Mueller's Report

[El_Machinae]

I think it's reasonable to think of him as an outsider. I don't think he was heavily involved in think tanks or policy forums.

 

[Berzerker]

Trump brought the NY/NJ swamp to Washington, oh joy

 

[onejayhawk]

There is a fairly long article on RCP about the testimony of Bill Priestap, the former Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division.
https://www.realclearinvestigations..._to_significant_wrongdoing_beyond_spying.html

The conclusion:

In Summary…
So what did we learn from Bill Priestap’s compendious and revealing testimony?

• We learned that the FBI and Justice targeted and took action against Trump.
• We learned that the FBI, according to Priestap, is incapable of securing a FISA warrant with information that isn’t credible, although the judge’s approval of the warrant means by definition that the information is credible.
• We learned that the FBI believes political interference in an investigation can be proper as long as the bureau isn’t acting purely politically.
• We learned that the FBI did send at least one asset to do to the Trump campaign an activity that even the bureau would call “spying” — if it were done by foreign operatives.
• We learned that the origins of the Trump-Russia tale will never be fully understood until the part played by British intelligence is made clear.

That’s an awful lot to take away from one largely neglected transcript. But it suggests just how much remains unknown about the Trump-Russia investigation while providing a glimpse at the people that want to keep it that way.
​

When is surveillance spying?

We will be getting a lot of verbiage in the coming weeks on that simple question. We will be discussing the question because it is well established that the FBI did extensive surveillance of the Trump campaign.

One note. He misspeaks himself on the third point. Political interference can be proper so long as the interference is not purely political. If the Bureau was purely political all sort of alarms should be going off. Indeed, that may be the point of Director Barr's comments.

J

 

[Birdjaguar]

The redacted report will be released this Thursday.

The Justice Department expects to release on Thursday a redacted version of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report on President Trump, his associates and Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, setting the stage for further battles in Congress over the politically explosive inquiry.

Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the department, said Monday that officials intend to issue the report to Congress and the public on Thursday morning.

The report, which runs nearly 400 pages without exhibits, has been the subject of heated debate since Attorney General William P. Barr notified lawmakers last month that Mueller had completed his 22-month investigation.

The report’s release to Congress and the public will come days after Barr told Congress he believed “spying” on the Trump campaign occurred during the 2016 election — a statement that buoyed Trump and his supporters, who have long said that the Russia investigation arose from false accusations and bad motives.

 

[Gori the Grey]

And the public!

Oh, I get it.

 

[Lexicus]

My prediction it will be all redacted except the words "Mr Trump...is...an....awesome....Individual"

 

[onejayhawk]

I am guessing about 300 pages.

What will be interesting are the things which were never in the report.

J

 

[Gori the Grey]

Yes, those would be interesting. But we'd need the report to know what those were. Only then could we speculate as to why Barr or the White House chose to alter Mueller's report.

Man, you're more suspicious of malfeasance than most of the lefties here.

 

[Hamid.H]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-couldnt-care-less-about-us-election-interference/

putin has pretty much admitted that there was collusion with the trump campaign. i saw him make this statement on al-jazerra. it aired on rt also, but i doubt anyone saw this on any western media.

hh

 

[red_elk]

That's remarkable case of putting citation out of context.

His full phrase was: "I do not care at all, because they do not represent the government. Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked; maybe they have dual citizenship or a green card; maybe the US paid them for this. How can you know that? I do not know either,"

 

[Broken_Erika]

That's remarkable case of putting citation out of context.

No-one likes context.

 

[Hamid.H]

That's remarkable case of putting citation out of context.

His full phrase was: "I do not care at all, because they do not represent the government. Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked; maybe they have dual citizenship or a green card; maybe the US paid them for this. How can you know that? I do not know either,"

i believe he said that in a different venue with megan kelly (whos been blackballed by conservatives ever since), here:

and of course his comment admitting that collusion took place was considered antisemitic by the typical suspects:

hh

 

[red_elk]

and of course his comment admitting that collusion took place was considered antisemitic by the typical suspects

The misquoted statement ("Jews behind US election interference") indeed sounds antisemitic.
What he really said ("Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews"), wasn't.

 

[Hamid.H]

The misquoted statement ("Jews behind US election interference") indeed sounds antisemitic.
What he really said ("Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews"), wasn't.

or maybe jared kushner.

hh

 

[onejayhawk]

Any day before predictions?

I always held that Mueller's team was leaking everything to improve their media coverage. That also means no real surprises.

J

 

[Birdjaguar]

Well, given Barr's history of pretending to summarize documents when he is just hiding stuff, I'm guessing he will only release what is already known and keep keep most of currently unknown, unknown. He will also redact all of the names to hide who in the administration actually said what. Remember, his goal is not the truth. His goal is to protect Trump and hide anything damaging as long as he can. I don't think he will release the section summaries written by Mueller without redaction.

 

[JollyRoger]

I predict heavy redaction on the obstruction of justice section.

 

[rah]

Me too.

 

[Gori the Grey]

They've got a press conference scheduled for a couple of hours before even Congress gets the report, so that's curious.

Probably heavily redacted on the double principle that you can't indict a sitting president, and material concerning unindicted people should be redacted. In other words, just more bozo stuff like his summary. Will require a subpoena for Congress to get the unredacted report.

If it exonerated Trump, Trump would have leaked it by now.

 

[Birdjaguar]

WaPo just announced that the report will be lightly redacted! Hope spring eternal!