler is not entitled to this information. He is doing this to get it to the Democrat 2020 nominee.” @KatiePavlich

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2019

April 8th:

Quote:
The Democrats will never be satisfied, no matter what they get, how much they get, or how many pages they get. It will never end, but that’s the way life goes!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2019

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-donald-trump-relearned-to-hate-the-mueller-report-in-just-10-days


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PostPosted: 04/16/19 12:15 pm • # 54 
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Supposedly Congress will receive a redacted version of the report on Thursday

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/redacted-muel ... ories.html


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PostPosted: 04/21/19 8:41 am • # 55 
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Short and sweet ~ almost [ALMOST!] enough to make me believe in fairy-tale endings ~ :st ~ Sooz

EDBLOG
Gist
By Josh Marshall / April 20, 2019 3:31 pm

The simple takeaway from the Mueller Report is the President betrayed his country and spent two years lying and breaking the law to try to hide that fact. He should resign and be tried for his crimes.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/gist


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PostPosted: 04/22/19 6:39 am • # 56 
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This outstanding commentary sums it up for me ~ every single word shines light on the truth ~ :st :st :st ~ Sooz

Mueller makes it official: Trump is morally bankrupt
Robert Reich - COMMENTARY / 22 Apr 2019 at 07:08 ET

Democrats in Congress and talking heads on television will be consumed in the coming weeks by whether the evidence in the Mueller report, especially of obstruction of justice, merits impeachment.

In addition, the question of “wink-wink” cooperation with Russia still looms. Mueller’s quote of Trump, when first learning a special counsel had been appointed – “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked” – has already become a national tagline. Why, Americans wonder, would Trump be “fucked” if he hadn’t done something so awful as to cause its revelation to “fuck” him?

We’ll also have Mueller’s own testimony before Congress, and Congress’s own investigations of Trump.

But let’s be real. Trump will not be removed by impeachment. No president has been. With a Republican Senate controlled by the most irresponsible political hack ever to be majority leader, the chances are nil.

Which means Trump will have to be removed the old-fashioned way – by voters in an election 19 months away.

The practical question, then, is whether the Mueller report and all that surrounds it will affect that election.

Most Americans already hold a low opinion of Trump. He’s the only president in Gallup polling history never to have earned the support of majority for single day of his term.

Yet Mueller’s report probably won’t move any of the 40 percent who have held tight to Trump regardless.

So how to reach the 11 percent or 12 percent who may decide the outcome?

Reveal his moral loathsomeness.

Democrats and progressives tend to shy away from morality, given how rightwing evangelicals have used it against abortion, contraceptives and equal marriage rights.

But that’s to ignore Americans’ deep sense of right and wrong. Character counts, and presidential character counts most of all.

Even though Mueller apparently doesn’t believe a sitting president can be indicted, he provides a devastating indictment of Trump’s character.

Trump is revealed as a chronic liar. He claimed he never asked for loyalty from FBI director James Comey. Mueller finds he did. Trump claimed he never asked Comey to let the “Michael Flynn matter go”. Mueller finds he did. Trump claimed he never pushed the White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller. Mueller finds he did. Trump even lied about inviting Comey to dinner, claiming falsely, in public, that Comey requested it.

Trump treats his subordinates horribly. He hides things from them. He lies to them. He yells at them. He instructs them to lie. He orders them to carry out illegal acts.

He’s a thug. He regrets his lawyers are not as good at protecting him as was his early mentor Roy Cohn – a mob lawyer. When reports surface about the now infamous Trump Tower meeting of June 2016, Trump directs the cover-up.

Trump is unprincipled. The few people in the White House and the cabinet who stand up to him, according to Mueller – threatening to resign rather than carry out his illegal orders – are now gone. They resigned or were fired.

In other words, Mueller makes it official: Trump is morally bankrupt.

We still don’t have the full story of Trump’s tax evasion and his business dealings with Russian financiers. But we know he has lied to business associates, stiffed contractors, cheated on his wife by having sex with a porn star, paid the porn star hush money, and boosted his wealth while in office with foreign cash.

It continues. In recent weeks he willfully endangered the life of a member of Congress by disseminating a propaganda video, similar to those historically used by extremist political groups, tying her to the 9/11 tragedy because she is a Muslim American speaking up for Muslim Americans. She has received death threats, including one by a supporter of Trump who was arrested.

He has also attacked the deceased senator John McCain, whom he falsely accused of leaking the Steele dossier and finishing last in his class at Annapolis. Then Trump retweeted a note from a supporter saying “millions of Americans truly LOVE President Trump, not McCain”. Americans know McCain was tortured in a prison camp for five years, in service to this country.

How many of Trump’s followers or those who might otherwise be tempted to vote for him in 2020 will recoil from this moral squalor?

Donald Trump is the living embodiment of the seven deadly sins – pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy and sloth – and he is the precise obverse of the seven virtues as enunciated by Pope Gregory in 590 AD: chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility.

Legal debates about obstruction of justice are fine. But no voter in 2020 should be allowed to overlook this basic reality: Donald Trump is a morally despicable human being.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/04/mueller-makes-official-trump-morally-bankrupt/


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PostPosted: 04/22/19 7:05 am • # 57 
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:tup


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PostPosted: 04/22/19 7:54 pm • # 58 
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From the employee perspective in this specific case, "taking notes" = "covering my ass" and/or "self-preservation" ~ I honestly don't understand why anyone would choose to work in such a miserably abusive environment ~ :ey ~ a few "live links" in original ~ Sooz

‘So-Called Notes’ From WH Aides Proved Frequent Sources For Mueller Report
By Kate Riga / April 22, 2019 8:49 am

President Donald Trump recognized the damage that his aides’ notes had done him in the aftermath of the redacted Mueller report’s release, warning his massive Twitter following to “watch out for people that take so-called ‘notes.’”

As the New York Times reported, the frequency with which Trump White House staffers took notes is significant and starkly different than the practices of their predecessors.

White House employees of yore have been cautious with note-taking, since the Presidential Records Act calls for the preservation of a wide range of documents, and because personal notes or diaries can be forced into the open in times of heightened scrutiny.

In prior administrations, White House workers also tended to act cautiously out of loyalty to the President, fretting that their notes could reveal embarrassing episodes.

In the Trump administration, staffers tend to disregard those concerns in favor of self-protection, worried that the President will abruptly change his mind and contradict things that he previously said, possibly endangering the careers — and legal safety — of involved aides.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/notes-white-house-aides-frequent-sources-mueller-report


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PostPosted: 04/23/19 9:44 am • # 59 
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The Not-Quite Mueller Report: Trump Is a Whiny Little Bitch Who Wants to Prosecute Hillary Clinton
You’ve read all the legal insights you can stomach about the not-quite Mueller Report. You’ve argued with your friends and family and trolls about whether or not we should go ahead with impeachment (note: How is this even a question? You impeach the motherfucker with a full-court press convincing the American people to rally behind impeaching the motherfucker). You may have even sat down and pored through the Barr-damned redacted report, finding every appalling nugget you can mine out of it, like how the whole White House is just a cheap 1970s Godfather-knockoff film made in Russia.

And now you’ve come to the Rude Pundit, and I’m here to tell you this: Goddamn, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, is such a little whiny bitch all the way through.

We know how much of a whiny bitch he is through his tweets and endless airings of grievances at his rallies of the damned. He's the kind of little bitch that sits in the kitchen, just whimpering when its bowl is empty or whimpering because it shoved its toy under the couch. Just a whiny, noisy, little bitch and you fuckin' hate whoever in the house brought that bitch home.

In the not-really Mueller Report, we get to see the Donald Trump in private, and, holy fuckballs, if anything, he’s even more of a whiny bitch when his stump-thumbs aren’t tapping away on the Twitter app.

For instance, when meeting with his then-White House counsel Don McGahn, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and then-AG Chief of Staff Jody Hunt, Trump bitched to Sessions about the Russia investigation, “This is terrible Jeff. It’s all because you recused. AG is supposed to be most important appointment. Kennedy appointed his brother. Obama appointed Holder. I appointed you and you recused yourself. You left me on an island. I can’t do anything.” That line, “You left me on an island,” is what you say when your online crush has ghosted you and you’re pining away pathetically into the ether.

Another time, he pissed and moaned to Sessions, “Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won’t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.” The worst thing to ever happen to Donald Trump is that someone might hold him to account. You know, I’ve got no sympathy for Jeff Sessions, American’s most racist elf, so fuck him even if he did have to be the urinal for Trump’s whine dribbles. (Trump said his now famous “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked” to Sessions and Hunt, and I wonder if they immediately thought of him boning Stormy Daniels.)

Over and over, Trump whinged about how he wanted to be “treated fairly,” that he wanted everyone to make sure he got a “fair” shake. When he tried to convince Sessions to un-recuse himself from the Russia investigation and then open an investigation into Hillary Clinton (which, what the fuck?), he bleated, “Not telling you to do anything. ... I’m not going to get involved. I’m not going to do anything or direct you to do anything. I just want to be treated fairly.” Being treated fairly meant, to Trump, an AG who ran interference for him, as he absolutely believes Eric Holder did for Barack Obama. It never fucking occurs to this blithering dickface that maybe Obama didn’t do anything that needed to be interfered with.

Going after Hillary Clinton to win the election wasn’t enough. Several times, the report mentions how the Trump campaign, including testicle pimples Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner, sought information that would “incriminate” her. And Trump’s mad tweets about Clinton’s “crimes” are also part of the report.

And, most tellingly, Trump thought “it was unfair that he was being investigated while Hillary Clinton was not.” I guess it also never occurred to him that he was president and no one gave a shit about investigating Clinton when it wouldn’t damage her politically. Trump, though, is a cruel motherfucker. Trump wanted to hurt her personally by prosecuting her for...something.

That's a fucked-up area that no one has really touched, but it's an abuse of power as deep and as wrong as any of the dozens of others.
Posted by Rude One at 10:19 AM
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2019/04/ ... mp-is.html


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PostPosted: 04/23/19 11:59 am • # 60 
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Mueller's report: A profile of a president willing to sell out his country
It's hard to come to any conclusion other than Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office

JARED YATES SEXTON

hen Attorney General William Barr provided a brief, four-page summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation on March 22, it was obvious there were more questions remaining than answers. The full report was rumored to have clocked in at well over three hundred pages and Barr’s summary left much to be desired as to just what Mueller had uncovered. The message that Donald Trump would not be charged with offenses directly relating to Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, and that the Department of Justice had decided not to file charges of obstruction of justice, was met by celebration with some and puzzlement by others.

Having finally had a chance to look at an initial, redacted version of the report, Americans got a chance last Thursday to see for themselves just what horrors Attorney General Barr had been trying to bury for his president. In Mueller’s 448-page detailed narrative of his investigation, we saw the story of a campaign deeply steeped in Russian efforts to undermine our free and fair elections and a president attempting to or actively breaking the law to cover it up.

Though Barr’s continued misinformation campaign was meant to spin the report and Trump flip-flopped from trumpeting the investigation as totally exonerating him to characterizing it as “bullshit” on Saturday, Mueller leaves little doubt in his report as to just what he found. It’s as bad as anyone could have imagined, and, in many cases, so much worse.

vid at source

The first volume of the report details the Russian hacking of the 2016 Presidential election, its many operations that intended to aid Donald Trump’s election, and a troubling account of interactions between Trump’s campaign and those Russian operations. Though Mueller wasn’t able to prove there was an explicit conspiracy between Russia and the campaign, what he did find was a slew of interactions wherein the campaign and Russian individuals communicated and cooperated, every instance toeing the line between conduct that was technically legal but disturbing, and outright criminal.

It’s here that we see a clear picture emerging of the Trump Campaign as an organized crime cell where those involved are either so versed in shady activities that they’re able to skirt the line or else so incompetent that they couldn’t possibly be aware where the line was. In the case of Donald Trump, Jr., his meeting with Russians in Trump Tower fell into the latter territory as Mueller could not determine that he knew what he was doing was illegal and wasn’t sure he could successfully prosecute the president’s son.

In a disturbing incident, the Trump Campaign was not able to carry out conspiracy, but seemingly not for a lack of trying. Ordered by Trump to track down Hillary Clinton’s “missing emails,” Michael Flynn, the disgraced former National Security Advisor, contacted now-deceased operative Peter Smith, who attempted to reach foreign spies in Russia, China, and Iran. Erik Prince, founder of the mercenary force Blackwater and brother of current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, was involved in trying to find the emails and also attempted to meet with Russian individuals.

Another disturbing incident involved Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager who is currently in prison for a spate of crimes, who maintained ties with Russia after years of fixing relations for them in Ukraine and effectively instituting puppets for Vladimir Putin. Manafort provided Russian intelligence figure Konstantin Kilimnik with campaign polling numbers and discussed the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota, states that played an integral role in the election, thus raising the question: Did this conversation guide Russian interference in that direction?

That question remained unanswered, along with a slew of others, including how Trump and his campaign learned exactly when WikiLeaks would release the stolen DNC emails it had obtained from Russia, an anticipation that included an extensive media plan by the Trump Campaign that would capitalize on the problematic reveal of Democratic communiqués. Also, Mueller reaped no judgment as to whether it amounted to conspiracy when Donald Trump asked Russia on live television to find Clinton’s emails, a call that was actually met by Russian actions five hours later to do exactly what the Republican candidate asked them to do.

In the question of obstruction, Mueller may not have come to a conclusion, but the reason was a far cry from what Barr tried to sell to the public. Citing Department of Justice laws, Mueller admitted he could not indict a sitting president, but obviously intended for the matter to be decided by a Congress with a constitutional duty to impeach a criminal president. In this case, Mueller laid out several instances of Trump attempting to obstruct his investigation, both in public and private.

What is perhaps most upsetting about Mueller’s details of the obstruction case is that Trump attempted many times to actively commit the crime of obstruction, only for subordinates to refuse his orders. Donald McGahn threatened to resign after Trump told him to fire Mueller and lie about it. Chris Christie counseled Trump several times not to obstruct justice. Reince Priebus, his former chief of staff, tried to manage Trump but still found himself calling Michael Flynn to take his temperature and assure him he would be taken care of.

The case Mueller lays out for obstruction and possibly impeachment is compelling. It paints the portrait of a rogue president so desperate to avoid the probing eye of investigation, in some cases for concerns outside of the Russian matter, that he flails about and often breaks the law. In one instance, Trump raged over the perceived weakness of his former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, rambling at length about past attorneys general he believed were loyal to their presidents and protected them from prosecution, saying he needed an AG willing to break the law and inform him of investigations.

Overall, what was found within the report is a damning incrimination of a president willing to sell out his country, turn his back on duty and loyalty, and win at all costs, even if that meant cooperating with a foreign power in undermining free and fair elections. What’s more, it tells the tale of a man so unfit for office that those around him are constantly betraying his orders in an attempt to avoid their own prosecution.

Despite William Barr’s irresponsible spinning, this is the story of a prosecutor communicating to the American people and their representatives that the evidence is clear and critical. There are elements of both sections, conspiracy and obstruction, where Mueller was stymied by either eyewitnesses stonewalling or ongoing investigations yet to yield information, but Congress should act on this investigation and launch their own inquiries, more than likely opening the door to impeachment.

It’s hard, following a long and critical look at this report, to come to any conclusion other than Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office. Some will argue Democrats should not pursue this course because an impeachment would undoubtedly fail in a Republican Senate, but what Mueller has presented to the American people is a textbook case of an executive committing high crimes. Regardless of what Trump and his crony Attorney General claim, not to mention what his sycophantic news network and media orbit will scream from primetime to sign off, this story isn’t an exoneration, it’s a tragedy.

https://www.salon.com/2019/04/22/muelle ... s-country/


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PostPosted: 04/25/19 11:17 am • # 61 
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The official PDF of the Mueller report has been updated in a subtle but important way

https://qz.com/1601873/the-pdf-of-the-m ... ccessible/


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PostPosted: 04/25/19 1:59 pm • # 62 
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Hillary Clinton: Mueller documented a serious crime against all Americans. Here’s how to respond.

By Hillary Clinton April 24 at 4:44 PM
Hillary Clinton was the 2016 Democratic nominee for president.

Our election was corrupted, our democracy assaulted, our sovereignty and security violated. This is the definitive conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report. It documents a serious crime against the American people.

The debate about how to respond to Russia’s “sweeping and systematic” attack — and how to hold President Trump accountable for obstructing the investigation and possibly breaking the law — has been reduced to a false choice: immediate impeachment or nothing. History suggests there’s a better way to think about the choices ahead.

Obviously, this is personal for me, and some may say I’m not the right messenger. But my perspective is not just that of a former candidate and target of the Russian plot. I am also a former senator and secretary of state who served during much of Vladi­mir Putin’s ascent, sat across the table from him and knows firsthand that he seeks to weaken our country.

ADVERTISING

I am also someone who, by a strange twist of fate, was a young staff attorney on the House Judiciary Committee’s Watergate impeachment inquiry in 1974, as well as first lady during the impeachment process that began in 1998. And I was a senator for New York after 9/11, when Congress had to respond to an attack on our country. Each of these experiences offers important lessons for how we should proceed today.

First, like in any time our nation is threatened, we have to remember that this is bigger than politics. What our country needs now is clear-eyed patriotism, not reflexive partisanship. Whether they like it or not, Republicans in Congress share the constitutional responsibility to protect the country. Mueller’s report leaves many unanswered questions — in part because of Attorney General William P. Barr’s redactions and obfuscations. But it is a road map. It’s up to members of both parties to see where that road map leads — to the eventual filing of articles of impeachment, or not. Either way, the nation’s interests will be best served by putting party and political considerations aside and being deliberate, fair and fearless.

Opinion | The Mueller report is riddled with Trump's lies and manipulation
The president tried to manipulate the justice system. Congress must not let this go, argues the Editorial Board. (The Washington Post)

Second, Congress should hold substantive hearings that build on the Mueller report and fill in its gaps, not jump straight to an up-or-down vote on impeachment. In 1998, the Republican-led House rushed to judgment. That was a mistake then and would be a mistake now.


Watergate offers a better precedent. Then, as now, there was an investigation that found evidence of corruption and a coverup. It was complemented by public hearings conducted by a Senate select committee, which insisted that executive privilege could not be used to shield criminal conduct and compelled White House aides to testify. The televised hearings added to the factual record and, crucially, helped the public understand the facts in a way that no dense legal report could. Similar hearings with Mueller, former White House counsel Donald McGahn and other key witnesses could do the same today.

During Watergate, the House Judiciary Committee also began a formal impeachment inquiry that was led by John Doar, a widely respected former Justice Department official and hero of the civil rights struggle. He was determined to run a process that the public and history would judge as fair and thorough, no matter the outcome. If today’s House proceeds to an impeachment inquiry, I hope it will find someone as distinguished and principled as Doar to lead it.

Third, Congress can’t forget that the issue today is not just the president’s possible obstruction of justice — it’s also our national security. After 9/11, Congress established an independent, bipartisan commission to recommend steps that would help guard against future attacks. We need a similar commission today to help protect our elections. This is necessary because the president of the United States has proved himself unwilling to defend our nation from a clear and present danger. It was just reported that Trump’s recently departed secretary of homeland security tried to prioritize election security because of concerns about continued interference in 2020 and was told by the acting White House chief of staff not to bring it up in front of the president. This is the latest example of an administration that refuses to take even the most minimal, common-sense steps to prevent future attacks and counter ongoing threats to our nation.


Fourth, while House Democrats pursue these efforts, they also should stay focused on the sensible agenda that voters demanded in the midterms, from protecting health care to investing in infrastructure. During Watergate, Congress passed major legislation such as the War Powers Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973. For today’s Democrats, it’s not only possible to move forward on multiple fronts at the same time, it’s essential. The House has already passed sweeping reforms that would strengthen voting rights and crack down on corruption, and now is the time for Democrats to keep their foot on the gas and put pressure on the do-nothing Senate. It’s critical to remind the American people that Democrats are in the solutions business and can walk and chew gum at the same time.

We have to get this right. The Mueller report isn’t just a reckoning about our recent history; it’s also a warning about the future. Unless checked, the Russians will interfere again in 2020, and possibly other adversaries, such as China or North Korea, will as well. This is an urgent threat. Nobody but Americans should be able to decide America’s future. And, unless he’s held accountable, the president may show even more disregard for the laws of the land and the obligations of his office. He will likely redouble his efforts to advance Putin’s agenda, including rolling back sanctions, weakening NATO and undermining the European Union.

Of all the lessons from our history, the one that’s most important may be that each of us has a vital role to play as citizens. A crime was committed against all Americans, and all Americans should demand action and accountability. Our founders envisioned the danger we face today and designed a system to meet it. Now it’s up to us to prove the wisdom of our Constitution, the resilience of our democracy and the strength of our nation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... ost&wpmm=1


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PostPosted: 05/04/19 4:15 am • # 63 
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This is not satire??? :eyes

Trump, Putin discussed Mueller report and agreed no collusion, White House says
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the two leaders spoke by phone for an hour on Friday.

Dartunorro Clark

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Friday and both agreed "there was no collusion" between Moscow and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Sanders said that the two briefly discussed special counsel Robert Mueller's report "essentially in the context of that it's over and there was no collusion." She added that she was "pretty sure both leaders were very well aware of (the Mueller report's finding) long before this call took place" because it was "something we've said for the better part of two and a half years."

When asked if they also discussed election meddling by Russia that Mueller detailed in his report, she said that the administration is committed to securing American elections and blasted the Obama administration for not taking action in 2016.

"This administration, unlike the previous one, takes election meddling seriously," she said.

Trump later confirmed the call in a Friday tweet in which called the accusation of collusion the "Russian Hoax."

"Had a long and very good conversation with President Putin of Russia. As I have always said, long before the Witch Hunt started, getting along with Russia, China, and everyone is a good thing, not a bad thing," he tweeted. "We discussed Trade, Venezuela, Ukraine, North Korea, Nuclear Arms Control and even the 'Russian Hoax.' Very productive talk!"

Quote:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Had a long and very good conversation with President Putin of Russia. As I have always said, long before the Witch Hunt started, getting along with Russia, China, and everyone is a good thing, not a bad thing....

Since Mueller's findings were released by Attorney General William Barr in March and the full report was released last month, Trump has continued to claim vindication. Mueller's report, which lays out Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election, notes "that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." However, Mueller said in the report that he did not find a provable criminal conspiracy.

During Mueller’s probe, he indicted twenty-five Russian nationals and three Russian companies for hacking and a disinformation campaign targeting Americans on social media.

Trump previously came under fire from Republicans and Democrats for suggesting that Russia was not the culprit during a Helsinki summit with Putin last year, despite American intelligence agencies concluding that the country interfered in the election. He later walked back his comments.

Sanders also answered a question about whether White House counsel Don McGahn would testify before Congress as Democrats ramp up their oversight investigations into the administration. McGahn was a key witness in one of the 10 episodes of potential obstruction of justice by Trump that Mueller outlined in the report.

She also said that they discussed the crisis in Venezuela and the administration's need for a peaceful transition of power in the country and delivering aid to the country. Trump and Putin also talked about the need for Russia to put pressure on North Korea to denuclearize.

CORRECTION (May 3,2019, 1:51 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article incorrectly included one topic that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Presidents Trump and Putin discussed on Friday. They did not discuss the possibility of former White House counsel Don McGahn appearing before Congress. Sanders was answering a question from reporters about whether McGahn would testify before Congress.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white- ... e-n1001706

videos and live links at source


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PostPosted: 05/04/19 9:10 am • # 64 
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Not surprisingly, the DiC is already "kick[ing] and scream[ing]" ~ the only reaction to anything we can count on from him is that he will make his own problems worse ~ :ey ~ Sooz

Trump can ‘kick and scream’ — but he can’t prevent Don McGahn from testifying: Former prosecutor
Tana Ganeva / 03 May 2019 at 16:42 ET

On Thursday, President Donald Trump told Fox News that he didn’t want former White House counsel Don McGahn testifying.

“I’ve had him testifying already for 30 hours and it’s really — so I don’t think I can let him and then tell everybody else you can’t,” Trump said.

But Don McGahn is no longer a part of the administration. So there’s not much the President can do to prevent McGahn from appearing before Congress, despite how much it displeases the President.

On The Lead with Jake Tapper Friday, panelists pointed out that the President’s hands are tied.

“He can kick and scream, but Don McGahn is a private citizen,” said former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Elliot Williams.

“The president doesn’t want him to testify, but the president is trying to have it both ways by claiming to be the most open and transparent … yet manufacturing these claims of executive privilege that are actually quite thin.”

Watch:


https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/trump-can-kick-and-scream-but-he-cant-prevent-don-mcgahn-from-testifying-former-prosecutor/


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