Sure, I'd love to see that. Absolutely. Because at just about every step of the way, it's required Republican approval, and they did just that. They had many opportunities to say, "stop", but they didn't. It's not a Democratic witch hunt... there aren't any Democrats involved until now when they want to see a copy of the report. Hell, even Mueller is an old-school Republican. But for sure, I'd love to see the details on what kicked off the whole thing in the first place.
So Mueller proved, at minimum, that the Russians were actively interfering with the election, including being behind the hack of various Democrats' emails. This means that when McConnell refused Obama's efforts to inform the American people in a bipartisan fashion in 2016, he was working against the interests of the country. This further means that when Trump took Putin at his word when he said he didn't do it, he was also working against the interests of the country. And people act like this report vindicates Republicans because Trump didn't commit literal treason. We really do have the lowest fucking standards for Republicans.
I agree, I dont think Mueller's investigation is, in itself, a witch-hunt either. Aside from Lisa Page and Peter Strzok who Mueller dispatched quickly, its seems to have been very fair. But again, the circumstances that triggered the special counsel investigation, which does include Democrats and involvement ostensibly from journalists (i.e. the Mother Jones reporter), sure seem to lend some legitimacy to the deep state conspiracy claims. Maybe it is just overzealousness in not validating the intelligence early, but that is still inexcusable knowing what we now know. If the investigation was based on false pretenses then thats a miscarriage of justice by itself and rank incompetence by DOJ leadership. As for Trump, just release the god damn report already. McConnell has the political self-awareness of a coma patient. Looking at the details of the other 17 open investigations, I doubt any of them are going to bear any fruit other than maybe a few additional charges against the already indicted characters. There are still over 18 months until the next election, plenty of time for the Democrats come up with a viable challenge strategy. It really shouldnt be that hard.
My guess is as follows: I think Mueller was given a very, very narrow scope of investigation: "Russian collusion". I think a number of improprieties were uncovered, as well as a number of illegal acts, which is where we get the indictments, guilty pleas, jail time, fines, etc. The wording said that there was no proof of collusion, but the wording also said that there was also no proof that there wasn't. "He's not guilty, but he's not innocent". I think that the fact it was with a sitting US President means that it was not proven, because that is a huge grey area in legal interpretation. My guess, again, guess, is that there were things uncovered that had it been anyone other than the sitting President of the US would mean that it would have been collusion. So what I think we're going to get out of this report is a list of detailed actions that happened in a very logical, precise manner, but without a final determination. That, I think, is why the Trump supporters and GOP are focusing so much on the "no collusion" outcome but not wanting anyone to see the report.
I think this is part of the goalpost shifting I referenced earlier. Mueller's scope was Russian interference, which included as a sub-scope any Americans who may have participated in it. Barr's summary very clearly states that Mueller identified and indicted on two main thrusts of interference, the work of the IRA and the hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails. This interference was widely denied to be happening by top Republicans such as McConnell, Trump, and more, and would have gone completely uninvestigated if not for the FBI and the Special Counsel.
If this is true though, then it makes perfect sense not to release it right now. The smart strategy is to milk the non-disclosure for all it's worth, get Democrats and the media to kick up a furor over it, hope for lots of speculation over what supposed smoking guns it contains, and then once it gets close to playing itself out then release it. If there's really nothing there it makes the Democrats and media look bad, makes any time and effort spent hectoring for its release a waste, and distracts us from coming up with more substantive strategies for 2020.
For that matter, they weren't going after Trump specifically in the first place... they were after "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump" https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3726408-Rosenstein-letter-appointing-Mueller-special.html
This is what they SHOULD be putting their focus into. And this time, try creating new Democrats instead of simply shaming Republicans for choosing the dreaded “other side”.
Yup he indicted a lot of Russians I don’t think any one disputes there was hacking and fuckery on their end. Most of the Americans were process crimes, like Flynn, and no further indictments should show there was no connection between Trump world and the Russian operations. If we are speculating on how people are acting why did Meuller decide not to prosecute anyone further jive with your assertion that there just has to be something in the report that will sinkTrump? Seems his actions with the funding and access to one of the top investigating bodies on Earth suggests there isn’t no? I don’t really feel like quote mining your post on this but yes there were a lot, and a lot held by the media, that bordered on pure fantasy. Which if had any inkling of truth would have seen Trump perp walked this past weekend. I’m not saying there won’t be any unflattering parts of the report but the interpretation by the media and hardcore anti Trumpers is something you are going to want to take grain of salt with.
If this week’s bombshells couldn’t get crazy enough, Jussie Smollett has had all charges against him dropped. Something seemed funky when they claimed the check to the brothers was definitely a pay off but his texts released backed up his explination of it entirely. Yeesh.
Corruption? IN CHICAGO?! And to double-down on weirdness, there is a connection between his lawyer and Michael Avenatti as well.
Huh... and the records are sealed. My money is on the cops fucking up procedure in some way, invalidating the charges, but the details would show he's guilty, so they were sealed.
Nothing to see here, folks. Let’s let this poor, falsely accused man get right back into his acting career.
I agree with you on this. Talking with my brother (he's a cop), he said most likely, given some of the early stories that came out early in the proceedings, there was probably a case of cops "obtaining" texts and other data from his cell phone in a less than legal manner, so basically they have concrete proof of his guilt, but it would immediately be thrown out in court due to illegal search and seizure violations.
It’s being reported the DA was in contact with his family before the charges were brought and this in part lead to the dropped charges. The police union is demanding an investigation. It’s also some sort of plea deal to drop them, I’m not sure what Jussie had to plea but it’s all nuts. Good ol corrupt Chicago. I’m sure he’ll be out looking for the real MAGA perpetrators with OJ any day now.
The scope was about as wide as you will ever to see for a special counsel, or any investigation for that matter. That's why there has been multiple convictions unrelated to Russia collusion, or Russia at all. He basically had carte blanche to do whatever the fuck he wanted. The primary purpose of the probe was - But also - Naturally, since there was a central focus Mueller farmed out some of the offshoots, (and sought convictions from his own office on others) as per his discretion. This isn't an example of an investigator having his hands tied. Also, I'm not sure if you guys know this, but Barr and Mueller have been friends for 30 years. If you go back to Barr's criticism he's not going after Mueller directly, he's whining about the wide scope of the investigation, and the resulting dirty laundry coming out that made republicans look bad. Some of Mueller's most important work in the probe is probably the most difficult to release, and I would be shocked if we see all the info pertaining to the indicted Russians directly. That said, the report was submitted very recently, and I'm sure there will be more in time. Ahem, I do seem to remember us skeptics being called out for our entitlement while we waited 2+ years for the alleged evidence to emerge. It's been 4 days since the submission of the report. OR they'll agree to release all info relevant directly to the issue of collusion and attempt to bury the rest as 'personal matters not in the public interest'. For as long as Mueller had Trump under a microscope I'm sure some of it wasn't pretty. At a minimum it has already spawned those other investigations.
Well, we did have literally every department within the intelligence community refute Trump's characterization of Russian attempts to influence the election. Arguably, the most embarrassing moment of his presidency. I think agencies like the CIA have been neck deep in this shit since the election, it's just not waved in front of the public like Mueller's probe was.
Not a single Senator voted for the Green New Deal. The Democrats pussed out and voted "present" so they dont have to be on the record supporting or voting against their own bill. But hey, democracy.
So my guess is that they have a hard time accepting that both that deal and the obnoxious, all-mouth bitch pimping it are enormous embarrassments to their party?