Fra Zerohedge:
Attorney General William Barr has released a redacted version of the more than 400-page Mueller report, which saw over 2,800 subpoenas issued, nearly 500 search warrants, and around the same number of witness interviews.
During a Thursday morning press conference, Barr – with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein behind him – reiterated that the special counsel found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. He did, however, note that there were 10 “episodes” which Mueller’s team identified that could have possibly been construed as obstruction.
“The evidence was not sufficient to charge any Campaign official as an unregistered agent of the Russian government or other Russian principal. And our evidence about the June 9, 2016 meeting and WikiLeaks’s releases of hacked materials was not sufficient to charge a criminal campaign-finance violation. Further, the evidence was not sufficient to charge that any member of the Trump Campaign conspired with representatives of the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election.”
Key highlights:
Trump did not try to obstruct the ‘Trump Tower meeting’ portion of the investigation:
*MUELLER: EVIDENCE DOESN’T SHOW COMEY FIRING TO COVER UP CONSPIRACY
*MUELLER SAYS HAD ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO NOT SUBPOENA TRUMP
Zeke Miller✔@ZekeJMiller
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mueller team considered Trump’s written answers ‘inadequate,’ but decided against subpoena fight for interview.
*TRUMP HAD `UNIQUE AND POWERFUL MEANS’ FOR OBSTRUCTION: REPORT
Zeke Miller✔@ZekeJMiller
Mueller: Trump “engaged in efforts to curtail the Special Counsel’s investigation and prevent the disclosure of evidence to it, including through public and private contacts with potential witnesses.”
*MUELLER CONCLUDED CONGRESS CAN DETERMINE TRUMP OBSTRUCTION
*ROSENSTEIN SAW WHITE HOUSE PUSH `FALSE STORY’ ON COMEY: REPORT
*MUELLER SAYS TRUMP `MOSTLY UNSUCCESSFUL’ IN INFLUENCING PROBE
Trump thought the appointment of the Special Counsel would be the “end of his presidency.”
Paul Sperry@paulsperry_BREAKING: Mueller Report reveals that Trump campaign formally turned down 2 invitations to visit Russia during campaign and refused to provide a copy of Trump’s passport for a visa
Paul Sperry@paulsperry_BREAKING: Clovis told Papa-d in March 2016 email Trump campaign “should not go forward” w any meetings w Russians until meet w NATO allies Britain, France & Germany. Mueller Report shows he knew this but edited email in complaint vs Papa-d to make it sound like he had green light
On the issue of obstruction, Mueller’s team notes “We did not make a traditional prosecution decision about these facts, but the evidence we obtained supoports several general statements about the President’s conduct.”
“Unlike cases in which a subject engages in obstruction to cover up a crime, the evidence we obtained did not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference,” reads the report. “Although the obstruction statutes do not require proof of such a crime, the absence of that evidence affects the analysis of the President’s intent and requires consideration of other possible motives for his conduct.”
Also interesting is that Mueller’s team investigated Trump Campaign aide George Papadopoulos to determine whether he was an Israeli agent.
Chuck Ross✔@ChuckRossDC
Whoa — the investigation into Papadopoulos was into whether he was an Israeli agent
And the conclusion:
Read the Mueller report below and find it at the following link.
Of note, Mueller said he lacked confidence to clear Trump of obstruction, suggesting instead that Congress could take action on at least 10 instances where Trump sought to interfere with the probe.
“We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a president’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,” reads the report sent to Congress on Thursday.
Mueller added that possible obstruction included: “discouragement of cooperation with the government and suggestions of possible future pardons.”
Mueller’s report raises new questions about whether House Democrats will intensify their investigative efforts — and perhaps move toward an impeachment inquiry despite earlier statements by leaders to the contrary.
In written answers to Mueller, Trump — whose lawyers resisted an in-person interview– said that he had “no recollection of learning at the time” that his top campaign officials met with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, after being promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Further, the president said, “I have no recollection of being told during the campaign that any foreign government or foreign leader had provided, or wished to provide, or offered to provide tangible support to my campaign.” –Bloomberg
One analysis of the ‘obstruction’ opinion may emanate from the Mueller team’s Andrew Weismann, which is explained in great detail by Twitter user @JohnWHuber.
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberHere’s why Andrew Weismann is almost certainly the driving force behind Mueller’s embrace of a legally dubious theory of Obstruction of Justice, targeting @RuleDonaldTrump
(BIG) THREAD)
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberA redacted version of the Mueller report will be released on Thursday morning and “Obstruction” is likely to be at least half, and maybe even the bulk of the report. Here’s why Weissmann (and Mueller’s) entire legal case is bunk.Warning: grab a coffee, this is a long one.
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberMueller’s legal theory on Obstruction appears to be that Trump may have criminally violated 18 USC §1512 (c) by “corruptly…influencing” or “impeding” the FBI investigations into Flynn and Russian interference in the 2016 election
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuber
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberThis isn’t just the view of Undercover Huber, but also that of the now Attorney General (AG) Bill Barr, in a memo he wrote on June 8 2018 to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberThe §1512(c) “Obstruction” theory almost certainly comes from Weismann because:
1. Enron
2. Aggressive lawyering
3. First public hints of 1512 came from a Mueller leak
4. Same statute used against Manafort
5. Trusted ally needed to convince Mueller to embrace it
6. Motivation
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberHere’s the detail on each.
Later, we’ll also get into:
—Why 1512(c) is so legally dubious for Trump “Obstruction”
—Why Weissmann would be motivated to do it anyway
—Even despite it having little chance of legal success
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuber1. ENRON
§1512(c) was enacted in Jul 2002 specifically to address actions carried out by Enron auditor Arthur Anderson.WEISSMANN:: led the Enron task force at DOJ and personally led the prosecution of Arthur Anderson, and so has a close familiarity of that specific law pic.twitter.com/Fgmw0PE4Tw
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuber2. AGGRESSIVE LAWYERING
Using §1512(c) is untested so requires aggressively pushing the envelope of the law on “Obstruction”WEISSMANN: uniquely qualified – illegally prosecuted Arthur Anderson, destroying the company & 85,000 jobs, later being unanimously reversed 9-0 by SCOTUS
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberHere’s SCOTUS ripping Weissmann a new exit hole: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/544/696/ …
Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, 544 U.S. 696 (2005)
A conviction must be overturned if jury instructions are so vague that they allow a finding of guilt based on much less culpability than the criminal statute actually requires.
supreme.justia.com
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberNow-AG Bill Barr appears to have written his June 8 2018 memo in response to the NYT leak of a week earlier, in part because of how legally dubious the Mueller/Weissmann obstruction theory outraged him so much it required him to put pen to paper immediately
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberAG Barr’s says Mueller’s embrace of 1512 as a basis for obstruction is “grossly irresponsible” unless there is an underlying crime of conspiracy/collusion to “obstruct
(There wasn’t, and isn’t any Collusion crime, as now admitted by Mueller) pic.twitter.com/8jm0QIIQaE
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberQuestion: If Barr thought Mueller was being “grossly irresponsible” way back in June 2018, what do you think he thinks now, after Mueller left “Collusion” dangling through the mid terms? And now he’s AG. Why did Mueller and crew pack their bags again?
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberBarr also eviscerates the use of 1512(c) so legally unsupportable it is “inconceivable” that DOJ could accept something so “untenable”. Full memo: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/549-june-2018-barr-memo-to-doj-mue/b4c05e39318dd2d136b3/optimized/full.pdf … pic.twitter.com/c78plYC4P3
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberThere are multiple federal statutes for Obstruction. §1501, 1503, 1505, 1510-1513, 1516-20 – and none of them apply to this theory with Trump except §1512 (c), which has never been used for a situation like this. Barr didn’t cover these in his memo. so here’s a Huber summary.
Undercover Huber@JohnWHuberThat strongly suggests that Weissmann wanted to find the crime of Obstruction, and went through every statute to find something to pin on Trump, regardless of how shaky it was
(Click on any of Huber’s tweets to continue reading)
