Tag:William Barr

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Donald Trump, Twitter, and his smartphone is a toxic combination. We’ve known this for years. But now Trump has, once again, broken new ground in his endless quest to turn America into his personal fiefdom. He wants his political opponents arrested. After having his virus-riddled ass driven back to the White House from Walter Reed, […]

Over and over, we’ve said it. Trump will not “go down” without taking everything he can with him, and increasingly, it seems he’s determined to take down witnesses, other countries, and our nation itself, if it saves His Greatness. Yesterday, in a column infested with Trump self-righteous rage-tweets, we noted that Trump floated the threat of “civil war” should law-abiding citizens determine that Trump be impeached. We were not the only one’s who noticed. Conservative columnist Matt Lewis of The Daily Beast tore into Trump’s unveiled threat: “In January 1973, National Lampoon featured an infamous cover declaring: ‘If You Don’t Buy This Magazine We’ll Kill This Dog.’” he began. “I was reminded of that when Donald Trump sent a similarly desperate tweet this weekend, suggesting that ‘If You Don’t Stop This Impeachment My People and I Will Start a Civil War.’” Of course he will. At no point in his life has Trump ever acknowledged anything greater than himself. If his presidency is threatened by Americans, he will absolutely wage war – limited only by what he’s able to get away with – on other Americans. Not only is Trump not interested in “what’s best for the nation,” not only is Trump going to spend 100% of his time and effort in saving himself, he will take hostages. Not that it should surprise anyone, after all, holding funding to Ukraine hostage for Trump’s personal gain is how he got into this mess in the first place. Trump doesn’t learn well, he will only accelerate the pace of his lawlessness. It will all come undone, absent some sort of pushback by Republicans, Republicans in office, with the ability to stop this man. Trump is also intimidating witnesses – another felony, tweeting out messages to anyone who might dare cross him. We will find you. So if the so-called “Whistleblower” has all second hand information, and almost everything he has said about my “perfect” call with the Ukrainian President is wrong (much to the embarrassment of Pelosi & Schiff), why aren’t we entitled to interview & learn everything about…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2019 And ….the Whistleblower, and also the person who gave all of the false information to him. This is simply about a phone conversation that could not have been nicer, warmer, or better. No pressure at all (as confirmed by Ukrainian Pres.). It is just another Democrat Hoax! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2019 “Learn everything about the whistleblower” and also “the person who gave all the false information to him.” Learn everything about him. It doesn’t take a MENSA member to note the twisted logic here. If the phone call is the only issue, and the phone call is perfect, why do we need to know anything about the “whistleblower,” Mr. “President”? Because Trump wants that whistleblower endangered, in fear. Moreover, he wants potential future whistleblowers in fear. This is the same man who called witnesses to the Mueller investigation “rats.” This is the same man who states that his supporters will erupt in civil war over his impeachment, Trump knows damn well that his “supporters” will immediately endanger this whistleblower. That is the point. We have whistleblower laws precisely because people in power could exact revenge upon the person highlighting the abuse of power. […]

Didn’t see this posted, so.… if it has been I’ll take it down. Has anybody else heard this? I trust Glasser, but this has flown under my radar. This was one of the R’s biggest complaints about Comey… ”Exoneration before investigation!” Huge win for Durbin. Nothing more on this yet, but Wow! Please follow me on Twitter @durrati

AG William Barr tried to entice six top democrats into taking a peek at a less redacted Mueller Report today, a trap that would apparently restrict their ability to discuss the report with their colleagues, and which wouldn’t include evidence from the Grand Jury. Leadership said no dice. (Click through to read letter, will not download.) CBS News “Congressional Democrats have declined an offer by Attorney General William Barr to view a less redacted version of the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as only 12 members of Congress would be able to read the report and could not discuss it with other members of Congress. In a press conference Thursday morning, Barr made the offer to the House speaker, the Senate majority leader, the House and Senate minority leaders, the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. These members of Congress, as well as one staffer for each member, could review a less redacted version of the report in a reading room, but could not take the report out of that room or discuss it with other members of Congress. “Unfortunately, your proposed accommodation—which among other things would prohibit discussion of the full report, even with other Committee Members—is not acceptable,” congressional Democrats said in the letter to Barr. The letter was signed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, and the ranking members of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Mark Warner. “While the current proposal is not workable, we are open to discussing a reasonable accommodation with the Department that would protect law enforcement sensitive information while allowing Congress to fulfill its constitutional duties,” the letter concluded.” Nice try, Wile E. Genius at work.   Please follow me on Twitter @durrati  

Looks like someone is tired of all the theatrics…. The Hill “The top Democratic congressional leaders are calling on special counsel Robert Mueller to testify on Capitol Hill as soon as possible following what they describe as Attorney General William Barr‘s “partisan” handling of the release of the Mueller report. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) released a joint statement early Thursday, hours ahead of when a redacted version of Mueller’s report is expected to be released, and hours after a New York Times report revealed that White House lawyers and Department of Justice officials have already repeatedly discussed details of Mueller’s conclusions. The Democratic leaders laid out a series of actions they say show Barr as being loyal to the president. “Attorney General Barr’s regrettably partisan handling of the Mueller report, including his slanted March 24th summary letter, his irresponsible testimony before Congress last week, and his indefensible plan to spin the report in a press conference later this morning — hours before he allows the public or Congress to see it — have resulted in a crisis of confidence in his independence and impartiality,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote in a statement.” Personally, I think this should have been done three weeks ago when Barr initiated act one of this Kabuki shit-show. But maybe they had their reasons to delay. What steps will Barr and Trump take to prevent Mueller’s testimony? He seems a bit old to be drafted into the Space Force.   Please follow me on Twitter @durrati  

Roll Call “Rep. Jackie Speier knows exactly how it feels to be left for dead. On Nov. 18, 1978, she was shot five times on a remote airstrip in Guyana, South America. Her boss, Rep. Leo J. Ryan and four others lay dead nearby, killed by gunfire as they tried to escape Jonestown, the commune built by cult leader Jim Jones. Nearly 40 years later, Speier still remembers why she decided to get on a plane to go down on the ill-fated congressional trip. “Back in 1978, there were not many women in high-ranking positions in Congress,” said Speier, who was legislative counsel for Ryan at the time. “I felt if I didn’t go, it would be a step back for women holding these high positions. I thought, ‘I can’t not go.’”   This history makes Speier’s remarks today, after AG William Barr stated “Spying did occur” in the context of the FBI investigation into Trump/Russia, a statement he immediately walked back yet also having the immediate intended effect… all the more sardonic. It seems unlikely to me that Speier would make such a remark flippantly. Couched in her words must be a warning to Barr that drinking cult leader Trump’s Kool-Aid will be just as lethal in its consequences to his career and life as imbibing Jim Jones’ poison was to his followers. Everything Trump touches dies Please follow me on Twitter @durrati  

In his Cliff Notes (I am being generous here) four page summary of the still-unknown-how-many-page Mueller Report, AG William Barr, who is busily obstructing justice right before our very eyes, just like his client, includes one telling Mueller quote from the report — presumably included to inoculate Barr from charges of lying to Congress… “The special counsel states “that while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”  And there is a good reason that Mueller did not conclude that the *resident committed a crime on his own. The DOJ, after all, is effectively neutered by it’s inability to indict and charge a sitting president, thus making the Congress the only body that may impose accountability on the Oval Office. The Report was constructed to give them the ability to… Daily Beast “A source with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Daily Beast that it was their interpretation that “Mueller was making a case to Congress, who (unlike DOJ, in Mueller’s view) is empowered to weigh the lawfulness of a president’s conduct.” You can read the rest of the Daily Beast article, but there is nothing else there that is not basically a rehash of what a hundred other outlets are reporting. The above short paragraph is the important part of the article, as it explains that Mueller felt that he was not empowered to act on his own, and as a result made the case for Congress so that they could impose the rule of law on the criminal in the White House. ​​​​​​​Of course if the House majority lacks the will to act on Mueller’s evidence and their prerogative, we are well and truly fucked, as their unwillingness to do so will be spun as total vindication of drumpf. But it won’t be a shagging because Mueller did not do his job. Please follow me on Twitter @durrati