Shorter Mueller: Just Impeach This Guy Already

[babylonsister]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/robert-mueller-statement?utm_brand=vf&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_facebook&fbclid=IwAR0h5Kg9XcSHonfgJ8TGc-1u5X8KAo-Uum0QdlbXBV7GOfieah20eEFQqns

Shorter Mueller: Just Impeach This Guy Already
In a rare public appearance, Robert Mueller made it clear that the only reason he didn’t charge Trump with a crime is because the DOJ wouldn’t let him.
by Bess Levin
May 29, 2019 11:56 am


When William Barr released his four-page summary of the special counsel’s report, he took it upon himself to clear Donald Trump of obstructing justice, despite the fact that Robert Mueller himself had done no such thing. In fact, Mueller found numerous instances of obstruction that, were his hands not tied by Justice Department guidelines that say you can’t indict the president, could have resulted in Trump being charged with a crime. Barr has repeatedly attempted to obfuscate that essential point in his defense of the president. So on Wednesday, Mueller himself went on the record, speaking publicly for the first time since being appointed as special counsel, to make things crystal clear for everyone who didn’t actually read the report.

Addressing reporters, Mueller effectively objected to the Attorney General’s description of his findings, specifically Barr’s characterization of the report as exonerating Trump on obstruction. “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” Mueller said Wednesday. “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.” In other words, it’s very possible Trump committed a crime. Mueller went on to note that it was the Justice Department’s legal guidance, which prohibits the indictment of a sitting president, that prevented him from accusing Trump as such. He went on to shame the president, though not by name, noting that “When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of their government’s effort to find the the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.”

Perhaps most important, Mueller suggested that if Trump is to be held to account, it must be Congress that takes up the case. “The Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing,” he said. In other words: Congress, do your job and impeach.

Link to tweet

Mueller’s presser will presumably further strain his relationship with Barr, with whom he was apparently the best of friends before this whole Russia business blew up. Last month, while defending his handling of the report, Barr called a letter Mueller sent him “snitty,” adding, “I said, ‘Bob, what’s with the letter, you know? Why don’t you just pick up the phone and call me if there is an issue.’” The Attorney General reportedly knew what Mueller’s presser would entail, and will presumably respond, in his characteristically smarmy fashion, in short order.

Meanwhile, at the White House, our nations’s foremost legal scholar has weighed in:

Link to tweet

[unblock]

1. yes, but what frustrates some of us is exactly that he didn't just say that.

really, all he did say, in effect, was that the next move is up to congress.

a congress that he knows features a senate in the hands of republicans who so far seem hellbent on keeping donald fraud in office.

and he did this knowing that a clear statement from him might have actually had an impact.

[babylonsister]

2. How would he change gop minds by stating

impeachment should be the next step? Do we think they're that dumb? They know.

[unblock]

3. No, I mean stating that he would have indicted if he were not a sitting president.