And all three attorneys appointed are outside of the DC swamp.

Prognightmare said:

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aggiehawg said:

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The weasel (Rosenstein) speaks.

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Make no mistake, that little weasel and many many more are trying to run out the clock and Trump loses re-election. They know if he's re-elected, then he will force their destruction ad they'll have no cover.

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I'm sure he hopes that, but this particular one is probably the smartest of the whole gang. I suspect he is least likely to be found guilty in a trial.

To me, this is bombshell news.... if Barr is 'peeling the onion' on unmaskings, it significantly increases the odds Durham is stitching together a criminal conspiracy case.

Attorney General William Barr has tapped an outside prosecutor to investigate allegations of 'unmasking' related to the Russia probe

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Bash will be tasked with looking at instances of unmasking that occurred before and after the 2016 presidential election, the frequency, and who made the unmasking requests, Kupec said. The inquiry "can shed light on and give us a better understanding of what happened with respect to President Trump, his campaign," and "what happened after he was elected as well."

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Trolling libs

Threats for obstruction of justice on which crimes? There were none. Team Mueller knew that from the get go.

It was all a charade and an elaborate bluff. Go back and look at what the Mueller investigation really accomplished in the end from a legal perspective. Manafort on tax issues from work he did in Ukraine, that ended in 2014. Roger Stone on a false statements charge. They lost the Gregg Craig* case with an acquittal. Got a jury verdict against Flynn's partner Rafekian** but the judge tossed the case. Pissant guilty pleas from Gates and Papadop. And Michael Cohen, again on charges not related to Russia.

We still don't know who obtained the DNC and DCCC emails and gave them to Wikileaks. The only actual "crime" worthy of investigation. Team Mueller can say it was the Russians but they could never prove it.

*Craig's case revolved around FARA for work he did with Manafort in Ukraine. Not Russia related.

**Rafekian's case was also a FARA one but for the Inovo deal with ties to Turkey, not Russia.

will25u said:

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I love the guy sometimes, but other times I wish he would put a sock in it.

nortex97 said:

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Prognightmare said:

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aggiehawg said:

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The weasel (Rosenstein) speaks.

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Make no mistake, that little weasel and many many more are trying to run out the clock and Trump loses re-election. They know if he's re-elected, then he will force their destruction ad they'll have no cover.

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I'm sure he hopes that, but this particular one is probably the smartest of the whole gang. I suspect he is least likely to be found guilty in a trial.

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If I were Strzok, Page, or some other underling, I would read this as a sign that RR is about to start throwing minor players under the bus.

Sarge 91 said:

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nortex97 said:

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Prognightmare said:

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aggiehawg said:

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The weasel (Rosenstein) speaks.

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Make no mistake, that little weasel and many many more are trying to run out the clock and Trump loses re-election. They know if he's re-elected, then he will force their destruction ad they'll have no cover.

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I'm sure he hopes that, but this particular one is probably the smartest of the whole gang. I suspect he is least likely to be found guilty in a trial.

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If I were Strzok, Page, or some other underling, I would read this as a sign that RR is about to start throwing minor players under the bus.

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Those two absolutely deserve the full weight of the bus.

The 'senile Bob' Mueller report flat out lied about it being the Russians re: the server. Crowdstrike testified they had no idea. It also wasn't a crime (or at least not a criminal one) if a person granted access (note; this isn't classified/government documentation, rather it was a private contractual matter) to the private server took a copy of the emails on a thumb drive. It wasn't embezzlement, what Seth Rich did, and no clear crime has been articulated as such.

Let's not forget that Podesta gave his password away too, in a fishing moment of idiocy, which was just 'password.'

To spend all that time and never even realize who Fusion GPS is, demonstrates what a fraud it all was and is to this day. Nellie and Bruce Ohr have all the real answers, as do Susan Rice/Brennan/Comey.

Obstruction of justice is nebulous and a charge related to that was always Mueller/Comey/Rosenstein's goal. It also bears repeating that Trump handed over, ahem, a veritable crap ton of material to team witch hunt;

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The document said the White House has provided more than 20,000 pages of materials, and the campaign has provided more than 1.4 million pages. It says more than 20 White House personnel have given interviews, including eight from the White House counsel's office. Seventeen campaign employees "plus 11 additional individuals" have given interviews, Trump's attorneys say.

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Politifact is a good leftist source to see how disingenuous Mueller's team was even with POTUS himself. Demanding a live interview, because a handful of "I don't recall" answers (which was fine for Hillary, of course) were inadequate in writing and he wanted a live interrogation to support obstruction;

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Mueller: "We informed counsel of the insufficiency of those responses in several respects. We noted, among other things, that the President stated on more than 30 occasions that he 'does not recall' or 'remember' or have an 'independent recollection' of information called for by the questions. Other answers were 'incomplete or imprecise.' "

Because the written exchange gave investigators "no opportunity to ask follow-up questions," Mueller's team again requested an in-person interview. Once again, Trump declined.

Ultimately, Mueller concluded, "We viewed the written answers to be inadequate."

The special counsel's office considered issuing a subpoena for Trump's testimony, an avenue that would have been fraught with thorny constitutional questions, Mueller said. Rather than risk a protracted court battle on that front, Mueller's team decided against a subpoena, noting that investigation already "had made significant progress and had produced substantial evidence for our report."
Ousting Mueller

Perhaps the strongest rebuttal to Barr's claim is the second volume of Mueller's report. In it, the special counsel documented some 10 "key issues and events" that his team examined as part of its obstruction investigation.

They included instances of Trump trying to impede the investigation or directing his staff to do so including firing Mueller.

In one dramatic section, the report provides a window into Trump's distress over the news that a special counsel had been appointed in the wake of his firing of FBI Director James Comey.

"Oh my God. This is terrible," the report quotes Trump as saying. "This is the end of my presidency. I'm f-----."

Trump grew more alarmed following media reports that the special counsel's office would look into whether Trump obstructed justice, according to the report.

It describes a frantic Trump calling then-White House counsel Don McGahn at home and ordering him to say Mueller should be removed due to conflicts of interest. McGahn refused.

"The president's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful," the Mueller report notes, "but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."

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It's all "Celebrity Apprentice" fantasies of team Weissman/Mueller/Rosenstein/Van Grack/Politico etc.

aggiehawg said:

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drcrinum said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Threats for obstruction of justice on which crimes? There were none. Team Mueller knew that from the get go.

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This is the way the game was played: Anyone associated with Team Trump or any exculpatory witnesses...if you leaked any information about the investigation, including your testimony, then = obstruction of justice. However, if you played for Team Mueller, you could selectively leak information about the investigation to further the narratives of Muh Russia & Orange Man Bad, = no consequences. In other words, the game was played according to Weissmann's Rules.

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And every judge that ruled that the Mueller was legally appointed (Ellis and Berman-Jackson) should publicly apologize. Manafort and Cohen have been released from jail, ostensibly because of the Covid but I think Barr has assessed they were wrongfully prosecuted and ordered the Bureau of Prisons to release them.

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Obstruction just relies on impeding an investigation, not an investigation of a crime that leads to conviction/charges. Clearly, the investigation itself (over 3 plus years) was the real sword of damocles.

will25u said:

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Why is Barr bringing a new prosecutor for unmasking so late in the process? I find it hard to believe he just learned about it? Hopefully, the investigations are largely complete and the prosecutor was brought in to prepare indictments.

I think as it Has become more Obvious that controls on unmasking were highly subjective, and that this ambiguity in who actually had authority and a legitimate need to know for a legitimate purpose appears to have been increasingly exploited for potentially unjustified purposes, a more detailed look was warranted at the actual use of the process versus its stated intent. I got the impression that more people without a specific need to identify the US person to understand intelligence for a legitimate government purpose were requesting and getting unmaskings than seem Minimally necessary to do the legitimate apolitical work of the executive branch. When there is a huge increase in usage of a process affecting 4th amendment civil rights, it warrants scrutiny. I'm not sure why now, particularly, unless something was discovered indicating a particular pattern of unacceptable use.

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Third, this the third time Barr has gone outside the Beltway for help, meaning he still doesn't fully trust the denizens of Main Justice, nor the DC Field Office of the FBI.

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When Durham was appointed, it was pretty obvious that Barr trusted no one in Main Justice to handle something like this. The subsequent appointments just confirms that.

MouthBQ98 said:

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I think as it Has become more Obvious that controls on unmasking were highly subjective, and that this ambiguity in who actually had authority and a legitimate need to know for a legitimate purpose appears to have been increasingly exploited for potentially unjustified purposes, a more detailed look was warranted at the actual use of the process versus its stated intent. I got the impression that more people without a specific need to identify the US person to understand intelligence for a legitimate government purpose were requesting and getting unmaskings than seem Minimally necessary to do the legitimate apolitical work of the executive branch. When there is a huge increase in usage of a process affecting 4th amendment civil rights, it warrants scrutiny. I'm not sure why now, particularly, unless something was discovered indicating a particular pattern of unacceptable use.

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I go back to Comey's jaw dropping testimony in March 2017 when he was asked about the supposed leak investigation involving Trump's calls with foreign leaders. That's a small group who would be on the call or read into it. Comey stated he had absolutely no idea who had clearance on that call nor the number of people. This was nearly two months after the leaks. Not even the most rudimentary investigation had even begun.

As to why now? I'm inclined to think Grenell, in his brief stint as ODNI, turned over enough rocks and brought that information to Barr and Barr is acting on it.