Announcing he’ll release a redacted version of the March 22 Muller Report Feb. 18, 68-year-old Atty. Gen. William Barr won’t satisfy Congressional Democrats looking for all the dirt on 72-year-old Donald Trump. When Mueller released his final report March 22 to Barr, Democrats screamed foul, saying that they would accept the full report or nothing, certainly not Barr’s four-page summary March 24, saying Trump and his inner circle would not be charged with Russian collusion of obstruction of justice. Democrats appear fixated on Muller’s wording in the Barr Report, saying there was insufficient evidence to charge Trump with collusion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) have moved the goal posts so Democrats could cherry pick the Report’s findings..
Democrats staked the 2020 presidential election on Mueller finding Trump guilty of Russian collusion and obstruction of justice. When Barr said March 24 that the Special Counsel would not charge Trump of his inner circle with Russian collusion or obstruction, Democrats lost their narrative for the 2020 election. House Democrats have practically stood on their heads saying the Mueller Report could still contain damaging information about Trump’s contacts with Moscow or whether he obstructed justice firing May 9, 2017 former FBI Director James Comey. If you ask Comey whether or not Trump obstructed justice, he’d say without question. Yet Comey also said May 10, 2017, the day after Trump fired him, that Trump had every right to fire him and pick an FBI Director more to his liking. Every interview Comey’s had since getting axed proves he sees Trump as obstructing justice.
Anticipating Barr’s edited report Thursday, Democrats are already jockeying for position to insist Trump engaged in collusion and obstruction, perhaps not to a criminal level. When former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was acquitted by Comey in the email scandal July 5, 2016, Republicans didn’t ask Comey for his underlying evidence acquitting Hillary. Democrats led by Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler said they won’t be satisfied unless they receive a full unedited version of the Mueller Report. Barr’s made clear to members of Congress that he can’t violate DOJ policy when it comes to compromising intel or grand jury evidence. Democrats can’t have it both ways: Saying they have complete trust in Mueller’s report but only if it confirms their beliefs that Trump colluded with Russia and obstructed justice. Democrats want to see the unedited report to draw their own conclusions.
Democrats have accused Barr of a cover-up for exercising his duty to redact the report to protect grand jury privacy. Pelosi flat out said give us the unedited report to let us draw are own conclusions. With that kind of partisanship, Barrs’ report can only be seen as a cover up. Trump’s been trying exonerate himself since the report came out three weeks ago, with Democrats pushing back, demanding full disclosure. If Mueller thought for one instant that Barr was distorting his findings, then he wouldn’t hesitate to correct the record. Mueller’s said so far that Barr correctly summarized the conclusions in the report. Despite Mueller being the ultimate decider, Democrats don’t trust any report that exonerates Trump, essentially rejecting the Mueller Report because it fails to charge against Trump. Seeking to use unedited report to draw their own conclusions, Democrats look to move the goalposts.
Democrats want to see all the underlying evidence on which Mueller based his conclusions, even though they put their faith in Mueller to reach his conclusions. Cherry picking the findings and questioning Mueller’s judgment, Democrats seeking the fully unedited report say they want to reach their own partisan conclusions. When you consider that Mueller’s probe was supposed to be free partisanship, it makes zero sense to have the finding reinterpreted to satisfy Democrats. Saying that half of Mueller’s prosecutors wanted to charge Trump with obstruction of justice doesn’t mean he’s guilty as charged. Pelosi, Nadler and Schiff were furious when Barr said April 10 that he believed the DOJ and FBI “spied” on the Trump campaign. Democrats think that the DOJ and FBI has sufficient “probable” cause to seek wiretaps on Trump campaign officials but didn’t “spy” on the campaign.
Barr said he would look into White House and Republican charges that something improper happened when former President Barack Obama’s officials opened up a counter-intelligence investigation into Trump’s campaign in 2016. Trump said March 4, 2017 that Obama “tapped his wires,” prompting furious outrage by Democrats and press to show proof. Now that Barr is looking into DOJ and FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, the tables have turned, prompting former FBI Director James Comey to act bewildered. Comey said April 11 that he didn’t know what Barr was talking about when he used the word “spying.” It’s clear Comey thought he had the legal authority to wiretap Trump campaign officials. Barr and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) want to get to the bottom of what prompted the FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation of Trump and his campaign.
