Em-Barr-Assment Live: the pre-redaction redaction
newsdepo.com
Because covering key sections of the report from special counsel Robert Mueller with color coded redactions isn’t enough, attorney general William Barr is making an appearance at 9:30 ET to … Honestly, it’s not clear. What is clear is that after a weeEm-Barr-Assment Live: the pre-redaction redaction
Because covering key sections of the report from special counsel Robert Mueller with color coded redactions isn’t enough, attorney general William Barr is making an appearance at 9:30 ET to … Honestly, it’s not clear. What is clear is that after a week of stating over and over that he was going to allow the report to speak for itself, Barr is decidedly not going to allow that to happen. In the best of all world’s, Barr’s attempt to spin away the findings in support of Trump would not just be ignored, but actively shunned. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Despite calls for Barr to cancel the latest blatant attempt to warp public opinion, it appears he’s going ahead. And the cameras are very definitely going to be on. So Barr’s conference has to be watched for what it is—part of the ongoing cover-up. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:35:22 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner And Barr is on stage. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:36:11 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr will “transmit” copies of “the public version” to Congress at 11:00 ET. It will be posted to the DOJ’s website “after” it’s sent to Congress. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:37:09 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr introducing Rod Rosenstein, giving him considerable praise — clearly hoping that Rosenstein serves as a proxy for Mueller. Barr than thanks Mueller, who is not there. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:38:30 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Rather than talking about the “process” as the White House had indicated, Barr is moving right into talking about the contents of the report—by repeating exactly the no-collusion line be used in his summary letter on March 24. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:40:25 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Gee, this talk on the “process of releasing the report” sounds a lot like he’s just going to repeat no collusion, no collusion, over and over. Barr is now repeating the same sentence fragments that he used in the March 24 letter. In fact, this whole press conference so far could have been given on that date. He’s revealed nothing new whatsoever. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:41:15 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr has now going through his lengthy “no collusion” statement five times. FIVE. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:43:26 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Talking about WikiLeaks … ooh man, is that a lot of dodging the point. Barr starts off by making it clear that dealing with Wikileaks would only be illegal under very narrow circumstances, then jumps to no one in the campaign fitting those very narrow circumstances. Then he moved on very quickly leaving a truck-sized hole. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:44:46 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr moves onto the obstruction, “after carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories in the report” Barr and Rosenstein concluded there was no obstruction. Barr and Rosenstein “disagreed with some of the special counsel’s legal theories.” Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:46:39 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr now writing a full apologia for Trump who “faced an unprecedented situation” and Trump was “frustrated and angered” and … Geezus F’ing Christe this is an unbelievable effort to whitewash everything that Trump did. Barr is essentially saying that Trump was mad about being investigated, so he could do anything and it would be okay. Plus Barr throws in Trump’s claims about the investigation as if those claims are themselves evidence. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:49:01 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner This whole thing has been Barr once again characterizing the Mueller report, without releasing the report, using entirely terms that came from Trump. And Trump’s own actions are being characterized not as attempts to obstruct but perfectly okay because he was angry and frustrated. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:50:29 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr now completely admitting what he didn’t admit before — the White House got a copy of the full report. And we’re supposed to be grateful that Trump didn’t redact more of the report. Then Trump got an advance copy of the redacted report for review. Trump got everything before and after redactions. How could this have been worse? Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:51:53 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr saying that he will make a version of the report available to Congress “with all redactions removed” but without the grand jury testimony, and still with redactions related to testimony Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:53:14 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner First question to Barr asks about the legal theories that Barr disagreed with on obstruction, and Barr immediately returns to allowing the report “to articulate” Mueller’s opinion. Barr claims that Mueller would not have found a crime without the DOJ policy against indicting an executive. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:55:44 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr admits that Mueller didn’t explicitly say he was leaving the decision on obstruction to Barr and Rosenstein. Barr says he heard—secondhand, apparently, that Mueller was … honestly, he doesn’t even say that Mueller was okay with it. Just that he understood what Barr was doing. We all understand it. We just don’t like it. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:57:30 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr now complaining that “these reports are not supposed to be made public” which is nowhere in the law. Getting angry at reporters … AND HE’s GONE. That’s all the Q&A he’s taking. Thursday, Apr 18, 2019 · 1:58:44 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Barr was visibly angry when confronted by a reporter questioned Barr’s description of how Trump could be forgiven because the investigation was “unprecedented” challenges the reporter to cite precedent … “So it was unprecedented!” Read more