This farcical press conference pre-report release will dominate today ~ but it's clear that the more we learn, the uglier it gets ~ ~ Sooz

AG Barr’s latest plan accused of ‘stinking to high heaven’
04/18/19 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen

[Video, The Rachel Maddow Show, 4/17/19, 9:00 PM ET, "Barr books preemptive press conference amid report release uproar", accessible via the end link.]

At this point yesterday, the road ahead seemed relatively clear. Attorney General Bill Barr’s office would release a redacted version this morning of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, shedding new light on the Russia scandal, while the congressional fight to obtain a complete version of the document continued.

But by early evening, the landscape grew considerably more complex. The attorney general announced plans, for example, for a morning press conference, to be held hours before the release of Mueller’s findings. We also learned that neither the special counsel himself nor anyone from his team would be available – just Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Complicating matters, the Justice Department told a federal court yesterday that Barr intended to make a different version of the Mueller report – with fewer redactions – available to a select group of congressional lawmakers. There was, however, a catch: they wouldn’t be able to take a copy with them, and the attorney general’s office hadn’t mentioned any of this to key members.

The New York Times then took the controversy in an even more startling direction.


So, the president faced accusations of criminal misconduct, and the Justice Department thought it’d be a good idea to give the president’s team private, undisclosed briefings on the investigation into that alleged misconduct, letting them know about the findings before anyone else?

On last night’s show, Rachel spoke with Neal Katyal, the former acting U.S. solicitor general who wrote the Justice Department’s regulations that define the office of the special counsel. He explained that he’s never heard of a situation in which the Justice Department provided a special briefing for the subject of an investigation, calling it a “breach of precedent” and a “breach of common sense.”

Katyal added that all of this “stinks to high heaven.”

Last week, as questions about the attorney general’s handling of the case grew louder, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Colo.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, praised Barr’s conduct, telling Fox News that Donald Trump’s handpicked AG has done everything “by the book.”

I’m curious: exactly which book would that be? Barr, who’s only been the president’s attorney general for two months, has spent a significant chunk of his limited tenure making up a process as he goes along. It’s a process that’s included writing misleading summaries, denying they’re summaries, endorsing strange conspiracy theories, and by some accounts, deliberately sitting on summaries that Mueller and his team intended to be disclosed to the public.

In 90 minutes, Barr will stand before reporters to answer questions about a report he hasn’t shown anyone – except his pals in the White House, who are the only folks who probably shouldn’t have had undisclosed briefings on the special counsel’s findings.

If the attorney general intended to undermine public confidence in his credibility and political independence, he’s doing an extraordinary job.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ag-barrs-latest-plan-accused-stinking-high-heaven

Barr is just another slimy tap-dancer for the DiC ~ ~ but the commentary itself does snap things into perspective ~ Sooz

IT’S COMING
Barr Spins for Trump Before Releasing Mueller Report
Special counsel walks off stage when asked why he spoke without giving evidence to the public first—including 10 episodes related to obstruction of justice.
Justin Miller, Betsy Woodruff / 04.18.19 9:34 AM ET

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Attorney General William Barr spun the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation before releasing the Mueller report to the public, proclaiming President Trump’s innocence over obstruction of justice.

During a press conference Thursday at the Justice Department, Barr said the Mueller investigation did not establish conspiracy between the Russian government and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 election. Barr said, however, Mueller’s report recounts ten “episodes” involving Trump and possible obstruction.

The attorney general said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that the evidence gathered by Mueller “is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

Barr then went on to exonerate Trump’s behavior.

“And as the special counsel’s report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks,” Barr said.

“Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel’s investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the president took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the president had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation.”

Barr’s words were in sharp contrast to those of Mueller himself.

“While this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” Mueller stated, according to a four-page letter Barr sent Congress last month notifying the end of the special counsel’s investigation.

Nevertheless, Trump and his allies declared the report cleared him of any wrongdoing.

In a dramatic end of the press conference, Barr walked off stage when he was asked why he spoke before releasing the report.

Over the past four weeks, Barr has worked to redact portions of Mueller’s report that contained grand jury information, classified intelligence, and what he said were allegations that could disparage people who were not charged with crimes.

The report, which is said to be nearly 400 pages, will be handed over to Congress where Democrats have said they are prepared to sue the Justice Department to see Mueller’s findings in their entirety.

Mueller’s office indicted 34 people—more than any other special counsel in history—including high-level figures in Trump’s world: former senior campaign officials Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, long-time political advisor Roger Stone, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and former Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen. The Cohen case involving hush money paid to Trump’s purported mistresses was handed off to federal prosecutors in Manhattan who implicated the president in the illegal scheme.

The special counsel’s investigation started in dramatic fashion: Mueller was appointed by Rosenstein after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, an act Mueller investigated for possible obstruction of justice. Trump reportedly considered firing Mueller that summer, a veritable sword that hung over the special counsel as Trump publicly fumed about the investigation he variously called illegal or a hoax since it started.

Mueller has not said a word publicly in almost two years, creating a ravenous appetite to learn what would be in his report.

But even before the report’s release, the story of Mueller’s work was hidden in plain sight: a global conspiracy centered in the Kremlin to elect Trump as president.

In an unprecedented attack on political infrastructure of the United States, military officers in Russia hacked into Democrats’ computers, stole emails, and release them to embarrass Hillary Clinton. The plot was first hatched years earlier, according to Mueller’s team, when Russians began studying how to manipulate Americans and turn them against each other, with one key lesson being to exploit the country’s racism. Working from a “troll farm” in St. Petersburg, Russians spread anti-Clinton fake news and pro-Trump propaganda across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram—all the while Silicon Valley slept.

At the same time, Russians approached the Trump campaign with promises of “dirt” on Clinton in the form of emails and offers for Trump to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. In both cases, the offers apparently went unrealized. Mueller’s investigation also revealed Russia offered to help Trump build a skyscraper in Moscow while he ran for president—contrary to his repeated statements he had “no business in Russia”—with Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen calling the Kremlin for assistance.

Though the Trump campaign was not accused by Mueller of colluding with Russia, the investigation revealed it spoke to two figures adjacent to Moscow’s scheme. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort gave polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, who Mueller says is linked to Russian intelligence. (Their meeting goes to the “heart” of the investigation, Mueller’s team said in a court hearing that remains partially redacted.) Roger Stone, a former Trump advisor and long-time friend, allegedly asked WikiLeaks through intermediaries about upcoming email releases.

Finally, Mueller’s investigation exposed Washington corruption that was seen as just another way of doing business: unregistered foreign lobbying. Manafort and Gates were charged with illegally lobbying D.C. on behalf of Ukrainian political interests. Democratic power players Tony Podesta and Greg Craig were also investigated for the same violations, with Craig being indicted this month after Mueller’s investigation finished.

While Mueller’s investigation is over, his work lives on across the Justice Department, with prosecutors preparing to try Stone in D.C. and Flynn’s former business partner in Virginia. Manhattan federal prosecutors fed by Mueller’s work continue to investigate the president’s business and inaugural committee.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/barr-to-release-redacted-mueller-report-on-trump-obstruction-russia-election-interference-collusion?ref=home

This commentary speaks for itself ~ Sooz

Here are 8 reasons why Barr’s only press conference should be the one where he resigns
written by Mark Sumner / Raw Story April 18, 2019

Ten days ago, Attorney General William Barr visited Capitol Hill, where his uniform response to every question about the report prepared by special counsel Robert Mueller was the same: He would not talk about the contents of the report until Congress first had a chance to look at it. Then, on Wednesday, days after Barr had promised to deliver the report, he announced that he would talk about the report before it’s available to Congress. He will hold a press conference more than an hour before a hard copy of the “color coded” redacted report is released, and an unknown amount of time before the report is made accessible on the Department of Justice’s website.

The extent to which this event is pure political theater is made clear by one fact: Mueller will not take part. Barr is, once again, “summarizing” what the special counsel found, without any input from the special counsel himself. It’s exactly the same tack that Barr took in writing his three-page letter to Congress, and with the same intent: provide cover to Donald Trump regardless of the evidence. This blatant effort to spin the results has generated calls for Barr to cancel the news conference from the chairs of the House Judiciary, Intelligence, Oversight, Finance, and Foreign Affairs committees.

During his visit to Congress, Barr made conflicting and evasive statements about whether or not he had shared the contents of the report with the White House. Though neither Barr nor Trump officials have given a definitive answer, it’s now clear that Barr has not only made the report available to the White House, but he’s also made his redactions clear to them. The White House not only knows what’s there, it knows what is not there. That knowledge has allowed Trump’s legal team to tailor a “counter report” to be released to attack the conclusions that are still visible in the redacted report. Trump’s team has had weeks to work on refining its message, while the rest of the nation was held in the dark. In essence, Barr has provided the White House with the information he still refuses to give to Congress.

Though it’s unclear to what extent the redacted report will make a case for the removal of Trump, the way in which Barr has handled the report makes a compelling and irrefutable case for the removal of the attorney general. At every stage, Barr has acted to hide information from both Congress and the public, provide information to Trump’s legal team, and act as a propaganda agent rather than a law officer.

The only press conference from Barr that should be acceptable is one at which he announces his resignation.

1. On receipt of the report from the special counsel’s office, Barr wrote a “summary” that contained not a single full sentence of the actual report.

2. In less than 48 hours, Barr not only wrote his brief summary of the 400-page report, but absolved Trump of charges of obstruction—something the report explicitly did not do.

3. In creating his summary, Barr did not consult with the special counsel’s office, and the letter he provided did not come with any assurance from that office of its accuracy.

4. Barr continually refused to comment on the report before Congress, saying that there was no point in doing so before Congress had had a chance to read the actual report.

5. Barr then announced that he would hold a press conference in advance of the release of the redacted report, before either Congress or the public had had a chance to read a single word or view the extent of redactions.

6. Before, during, and after his congressional testimony, Barr made it seem that he had not shared the report with the White House—though he had clearly briefed the White House on its contents.

7. Neither Mueller nor any representative of his office is taking part in Barr’s pre-redacted-report press conference.

8. Though Barr made claims that members of the special counsel’s office were “at the table” during the redaction process, it’s unclear that they had any actual authority in determining how the report was treated. There has been no letter or announcement from that office providing any endorsement or reassurance concerning the redactions.

In addition to the hard copy, a version of the report is apparently due to be delivered on the intentionally clunky mechanism of “compact discs.” The description of multiple discs suggests that it is being provided in the form of images, rather than text, making it more difficult to search and select text from the report.

Barr’s office is intended to be the chief law enforcement body for the people of the United States, not an extension of Trump’s personal legal team. Through his clear actions, Barr has worked to obscure the contents of the report. He has given intentionally confusing and deceptive responses on what he has shared with the White House. He has continually made every choice in a way that protects Trump … and he hasn’t even tried to disguise that fact.

Even aside from the way he has handled the Mueller report, Barr has demonstrated that he holds not just a singular view of an all-powerful unitary executive, but a view of the attorney general’s role that is basically incompatible with the needs of the nation. Congress can consider whether it has sufficient evidence to impeach Trump. It should have no such doubts about Barr—the evidence is far more than sufficient.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/here-are-8-reasons-why-barrs-only-press-conference-should-be-the-one-where-he-resigns/

as Maddow pointed out last night, Barr has a history of doing this.

Any ethical attorney would hide in shame if ever compared to Roy Cohn ~ ~ Sooz

Trump finally found his ‘win-at-all-costs’ lawyer in Bill Barr: former federal prosecutor
Sarah K. Burris / 21 Apr 2019 at 22:56 ET

President Donald Trump famously demanded, “Where’s my Roy Cohn,” wishing for his infamous disbarred lawyer that did whatever it took to take care of Trump and his family.

Cohn makes a few appearances in the special counsel’s report, primarily about White House counsel Don McGahn, who Trump viewed as someone who wouldn’t fight for him the way his late lawyer would.

The president “expressed anger at Don McGahn and brought up Roy Cohn, stating that he wished that Cohn was his attorney, suggesting that Cohn would fight for the president whereas McGahan would not,” Robert Mueller’s report said.

According to MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt, after a series of decisions from Attorney General Bill Barr “from releasing his four-page summary to debriefing the Trump legal team ahead of the report’s release, to holding that highly scrutinized news conference on Thursday, many Democrats believe the president has finally found a lawyer who will fight for him.”

It’s now been revealed that Barr lied about what the Muller report concluded in his summary.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance called it “unfortunate” that an official attorney general has become nothing more than another Trump lackey.

“It’s painful to say that about a sitting Attorney general, frankly, and I think people have tried to bend over backward to give Bill Barr every possible explanation for his conduct,” she said. “But there is such a difference between his opening statement, his presentation of this report, and what’s actually in it that the only possible explanation is that it was his effort to give the president talking points and headlines to try to divert the American people from the truth.”

Washington Post reporter Phil Rucker recalled a moment cited in the Mueller report that transpired between McGahn and Trump where the president seemed horrified by the White House lawyer taking notes.

“Why are you taking notes? Lawyers don’t take notes. I had Roy Cohn who didn’t make notes?” Trump said.

McGahn replied that he was a “real” lawyer. Those note ultimately ended up in the Mueller report, much to Trump’s chagrin.

“As we read through the obstruction section of the Mueller report, Mueller has this legal framework for evaluating obstruction,” Vance noted. “You have to have an obstructive act. There has to be a nexus to a legal proceeding that you’re trying to obstruct, and then you to have this sort of wrongful intent, the intent to damage that investigation. And so he works through that very carefully.”

She explained that over and over the president is seen doing this same thing to those around him.

“The key point in the obstruction statutes is you don’t have to actually succeed in obstructing,” she explained. “All you have to do is make the attempt. And here we have the president doing that so this notion that the people around him kept him from committing obstruction is actually not correct. They didn’t. He did attempt to obstruct. Perhaps they kept him from being successful. But that’s the best that we can say for any of them. They knew what was going on. They didn’t bring it to light. They let it continue for a long time.”

Watch the full discussion below: [video accessible via the end link].

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/04/trump-finally-found-win-costs-lawyer-bill-barr-former-federal-prosecutor/

This was on my Facebook feed from MoveOn, with the comment "This is solid logic. For a 4-year-old." ~ ~ Sooz

that is precisely what Clinton supporters argued about his perjury charge.

It's obvious that Barr's mentality is fired by different triggers ~ ~ Sooz

Bill Barr has ties to ultra-conservative Opus Dei — and that could explain his ‘ends justify the means’ corruption
Tom Boggioni / 04 May 2019 at 12:27 ET

In an extensive post at the Daily Kos, contributor Frank Cocozzelli connects the dots between Attorney General Bill Barr’s previous work with the ultra-conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei and his recent behavior, and suggests that relationship might have influenced his decision to give President Donald Trump a pass after reviewing a highly critical report from special counsel Robert Mueller.

According to the writer, and as noted by Barr’s own answers to a congressional questionnaire, Barr served as a director of the Catholic Information Center (2014-1017), director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (2004-2009). The CIC “serves as Opus Dei’s de facto Washington, D.C. base of operations. Its staff and board of directors are stocked with members of the personal prelature”s members (as well as members of the Ethics and Public Policy Center),” Cocozzelli wrote before adding, “is hard to imagine any director of CIC not having some sort of developed relationship with Opus Dei.”

“This relationship may help explain his apparent ‘ends justifies the means’ strategy,” the writer offered accompanied by a small sampling of the workings of Opus Dei.

“Opus Dei is openly more concerned with the economic self-interest of ‘friends’ who already have superfluous wealth and power, often at the expense of the economically less powerful. They are not ashamed of the organization’s wealth, but are actually conspicuous about it as evidenced by its new seventeen-story 243 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York headquarters,” he wrote.

He added, “Despite protestations, wealthier Opus members use politics as the means to further its own financial as well as theological interests. As Damian Thompson, editor-in-chief of the British Catholic Herald correctly noted, ‘What no one can dismiss (because it is true) is the allegation that Opus Dei seeks the advancement not only of its message but also of its own interests: hence the endless courting of cardinals, bishops and even journalists’.”

“The Attorney General has in the past spoken with language that is in line with the goals of both Opus Dei’s and the EPPC’s overlapping agendas,” Cocozzelli suggested. “This past December Americans United’s Rob Boston reminded us of Barr’s past theological screeds. These run the gamut from condemning public schools (they had undergone a ‘moral lobotomy’); in a 1992 address to Bill Donohue’s Catholic League, he called for the imposition of ‘God’s law’ in America. In that same address he went after contemporary supporters of the separation of church and state (‘The secularists of today are clearly fanatics’).

He then added as a warning, “What is it about Republicans such as William Barr who are willing to destroy the norms of both justice and American democracy; what drives men such as him? To this observer, it seems it is the overwhelming desire to impose both a theocratic cultural agenda coupled with a laissez-faire-tinged brand of capitalism rapidly devolving into a new feudalism.”

You can read more –with links — here.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/ag-bill-barr-has-ties-to-ultra-conservative-catholic-opus-dei-and-that-could-explain-his-ends-justify-the-means-corruption/

if he's not in deep shit already, he will be.

Feudalism would be a wet dream for the right wing evangelicals.

In an extensive post at the Daily Kos, contributor Frank Cocozzelli connects the dots......

Oh shit! A left wing Glenn Beck!


There's no back alley, space alien, secret conclave crap between Grabem and Barr. Grabem tells Barr and Barr does what he's told. It's simple.