Previously secret 'alternative' Mueller report goes public

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

The Justice Department has released portions of a previously unseen alternative version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on ties between former President Donald Trump and Russia.

However, the 37-page report prepared at the direction of Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann and released this week under the Freedom of Information Act is heavily redacted. Justice Department officials withheld large swaths of the document on grounds of ongoing investigations, privacy and protecting internal deliberations.

The deletions are typically made by career officials at the Justice Department and the FBI, but the secrecy puts the Biden administration in the curious position of fighting to keep from public view evidence of alleged wrongdoing by top advisers to Trump. It appears that those blacking out the redacted document sought to delete any details not made public in the version of Mueller’s report released in 2019 or in other public documents.

The report focuses on the work of what was known within Mueller’s office as “Team M” a group of investigators and prosecutors focused on connections between Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and businessmen and politicians friendly to Russia.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/26/secret-alternative-mueller-report-goes-public-00035507

[snowybirdie]

1. We are so

far beyond this meaning anything now. Too little, too late

[LymphocyteLover]

5. it's important for history but it's certainly not going to change anyone's minds

Like everything else they lie and distort, it's deeply disgusting how much the right lied about Trump-Russia ties and his fucking treason and his very likely stolen election. Goddamn, I am still furious about it all.

[brush]

31. What's the point if it's heavily redacted too?

Tell the whole truth of don't bother.

[stopdiggin]

33. wasn't intended for the public

an 'internal' document (the term 'alternative' is misleading) - that was released only following FOI filings - and this is what you often get.

[brush]

37. Still what's the point if an interal version is redacted?

Is what was redacted known internally, and this redacted version is to yet again keep the nation from knowing what continues to be kept from us—again, what's the point if even FOI filings can't get the truth out.

Who wants to keep seeing blacked out sections of what was intended to be public information?

Potemkin Village here we come...no, here we are.

[AntiFascist]

35. Manafort makes for excellent campaign fodder...

keep reminding the GOP of Trump's connections to Russia and it will drive the wedge further. There is a lot of support for Ukraine right now and much of Congress has turned against Putin. This is evident by the strong bipartisan support for an enormous amount of aid to Ukraine, with the exception of the most extreme MAGAts.

[Lonestarblue]

2. Unacceptable. The DOJ is covering for a few people.

The public paid for these investigations, and the public deserves to know whatever the full Mueller team found. We supposedly have open government laws. It sure doesn’t seem so lately. Trump and Barr hid everything possible. If there is any information that would out a CIA or other intelligence operative in Russia, keep that secret. But business and other dealings between Trump and Russia need to be known. For God’s sake, the man plans to run for president again!

[brooklynite]

7. That would be Biden's DOJ run by Biden's Attorney General?

[Justice matters.]

11. Do we know how many repubs infest the DOJ since decades? nt

[brooklynite]

12. In which case you're saying that Garland and staff can't manage them?

Do you really think that Trump-supporters are running wild and doing what they want at DOJ?

[Lucky Luciano]

16. Basically, yes. They cannot manage them.

[erronis]

15. No we don't know and aren't supposed to know. The moles/spies/infiltrators are hidden.

Just like in every branch of every government and probably most large corporations/organizations.

Some are just fellow travelers known to the outside forces, some are known idiots that are easily manipulated, some are walking time-bombs that need to be triggered (psychologically or perhaps pharmaceutically), and some are knowing operatives of the outside forces.

'brooklynite' seems to want this to be all good or all evil. If the DOJ (for example) is all good, then nothing to worry about. If the DOJ is all evil then we can't trust it at all. Seems purposefully simplistic.

[Evolve Dammit]

22. Any other suggestions?

[wnylib]

36. Maybe that redacted information is related to

the current J6 Committee's investigation and that's why it is being kept from the public. Info in ongoing investigations is not released to the public.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

3. Sunlight

Disinfectant.

[Botany]

4. Release the whole god damn thing now

The Senate Intel Committee (Republican) has aready dropped the bomb.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/trump-russian-asset-election-intelligence-community-report.html

[2Gingersnaps]

14. Excellent article.

Thank you.

[LymphocyteLover]

6. the only thing that should be redacted is sources and methods relating to spying on Russia

especially since we are sort of at war with them ... but otherwise it's grotesque to cover up the crimes of Trump and his loathsome band of traitors

[ShazzieB]

8. I was intrigued till I came to the words "heavily redacted."

Then I lost interest.

I'd like to read what the Mueller report actually SAID, not stare at another bunch of pages full of black boxes.

[stopdiggin]

13. +1. kinda' where I'm at too.

The import here (if there is any) went over my head pretty quickly. Also wondering if 'alternative report' is really a good way of describing this work. Was there ever a time when people were considering this effort 'in place of' the final Mueller report? 'Internal report' maybe reads better?

[Quanto Magnus]

19. Yeah, can imagine

On [redacted] [redacted][redacted][redacted] a [redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted] and [redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted].

The [redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted] called [redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted]. Asked [redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted][redacted]


etc....

[Crazyleftie]

9. We need a whistleblower

to release the original UNREDACTED REPORT

[jaysunb]

10. Yes. We need a 21st century Daniel Elsberg. Nt

[flying_wahini]

17. So Biden can unredact and find out the truth. If not, why not?

Go digging for bones. They are there. People are talking to the Feds. Do it NOW.

[OverBurn]

18. I don't understand what "alternative" version means. It is the report or not the report?

[Igel]

21. Not the report.

A top deputy to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, revealed in a book published in 2020 that the team he headed prepared a summary of all its work — apparently including details not contained in the final report Mueller submitted and the Justice Department made public in 2019.

“At least for posterity, I had all the [team] members ... write up an internal report memorializing everything we found, our conclusions, and the limitations on the investigation, and provided it to the other team leaders as well as had it maintained in our files,” Weissmann wrote in his book, “Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.”

It was an internal summary report produced by one portion of Mueller's team on its own initiative "for posterity." My hunch is that it was when they realized that the final report wouldn't include things that they thought really important.

[OverBurn]

27. Thanks

[stopdiggin]

32. thank you. far better explanation than the article -(nt)-

[brush]

34. Yeah, is it like Kellyanne Conway's alternate facts?

It's full of redaction. Was anything new revealed between the blocks of blacked out text, or is it just another teaser document to get the media/everyone excited and then there's nothing as trump and his traitorous cabal slips away again unpunished?

[Mr. Evil]

20. I'm taking the George Carlin approach.

I don't care. If they won't acknowledge what actually happened or won't admit who fucked over who and when, then, fuck it. I can't waste any more time worrying about it. If they, for whatever reason, feel the need to redact this report to protect whomever, then what's the point of worrying about it?

If they can't just admit that these were bad people that did bad things... what the fuck are they hiding? Who are they protecting and why?

The vast majority of people on this planet just want to live their one and only life with a relative sense of joy and contentment. Because of shit like this, we can't.

I'm 62 years old. I work very hard at hard work. And I'm very tired. We're long overdue and deserving for something much better than our present reality. Shit like this just makes me more sad than I already am. I'm sorry. After Uvalde, I just can't take much more.

[Evolve Dammit]

23. That's the excruciatingly hard part. They don't care about you, AT ALL. Really sucks that We the

People aren't worthy of honest government or truth. "They keep electing these rich cocksuckers who don't care about you at all. At all."
It's a big club. And you and I are not in the big club. Transparency, equality and the rule of law my ass. The real owners don't want any of that. "No one is above the law" is just a joke.
Rant off.

[Mr. Evil]

25. Fuckin' A, Hell yeah!

Spoken in perfect pissed off language!

[DSandra]

29. They have all the power to manipulate and divide the people and the people take the bait

The elites of capitalism study the population like animal species, to a science. They are experts at manipulation and behavioral psychology. They basically play asymmetrical warfare against us and move us like chess pieces, all the while sucking us dry of our money, to keep us powerless against them. The population for the most part has no clue to what level they are being manipulated.

[Evolve Dammit]

30. And prices are going to create real "hardship," not that they haven't been already. "Real owners."

[bringthePaine]

24. open it up and stand back

[luvallpeeps]

26. Little late?

This is as timely as the Uvalde cops.