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The Robert Mueller Investigation


Hugo Stiglitz

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Benjamin Wittes has a great article breaking down Barr's several slight-of-hand mis-characterizations that build upon each other to the point that the DOJ has become the defense attorney of trrump.  Wittes was a guy that had previously given Barr the benefit of the doubt but here freely describes the destroyed reputation of both Barr and unfortunately the DOJ.  It is crazy how so many of our agencies have devolved under trump - FAA, ICE, Homeland, State, Education. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/bill-barrs-performance-was-catastrophic/588574/

 

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14 hours ago, Crusher said:

Exactly. Regardless of what you think, Trump is their boss. If the DOJ and the Intelligence agencies choose to go down some rabbit hole or even worse, use their powers to overthrow their legitimately elected boss he has every right to fire them. 

This whole Russian Collusion thing was a joke fueled by a piece of what looks like now Russian disinformation called the Trump dossier. Either the top officials at the DOJ and FBI were too stupid to recognize it for what it was or they were in on it. Either way they were ripe to be fired. Barr is going to find out which it was and 69 % of Americans agree with him.

It's over.

And then the pee tape drops one month after he leaves office.  Trump will spend whatever time he has left in office vilifying all information sources and institutions previously thought to be credible and installing only the ones supporting his narrative as credible.  When his time as the useful idiot eroding our institutions has passed, the trump card gets played.  Trust in traditional institutions gone. Trust in what was offered to replace them also gone.  I’ve got little doubt he’s compromised and the reason we haven’t seen it is that there’s more corrosive value in saving it for a later date. 

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12 hours ago, Crusher said:

You don't have to be highly educated to know when your being fed bullshit. Actually the less educated have better bullshit detector than the any of the corrupt assholes we saw the other day in Senate hearing. Less educated and poor people see right through that shit. Less educated doesn't mean stupid. You should know better.

The people want the investigation into the investigators. Hell CNN's own poll said it is true.

It's over.

It's never going to be over. 

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For those of you scoring at home, Crusher attempted to gaslight most of last night about the dossier. He lied and claimed the NYTimes said the dossier was false. He was corrected and continued to lie about it.

When another poster posted an article by the Washington Post, which shows that lots of the claims in the dossier are supported by Mueller's report, Crusher chose not to read it and continued to lie. When I posted the entire article for him, he refused to read it and continued to lie. 

Anyone that reads a Crusher post should know that he is a liar and chooses to remain poorly informed and chooses to continue to lie and gaslight. Unfortunately, he is just parroting what he is told and represents the majority position of the Trumpublican party.

We're fucked and it's because of assholes like Crusher not holding their own party accountable and blatantly lying to the rest of us. 

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13 minutes ago, EuroHorn said:

I’m willing to bet you aren’t scoring at home ...

Anyone reading this thread consistently has a good sense for which posters are being intellectually honest and which ones are gaslighting pieces of shit. Anastasis is smarter than the rest of you though, so it took a little longer for the board to figure him out. 

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30 minutes ago, suddenly shaggy said:

For those of you scoring at home, Crusher attempted to gaslight most of last night about the dossier. He lied and claimed the NYTimes said the dossier was false. He was corrected and continued to lie about it.

When another poster posted an article by the Washington Post, which shows that lots of the claims in the dossier are supported by Mueller's report, Crusher chose not to read it and continued to lie. When I posted the entire article for him, he refused to read it and continued to lie. 

Anyone that reads a Crusher post should know that he is a liar and chooses to remain poorly informed and chooses to continue to lie and gaslight. Unfortunately, he is just parroting what he is told and represents the majority position of the Trumpublican party.

We're fucked and it's because of assholes like Crusher not holding their own party accountable and blatantly lying to the rest of us. 

The most important point is that it is completely irrelevant whether some of the dossier is accurate, most of it is accurate, or none of it is accurate. Its a false analysis that plays to the GOP/trump/Fox narrative.

The only point that is relevant is that everyone knew that the dossier was simply unverified intelligence. The FISA courts knew this. The journalists who had the dossier for months prior to the election and didn't publish knew this. Unverified intelligence is simply gossip. The purpose of unverified intelligence is to point investigative journalist and federal investigators in various directions to confirm or substantiate rumors. That is the only purpose of unverified intelligence. 

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17 hours ago, GW Hayduke said:

Quality podcast. First 10 minutes is a rather scathing take on Barr's current reputation and how he handled Mueller.  

https://www.lawfareblog.com/rational-security-eating-your-soul-small-bites-edition

First three minutes is somewhat insufferable cackling and Harry Potter references, and I almost gave up, but stuck with it, and when they calmed down this was actually very good.  Thanks for mentioning.

Don't know this group -- linked to Brookings?

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5 minutes ago, tantric superman said:

First three minutes is somewhat insufferable cackling and Harry Potter references, and I almost gave up, but stuck with it, and when they calmed down this was actually very good.  Thanks for mentioning.

Don't know this group -- linked to Brookings?

The beginning about trump eating souls was referring to Comey's oped breaking down the decline of rosenstein, barr, and others. It was rather funny if you had read the oped.  They are with brookings and lawfare. Hennessey and Wittes always provide superior insight and analysis

Edited by GW Hayduke
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7 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

The most important point is that it is completely irrelevant whether some of the dossier is accurate, most of it is accurate, or none of it is accurate. Its a false analysis that plays to the GOP/trump/Fox narrative.

The only point that is relevant is that everyone knew that the dossier was simply unverified intelligence. The FISA courts knew this. The journalists who had the dossier for months prior to the election and didn't publish knew this. Unverified intelligence is simply gossip. The purpose of unverified intelligence is to point investigative journalist and federal investigators in various directions to confirm or substantiate rumors. That is the only purpose of unverified intelligence. 

Agreed. It's raw intelligence that should be only partially accurate. It helps form probable cause for an investigation and shows where to start digging. It's telling though that the only thing that has been proven false in the entire dossier is Cohen to Prague. Lots of the rest of it are verified or at least partially supported. Like so many other issues right now, Trumpublicans are busy gaslighting the rest of the public. 

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So by Monday, both Trump’s personal attorney and campaign manager will be in prison serving hard time for some crimes that came at the direction and coordination of the president of the United States.

Trump’s national security adviser, who turned out to be a lying traitor, is still awaiting sentencing.  

Trump’s longtime political adviser is awaiting trial for obstruction of justice crimes related to the Russian interference in the 2016 election.  

Also, Trump’s deputy campaign manager, who is still a fully cooperating witness to multiple criminal investigations, is also awaiting sentencing. 

I’m sure history will look back at this moment in time and say meh, Watergate was worse. 

/sarcasm 

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One of the reasons I'm not all around great "advocate" is that if my legal case is shitty, I quickly resolve it.  I've always myself as someone who is advocating to my own client to get to the right result.  The defense of Barr is that he really does believe in the power of the executive at the expense of the other branches, AND he's going to be a pure, shameless,  advocate to the point to making very unsustainable circular arguments. "Hard to prove conspiracy -- therefore no conspiracy (WTF?).  Since no conspiracy has been proven, therefore no collusion(WTF?).  Since no conspiracy, then Trump could not have had conspiratorial motives (WTF?)."

At worst it's despicable and at best it's just advocating a shitty, unsustainable legal position. 

 

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9 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

The beginning about trump eating souls was referring to Comey's oped breaking down the decline of rosenstein, barr, and others. It was rather funny if you had read the oped.  They are with brookings and lawfare. Hennessey and Wittes always provide superior insight and analysis

It still sounded like a bad morning wake-up show.  But once it got going it was great.

I'm generally an old man grouch about the speaking quality of podcasts.  I can't fucking deal with vocal fry at all, and the ending of declaratory statements with "right?" drives me crazy.  And that's REALLY common on podcasts with 20-40 year olds.   These guys all did a good job and it was easy to listen to them.  There was one female on the show who had some wonderful, controlled yet angry jazzy rants that I really liked.

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4 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

So by Monday, both Trump’s personal attorney and campaign manager will be in prison serving hard time for some crimes that came at the direction and coordination of the president of the United States.

Trump’s national security adviser, who turned out to be a lying traitor, is still awaiting sentencing.  

Trump’s longtime political adviser is awaiting trial for obstruction of justice crimes related to the Russian interference in the 2016 election.  

Also, Trump’s deputy campaign manager, who is still a fully cooperating witness to multiple criminal investigations, is also awaiting sentencing. 

I’m sure history will look back at this moment in time and say meh, Watergate was worse. 

/sarcasm 

Should sticky that somewhere so we can just post a link when the trolls try to claim the Mueller investigation didn't reveal any evidence of wrongdoing. They have alternative  reading skills, so they won't have read this post the next time they claim the investigation is a witch hunt. 

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1 hour ago, GW Hayduke said:

 

Benjamin Wittes has a great article breaking down Barr's several slight-of-hand mis-characterizations that build upon each other to the point that the DOJ has become the defense attorney of trrump.  Wittes was a guy that had previously given Barr the benefit of the doubt but here freely describes the destroyed reputation of both Barr and unfortunately the DOJ.  It is crazy how so many of our agencies have devolved under trump - FAA, ICE, Homeland, State, Education. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/bill-barrs-performance-was-catastrophic/588574/

 

The attorney general of the United States is advocating for a position that we can only charge someone with obstruction of justice if they weren’t good enough to pull it off. 

The attorney general of the United States says it’s ok to obstruct justice as long as you do it so well they can’t prove the underlying crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

The man should be impeached and disbarred. 

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34 minutes ago, tantric superman said:

First three minutes is somewhat insufferable cackling and Harry Potter references, and I almost gave up, but stuck with it, and when they calmed down this was actually very good.  Thanks for mentioning.

Don't know this group -- linked to Brookings?

The Lawfare crew is pretty much all Brookings people. Wittes can be a dope on a lot of “I always initially trust guys like Kavanaugh and Barr and they always make me look like a dumbass for it” type shit, but overall the site is really good and the Rational Security podcast they do is typically a good listen. 

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With regards to Mueller publicly testifying, there has to be some cloak room calculation of when best to have Mueller publicly testify.  It appears Lindsey Graham recently came to this realization when he pulled a 180 on having Mueller testify.  

Mueller’s testimony is the most powerful political weapon the democrats have and Graham would be wise to have Mueller testify for him first to take away and minimize the potential damage, like he did with Barr.  

The calculation for democrats is:

1. Do you have Mueller testify just to better educate the public so they can make a better informed decision in the 2020 election?

2.  Do you use Mueller’s testimony as the impetus to begin impeachment proceedings?

OR

3.  Do you begin impeachment proceedings and use Mueller’s testimony in that process to rally public support for a bipartisan effort to remove Trump?

I would go with option 3 because the Mueller report screams over and over again Trump is a national security threat and needs to be removed  by Congress because he is beyond the reach of the law while in office (due to current DOJ guidelines).

The democrats beginning the impeachment process before public testimony from Mueller is a good faith signal to Mueller that his work speaks well enough for itself and it just needs to be crystallized for the American people.  

Edited by Hugo Stiglitz
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12 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

The attorney general of the United States is advocating for a position that we can only charge someone with obstruction of justice if they weren’t good enough to pull it off. 

The attorney general of the United States says it’s ok to obstruct justice as long as you do it so well they can’t prove the underlying crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

The man should be impeached and disbarred. 

Such a patently obvious point, but in an age of shameless partisanship, your ceiling on people who will believe the obvious is about 52%

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The second question would be “is there sufficient evidence that president trump attempted to obstruct your investigation or the FBIs investigation that would allow a jury to conclude that the president is guilt of the crime of obstruction of justice.”

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27 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

 

The attorney general of the United States says it’s ok to obstruct justice as long as you do it so well they can’t prove the underlying crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

Bears repeating- In a hypothetical scenario where...

1) I walk out onto 5th Avenue and shoot someone

2) Half a dozen witnesses agree to testify against me at trial

3) I post on each witness' social media that I know people in low places and we wouldn't want something bad to happen to them or their family

4) All witnesses then renege on their agreement to testify

5) Based on witnesses refusing to testify, prosecutors doubt their ability to convict beyond a reasonable doubt and refuse to prosecute the shooting as a crime

 

...Attorney General William Barr believes I can't be prosecuted for obstruction of justice because there's no underlying crime. It makes sense that he publicly stated in the Senate hearing that he didn't look at obstruction of justice evidence because at that point, to him, it's moot.

 

It's a standard that if allowed prevail would dare any future politician NOT to be corrupt. It would put almost any future candidate with any integrity running for office at an almost insurmountable disadvantage and power dive this country into a race to the bottom. It's a Pandora's Box that you will not be able to close.

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7 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

Bears repeating- In a hypothetical scenario where...

1) I walk out onto 5th Avenue and shoot someone

2) Half a dozen witnesses agree to testify against me at trial

3) I post on each witness' social media that I know people in low places and we wouldn't want something bad to happen to them or their family

4) All witnesses then renege on their agreement to testify

5) Based on witnesses refusing to testify, prosecutors doubt their ability to convict beyond a reasonable doubt and refuse to prosecute the shooting as a crime

 

...Attorney General William Barr believes I can't be prosecuted for obstruction of justice because there's no underlying crime. It makes sense that he publicly stated in the Senate hearing that he didn't look at obstruction of justice evidence because at that point, to him, it's moot.

 

It's a standard that if allowed prevail would dare any future politician NOT to be corrupt. It would put almost any future candidate with any integrity running for office at an almost insurmountable disadvantage and power dive this country into a race to the bottom. It's a Pandora's Box that you will not be able to close.

Exactly. The reason mueller can’t prove a conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt is Manafort won’t cop to it and destroyed evidence of it. 

The reason Manafort won’t cop to it is because trump is obstructing justice and therefore Manafort believes trump will pardon him because he knows how much of a piece of shit the president is. 

So barr is letting trump get away with criminal obstruction, which allows trump to get away with the underlying crime if it did in fact happen which is unproven either because it didn’t happen or because of trumps obstruction. 

Thats why you don’t let criminals obstruct justice. 

Duh. 

Edited by JimmyJames
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1 hour ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

Bears repeating- In a hypothetical scenario where...

1) I walk out onto 5th Avenue and shoot someone

2) Half a dozen witnesses agree to testify against me at trial

3) I post on each witness' social media that I know people in low places and we wouldn't want something bad to happen to them or their family

4) All witnesses then renege on their agreement to testify

5) Based on witnesses refusing to testify, prosecutors doubt their ability to convict beyond a reasonable doubt and refuse to prosecute the shooting as a crime

 

...Attorney General William Barr believes I can't be prosecuted for obstruction of justice because there's no underlying crime. It makes sense that he publicly stated in the Senate hearing that he didn't look at obstruction of justice evidence because at that point, to him, it's moot.

 

It's a standard that if allowed prevail would dare any future politician NOT to be corrupt. It would put almost any future candidate with any integrity running for office at an almost insurmountable disadvantage and power dive this country into a race to the bottom. It's a Pandora's Box that you will not be able to close.

I'll give you some rep but it's maddening that this is so obvious it shouldn't even be worth stating. 

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The bad news is Trump is Putin’s useful idiot stooge.  The good news is as far as useful idiot stooges go, Trump is really shitty because he’s too much of an idiot to be really useful.  

Often is the setback with useful idiots. You need them to work on your behalf but they’re still incompetent idiots which makes their actual usefulness only go so far.  Point being, it could be much worse. 

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4 minutes ago, Grade of D as in David said:

 

It was before Brexit.

Hmm. Interesting. Is he pro brexit? 

And while we’re on the subject, and as for Chrispy troll, has anyone ever seen him make a substantive non troll post? Because I haven’t. Maybe I missed it though. 

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Eurohorn is maybe the most worthless poster on this site.  He never has anything to add to a discussion, always just a drive-by GIF or comment.  I negged him for one of his dumbbass comments last week and like a child he retaliated by going through my posting history and negging every comment he could.

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12 hours ago, bolverk said:

@Anastasis

I acknowledge that you've stated multiple times Trump can and should be impeached on charges of obstruction of justice and because of his behavior at Helsinki. You have not, so far as I can recollect, agreed with Mueller's assessment that the Trump campaign desired, requested, expected, and received Kremlin assistance. Once you do that, I'll stahp haranguing you about it. It'll be finished.

We've come a far way from the theories espoused by some here, Trump campaign organizing and funding hackers working under Kremlin direction, coordinating targeting and content development, to where we are today, which is a good thing I think.

I think that the Trump campaign actively sought politically compromising material that could be used to discredit the Clinton campaign.

I think that the Trump campaign did not give a fuck where the information came from, including if it came from sources with a slavic surname or foreign connections.

I think that the Trump campaign was a clown show unfamiliar with how polite company run these sorts of opposition operations. Through a screen of lawyers.  

I think that Trump actively and openly asked Russia to go after clinton, mostly as a rhetorical device in a series of pressers but probably with some real sense of yeah expose her shit if possible.

I think that Russia ran a social media operation, hacked the DNC, and hacked the campaign manager of the Clinton campaign.  The latter was a pretty basic phishing attack that a junior intern should be trained against. I think that the releases of that information were damaging, and brought into focus a number of the concerns that pre-existed regarding Clinton. Her cozyness with wall street, the foundation, general political issues, and aspects related to the impartiality of the DNC during the primary.  I think that a lot of people would like to deflect, rather than recognize that some of the inner workings when brought to light were damaging. 

I think that the Kremlin acted to stoke existing political divisions because our shit is all fucked up and we are a failing society at this point.

I think that foreign influence on American politics is problematic. I can list a number of countries that I have serious concerns about their profound influence on our politics. Russia is not at the top of that list, but ranks high.

I think that domestic interference in the election had a more measurable direct impact on the election than foreign interference. 

I think that everything that I said above is generally consistent with Mueller's report; however, if there is something specific in the report that you would like me to comment on, please quote it and I will be happy to respond. 

Edited by Anastasis
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4 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

We've come a far way from the theories espoused by some here, Trump campaign organizing and funding hackers working under Kremlin direction, coordinating targeting and content development, to where we are today, which is a good thing I think.

I think that the Trump campaign actively sought politically compromising material that could be used to discredit the Clinton campaign.

I think that the Trump campaign did not give a fuck where the information came from, including if it came from sources with a slavic surname or foreign connections.

I think that the Trump campaign was a clown show unfamiliar with how polite company run these sorts of opposition operations. Through a screen of lawyers.  

I think that Trump actively and opening asked Russia to go after clinton, mostly as a rhetorical device in a series of pressers but probably with some real sense of yeah expose her shit if possible.

I think that Russia ran a social media operation, hacked the DNC, and hacked the campaign manager of the Clinton campaign.  The latter was a pretty basic phishing attack that a junior intern should be trained against. I think that the releases of that information were damaging, and brought into focus a number of the concerns that pre-existed regarding Clinton. Her cozyness with wall street, the foundation, general political issues, and aspects related to the impartiality of the DNC during the primary.  I think that a lot of people would like to deflect, rather than recognize that some of the inner workings when brought to light were damaging. 

I think that the Kremlin acted to stoke existing political divisions because our shit is all fucked up and we are a failing society at this point.

I think that foreign influence on American politics is problematic. I can list a number of countries that I have serious concerns about their profound influence on our politics. Russia is not at the top of that list, but ranks high.

I think that domestic interference in the election had a more measurable direct impact on the election than foreign interference. 

I think that everything that I said above is generally consistent with Mueller's report; however, if there is something specific in the report that you would like me to comment on, please quote it and I will be happy to respond. 

Good post. And I agree with almost all of it.

But I would add that the reason our society “may” be failing, is largely due to the actions of the Republican Party, of which I used to, and to my own youthful ignorance and now shame, supported. 

The republicans are now a party of lies, which are more destructive to a normal society than anything else, even violence. And that includes inconsequential bullshit like the size of an inauguration. 

 Because at least with violence there can be acknowledgment of wrongs and worked through remedies. With constant lies, nothing can ever be resolved. 

Trump and the republicans are now the party of lies. The republicans didn’t used to be that way but now having embraced trump, they are.

My sometimes problem with you is you either seem to not acknowlege that or sometimes perpetuate that. I would hope you would put that to a stop 

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10 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

Good post. And I agree with almost all of it.

But I would add that the reason our society “may” be failing, is largely due to the actions of the Republican Party, of which I used to, and to my own youthful ignorance and now shame, supported. 

The republicans are now a party of lies, which are more destructive to a normal society than anything else, even violence. And that includes inconsequential bullshit like the size of an inauguration. 

  Because at least with violence there can be acknowledgment of wrongs and worked through remedies. With constant lies, nothing can ever be resolved. 

 Trump and the republicans are now the party of lies. The republicans didn’t used to be that way but now having embraced trump, they are.

 My sometimes problem with you is you either seem to not acknowlege that or sometimes perpetuate that. I would hope you would put that to a stop 

I commit to you that I will never vote for a Republican. I've only pulled the lever for one in one specific case, and regret it to this day. My feelings wrt the Republican party establishment have been stated clearly and consistently. 

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