Attorney General William Barr Reiterates at Press Conference: No Collusion, No Obstruction
“the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other American for that matter.”
Attorney General William Barr once again reiterated that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report found that President Donald Trump and his campaign did not collude with Russia. He also stressed that he and Rosenstein did not find evidence that Trump obstructed justice.
You can read Barr’s full statement here at the DOJ website.
Volume 1 of the Mueller report discusses Russia’s attempt to interfere with our 2016 election. However, Mueller and his team did not find evidence that President Donald Trump or anyone in his campaign conspired or coordinated with any Russians:
First, the report details efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with close ties to the Russian government, to sow social discord among American voters through disinformation and social media operations. Following a thorough investigation of this disinformation campaign, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian nationals and entities for their respective roles in this scheme. Those charges remain pending, and the individual defendants remain at large.
But the Special Counsel found no evidence that any Americans – including anyone associated with the Trump campaign – conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in carrying out this illegal scheme. Indeed, as the report states, “[t]he investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation.” Put another way, the Special Counsel found no “collusion” by any Americans in the IRA’s illegal activity.
Second, the report details efforts by Russian military officials associated with the GRU to hack into computers and steal documents and emails from individuals affiliated with the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton for the purpose of eventually publicizing those emails. Obtaining such unauthorized access into computers is a federal crime. Following a thorough investigation of these hacking operations, the Special Counsel brought charges in federal court against several Russian military officers for their respective roles in these illegal hacking activities. Those charges are still pending and the defendants remain at large.
But again, the Special Counsel’s report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its hacking operations. In other words, there was no evidence of Trump campaign “collusion” with the Russian government’s hacking.
Barr: Mueller’s thorough investigation concludes that Russian election interference was real & undeniable — but that they did NOT have the cooperation of the Trump campaign, or the knowing assistance of *any* American. “No collusion by any Americans…”
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 18, 2019
Barr: The Special Counsel investigated a number of “links” or “contacts” between Trump Campaign officials and individuals connected with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. After reviewing those contacts, the Special Counsel did not find any conspiracy
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 18, 2019
Barr: After carefully reviewing the facts..and in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel..I concluded that the evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 18, 2019
The redactions took place with the help of Mueller’s team. They had to redact information that apply to ongoing investigations like Roger Stone.
He also said NO REDACTIONS happened based on executive privilege. Trump chose not to do thais to stay in step with transparency. The White House and counsel saw the report before its release due to the Ethics in Government Act that allows people named in a report to see it.
Barr also said that he has “no objection” to letting Mueller, who is still a DOJ employee, testify before Congress.
From CBS News:
At his press conference, Barr will address whether the White House invoked executive privilege over any aspects of the report, a Justice Department spokesperson said. He will also seek to clarify the interactions between the Justice Department and the White House about the report over the past few weeks and discuss the process for how redactions were made.
The press conference is expected to last 20 to 30 minutes. The spokesperson described Barr’s demeanor as “calm” Thursday morning.
CBS legal analyst Jonathan Turley said “he believes Barr hopes to use his press conference to explain how the report’s redactions were made.” Other topics include discussions of executive privilege and interactions with the White House.
The DOJ will only have journalists with “Justice Department hard badges, a permanent form of press credential, although there will be a livestream of the event broadcast on the Justice Department website.”
The public release of the report will come out later Thursday morning. This version will have redactions related to Roger Stone’s case since it’s still going on.
Other redactions include “grand jury and classified information as well as portions relating to ongoing investigations and the privacy or reputation of uncharged ‘peripheral’ people.”
Certain members of Congress will “receive the version of the report without certain redactions,” but we do not know yet which ones. The rest of Congress will receive the redacted version.
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Home Run!
As a non-lawyer, my take on this was that Barr needed to produce the absolute most unassailable, honest, straightforward, followed-procedures-every-step, no-influence-from-the-president document that has ever come out of the Justice department, so they made sure every single i was dotted, every t crossed, every law followed, and now the press will proceed to distort every single word he said and wrote.
Amen Georgefelis….I let the video run after the conference and the WP are now laying an MSNBC show with 4 liberal pinko so called “journalists” and heads are EXPLODING on the left!
Very clear from turley after the press conference that President Trump is STILL to blame.
AG Barr clearly pissed at the msm for immediately attacking his own integrity/motives/honesty. Ended the presser right away when they tried to change the subject. Good for him.
The Fake Media is already turning the “outrage knob” beyond full throttle. When all of your lies are proven to be such, just scream them out louder!!!
Rule #1 of modern journalism. When facts are not on your side, just scream louder!!!!
During Holy Week, a reminder that the patron saint of the Dems and MSM is the Doubting Thomas….who now days would claim that not being present at the Resurrection is grounds for disbelief.
Hardest hit, the neverTrumpers that claim to be conservatives but never ever lifted a finger, typed a stroke on the keyboard, in defense of a president attacked by a corrupt mob using the power of the federal government to do so. These corrupt criminals began at the very top with Obama, but not one word from the neverTrumpers.
They are progs. Period.
Yeah, but for how long has Mueller known that there was no crime to obstruct the investigation of, thus the entire exercise was moot beyond the value bad PR for president Trump and dirt dug up to feed to the press? Two years? Mueller and Comey and the rest belong in prison, this was a failed coup.
As Mueller did not start an investigation into collusion, but rather, on May 17, 2017, simply took over the existing Crossfire Hurricane counter-intelligence investigation already under way in the FBI/DOJ, including moving the 40 FBI agents actively involved as well as several DOJ attorneys and that investigation had been running, officially, for 11 months, he probably knew within days that no collusion existed. On August 02, 2017, less than 3 months later, Rosenstein produced the “clarification” letter to Mueller, which is believed to have specifically charged Mueller with investigating obstruction of justice complaints against Trump. The original authorization letter made NO mention of obstruction of justice.
So, do the math. When do you think Mueller knew, or should have known, that there was no Trump-Russia collusion to find?
Which means of course that Rosenstein appointed Mueller in violation of the Special Counsel law; in other words Mueller’s appointment was illegal. Special Counsels investigate crimes. They don’t and can not be appointed to take over counterintelligence investigations.
Moreover the AG/DAG must state in the appointment letter what specific crimes they suspect were committed. Rosenstein did not do so until he issued “clarification letters.” But that doesn’t change the fact that when Rosenstein initially appointed Mueller he violated the law.
But then we’ve known that for years.
Of course. Rosenstein was involved in the “insurance policy” up to the top of his pointy little head. He was the gatekeeper, after Comey was canned.
As noted, the appointment of the Special Council did not conform to existing law, as it was not launched to investigate any criminal acts. The authorizing document is so vague that it was legally useless for authorization purposes. To cover the Mueller team’s buttocks, Rosenstein had to issue a clarification letter to authorize Mueller to investigate claims of obstruction.
This whole thing was nothing more than an excuse to try to pressure the current administration and Republicans [some of them] to the point where they could not pursue criminal charges against members of the former administration. And, as the statute of limitations has not expired, on these potential criminal charges, the circus is not about to fold its tent and leave town.
Ignore the MSM. They have over two years invested in the collusion narrative. Not only were they wrong, but they were spectacularly wrong. having tied their success to the existence of collusion between the Russia state and the Trump campaign, and later, to obstruction of justice by Trump, they are now in the position of losing ALL credibility. So, they will howl about a new type of collusion and cover-up, which will prove to be another figment of their imagination, until they can direct attention to something else, probably the upcoming Democrat primaries.
The Democrats, especially those in Congress, will continue the quasi-legal attacks against Trump, in order to protect members of the previous administration, as well as some still in government service, who may have committed crimes. So, all that is likely to change is that the direction of the attacks will change, not the attacks themselves.
Barr’s presser was very smart. And, the Dems know it. He, effectively, framed the discussion by explaining exactly what was found, in broad terms, and why the actions, that were taken by the DOJ, were taken. Rather than being able to introduce controversy and maintain it, until Barr can respond, the Dems are left with responding to Barr. A brilliant political maneuver.
The MSM, having lost the last faint glimmer of plausibility, has now pivoted into insanity. Over the cliff they go.
Do not lose sight of the purpose of all of this. This was all launched and continued for the primary purpose of protecting senior members of the Obama Administration and HRC from criminal charges.
We know, from testimony that surveillance was conducted, on the Trump Campaign, before the first FISA warrant was issued. We know from records that the FBI counter-intel operation was based upon the electronic communication from Bannon [CIA]. And, we know, from testimony, that intelligence operations were being undertaken on Trump Campaign personnel when they were overseas. We know, from records and testimony, that non-government contractors had been given access to classified NSA intercepts, by the FBI. We know, from testimony, that the Steele Dossier was a construct of Fusion GPS, paid for by the DNC/HRC Campaign and laundered through Christopher Steele. We know, from testimony, that the dossier was the central, if not the only, evidence used to obtain the FISA warrants on Carter Page. And, we know from texts, between Stzrok and Page, that the President of the United States [Barack Obama] was, at least, read into thee operation, if not running it.
This is all about protecting people from the Obama Administration. And, that protection MUST continue, at all costs.
Correction: Bannon should be Brennen, Sorry.
Check this out. In the comments on the AOC situation posted here earlier is a reference to the “Dunning-Kreuger effect”. It has to do with people of limited cognitive abilities being unable, because of that, to understand that they are so limited. I took the hint and googled it and found a very interesting summary of the whole thing at “WellMind” or “The Well Mind”; it was about 5 entries down, below Wiki.
Give it a tumble if you are not familiar.
But but but muh Mueller Time!
I wonder if lefties will be singing carols to Mueller in December again. LOL.