Agreeing to testify before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committee July 17, 74-year-old former Special Counsel Robert Mueller was told by 69-year-old Atty. Gen. William Barr that he did not have to go. Barr said Democrats in Congress want to create a “public spectacle,” rehashing Mueller’s March 22 findings of his 22-month investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any role Trump or his campaign played with the Kremlin. Barr summarized Mueller’s findings March 24, stating that Mueller could not find any criminal wrongdoing by Trump or his campaign with regard to coordinating with Russia. Barr said that he and former Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein found no evidence to charge Trump with obstructive of justice, regardless of Justice Department policy not to charge a sitting president. Neither Barr nor Rosenstein found any crimes.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) want to cherry-pick Mueller’s findings, citing numerous instances in which Trump allegedly interfered or tried to interfere with the 22-month investigation. Liberal members of Congress have called for Trump’s impeachment based on their own legal interpretations of the Mueller Report’s findings. Mueller stated in his report he could not exonerate Trump and would have said so if he had enough evidence. Nadler and Schiff took that as a green light to continue investigating Trump, even though it violates the Constitution’s protection against Double-Jeopardy, banning the state from trying a U.S. citizen twice for the same crime. Acquitted by the Special Counsel and Justice Department, Congress now wants to stage its own trial to get Trump.
Barr said today the Justice Department would support Mueller’s refusal to honor Congressional subpoenas, if he so chooses. While Nadler and Schiff want to make a new case for impeachment, Republicans on the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees have other questions for Mueller. Republicans want to know whether or not Mueller ever vetted the FBI’s portfolio on Trump prompting Rosenstein to appoint Mueller Special Counsel May 17, 2017. Rosenstein appointed Mueller eight days after Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey for “showboating,” leaking to the press and botching former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s email investigation. Hillary was exonerated of wrongdoing July 5, 2016, only three weeks before the Democratic National Convention. Former Deputy Atty. Gen. Andrew McCabe was fired March 19, 2018 by the FBI for mishandling the Hillary investigation.
Mueller’s decision to honor the Congressional subpoenas was perfunctory, stating May 29 at a press conference that his testimony would be confined to what’s in the 448-page Final Report. Nadler and Schiff will try to get Mueller to admit that while the Special Counsel couldn’t find collusion or obstruction of justice, it doesn’t mean the Congress shouldn’t try. Nadler and Schiff took Mueller’s words in the Final Report to mean that the ball’s now in Congress’s court to investigate Trump “I’m not sure what purpose is served by dragging him [Mueller] up there and trying to grill him,” Barr said, of course knowing full-well Nadler and Schiff want to nail Trump. Because the Mueller Report didn’t get Trump, Congressional Democrats, during an election year, want to do anything possible to discredit Trump. Nadler and Schiff ultimately want to make their case for impeaching Trump.
Barr knows what Nadler, Schiff and other Congressional Democrats are up to during a long election year: They’re looking to give Democrat candidates the best possible chance of beating Trump. Impeachment hearings would damage the president’s credibility heading into 2020. “I don’t think Mueller should be treated that way or subject himself to that, if he doesn’t want to,” Barr said, giving the former Special Counsel a way out of testifying. Barr’s been accused by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of defending Trump, regardless of how he interprets the law. It serves the Democrat narrative to say Barr is biased toward Trump, leaving only House Democrats the objectivity to investigate Trump for high-crimes-and-misdemeanors. Barr stated clearly March 24 that neither Trump nor his campaign was guilty of a crime.
Democrats want to interrogate Mueller under oath to continue beating a dead horse on the Mueller investigation. Nadler and Schiff know that Barr has started an investigation into the FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation into Trump and his campaign. Barr wants to know whether the FBI relied heavily on Hillary’s paid opposition research AKA “the dossier,” for probable cause, but, more importantly, whether Mueller himself knew that the case against Trump for his Special Counsel investigation was also built on Hillary’s dossier. Barr said its was “essential to take a deeper look at how things unfolded,” meaning what facts led to the FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation into Trump. Accusing Barr of bias serves Democrats agenda to take the law into their own hands, cherry-picking the Mueller Report to find anything to impeach Trump.
