Attorney General Barr Tells Sen. Blackburn Mueller Team Investigated Trump ‘Exhaustively’ and Did Not Find Any Evidence of Collusion or Obstruction

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) questioned Attorney General William Barr on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Barr said the investigation was thorough and the allegations against President Donald Trump were proven false. Barr appeared before the committee to discuss Mueller’s report that showed Trump did not collude with the Russians in the 2016 elections or obstruct justice. Transcripts from Blackburn’s and Barr’s exchanges follow. Regarding the politicization of law enforcement agencies:  Blackburn: What seems to have happened at the FBI is that there is a seedy, cynical, political culture within a group that developed, and these individuals, collectively, seemed to think that they could work within the power of their jobs and their roles with the federal government. There was an elitism and an arrogance there and it speaks to a very unhealthy work culture. The video clip is available here.   The Special Counsel team’s investigation and findings: Blackburn: Are they meticulous investigators who will hunt down every witness and every piece of evidence? Barr: I think they are tenacious investigators. Blackburn: Are they devoted to finding the truth? Barr: Yes. Blackburn: Are they masters at taking down hardened criminals foreign…

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Here’s Why Trey Gowdy Opposes Release of Mueller Report

by Chuck Ross   Former GOP South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said Saturday that he disagrees with congressional Republicans who want the special counsel’s Russia report to be made public. “I’m in a really small minority, Neil,” Gowdy said in an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. “I don’t think the report should be released at all and I’m frankly surprised so many Republicans think it should be.” Republican lawmakers have supported releasing special counsel Robert Mueller’s report of the Russia investigation. Attorney General William Barr told Congress on Friday a version of the report will be provided to lawmakers by mid-April, if not sooner. Barr released a summary of Mueller’s main conclusions from the 22-month investigation March 24. According to Barr, Mueller was unable to establish that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election. Democrats have called on Barr to provide the report to Congress by April 2, and without redactions. Barr said he is reviewing Mueller’s report with the help of the special counsel, and might withhold grand jury information and classified information contained in the report. Most Republicans have come out in favor of releasing the report given that it appears to exonerate Trump…

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Senate Intelligence Member Angus King Says He Still Does Not Accept Mueller Report of No Collusion

by Henry Rodgers   Senate Intelligence Committee member Angus King said he does not accept special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings of zero collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, saying the Senate has not completed their investigation. In a Friday interview, which is set to air on “Firing Line” with Margaret Hoover on PBS, the Maine Democrat says the committee is still looking into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, hinting their investigation is not “criminal.” “I’m not prepared to, because we’re not finished with our investigation. And you have to understand there are two very different missions of these two investigations,” King said. “Robert Mueller’s investigation was a criminal. He was looking for breaches of criminal law: conspiracy, obstruction of justice. That was his, that’s his focus as a prosecutor.” King also said the committee is near the end of it’s investigation, and are now focusing on the “collusion cooperation” aspect. Mueller submitted his completed report to Attorney General William Barr, who said he will be done vetting Mueller’s report sometime in April. “Our investigation is, what happened? We’re after the facts and the circumstances, not necessarily was a crime committed, or was it can you prove it…

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Rep. Green Calls for House Intel Committee Chairman Schiff to Step Down Since He Is a ‘Conspiracy Theorist’

U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) called out a leading Democrat as a “conspiracy theorist” over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Green called for the resignation U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA-28) as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Green made his remarks on “America’s Newsroom: on Fox News on Tuesday. The video is available here. (Green addresses the question around the 2:15 minute mark.) “We have no evidence of collusion [between Trump and Moscow to throw the 2016 election]. In fact, the only collusion has been between the liberal media and the DNC to throw the 2020 election.” … “We don’t need a conspiracy theorist running our House Intel Committee.” Green’s statement was made in light of Schiff questioning implying the Russians offered intel on Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump’s son showing interest, according to Fox News. Schiff last week said his committee might subpoena Mueller to get a fuller understanding about the details of his report. “If necessary, we will call Bob Mueller or others before our committee,” Schiff told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, noting also that the Judiciary Committee might summon Attorney General Bill Barr to answer questions as well. The California Democrat’s comments came…

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Commentary: The Cynical Liars Who Started the Mueller Investigation Must Be Punished

by George Rasley   After 300 political campaigns I can say one thing about the Steele dossier with some authority: It was no opposition research memo, at least as the term is understood by any political operative with even the thinnest ethical sense would understand the term, it was a good old-fashioned smear that no one even bothered to pretend was true, merely “credible” to its recipients. Back in January of 2017, soon after the Steele dossier story broke and before President Trump was even inaugurated, many of us were asking how such trash could justify the claim that President-elect Donald Trump was essentially acting as an agent of Moscow. Robert Romano, writing for our friends at Americans for Limited Government, summed-up the questions nicely in his article, “Did Obama politicize false intel to portray Trump as a Manchurian Candidate?” Wrote Mr. Romano: As CNN infamously reported on Jan. 10, “Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN. The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to…

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McConnell Blocks Unanimous House Resolution to Release Mueller Report

by Whitney Tipton   U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a resolution Monday calling for the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. The Kentucky Republican claimed the Department of Justice needs more time to determine which parts can be released publicly, The Hill reported. The measure, which passed unanimously in the House 420-0 on March 14, asks the DOJ to make the full contents of the report public “except to the extent the public disclosure of any portion thereof is expressly prohibited by law.” In Monday’s Senate session, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked for unanimous consent, to which McConnell objected. “The special counsel and the Justice Department ought to be allowed to finish their work in a professional manner,” the Kentucky senator said. “To date, the attorney general has followed through on his commitments to Congress. One of those commitments is that he intends to release as much information as possible,” McConnell continued in his floor remarks. Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio supported McConnell’s objection. Good. Because this measure is an unnecessary solution looking for a problem. Just like the previous one they had to prevent @potus from firing Mueller. https://t.co/x5wSwRZQbc — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 25,…

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No More Indictments Coming From Mueller, Undercutting Trump Critics’ Hopes for Russia Probe

by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller will not issue any additional indictments in the Russia investigation and has not filed any charges under seal, a senior Justice Department official told news outlets Friday. The revelation would seem to be a positive sign for President Donald Trump and several Trump associates who faced legal jeopardy in the Mueller probe. It also means no Trump associates will face charges related to the main focus of the special counsel’s investigation: whether Trump of members of his campaign conspired with Russians to influence the 2016 election. Mueller was appointed special counsel on May 17, 2017. In those 22 months, Mueller has indicted or obtained guilty pleas from six Trump associates, most recently Jan. 24 against longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. None of the Trump associates faced charges related to contacts with Russia. Mueller provided a report of his investigation Friday to Attorney General William Barr, signaling the end of the probe. Barr notified the leaders of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees that he had received the report and would likely provide more details to Congress over the weekend. Trump critics have long speculated that Mueller would release a slew of indictments…

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James Comey in Op-Ed Says He Doesn’t Care What Investigation Uncovers

by Chuck Ross   James Comey claimed in an op-ed Thursday that he does not care one way or the other whether special counsel Robert Mueller finds evidence that President Donald Trump conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election or obstructed the FBI’s collusion probe. But the claim, which Comey made in The New York Times, is at odds with the former FBI director’s testimony about his actions shortly after being fired by Trump in May 2017. Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee in June 2017 that he leaked memos he wrote after conversations with Trump in order to force the appointment of a special counsel. “I asked a friend of mine to share the content of a memo with the reporter, I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel,” Comey testified June 8, 2017. Comey instructed his friend, Daniel Richman, to give the Times a memo he wrote about a conversation he had with Trump on Feb. 14, 2017. Comey claimed Trump asked him to shut down an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey’s ploy…

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Mueller Madness: Here’s What to Know About the Special Counsel’s Report

by Chuck Ross   With the Mueller report expected to drop any day, here is a guide to what the special counsel investigated and how this heavily anticipated document will be released. Spoiler alert: A lot of questions about the report’s release and its contents have no clear answer. That’s largely a function of the lack of leaks from the special counsel’s office and the stoic approach Mueller has taken during the 22-month investigation. When will the report be finished? All signs point to Mueller nearing the very end of the investigation. Several top prosecutors working on the investigation are leaving the special counsel’s office, including Andrew Weissmann and Zainab Ahmad. Weissmann was the lead prosecutor on Mueller’s case against Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was sentenced to prison on charges related to his work for the Ukrainian government. Reporters have also seen Mueller team members removing boxes of files from their offices in Washington, D.C. The grand jury Mueller used in the investigation has also reportedly not heard from witnesses since Jan. 24, the same day Trump confidant Roger Stone was indicted. What happens when Mueller finishes the report? Once Mueller finalizes his report, he is…

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Mueller’s ‘Pit Bull’ Is Leaving, Signaling That Russia Probe Is Nearly Over

by Chuck Ross   A Justice Department official described as special counsel Robert Mueller’s “pit bull” is leaving the Russia investigation, signaling that the probe is nearing its end. Andrew Weissmann will leave the special counsel’s office to study and teach law at New York University, NPR first reported. “Andrew Weissmann will be concluding his detail to the Special Counsel’s Office in the near future,” Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Weissmann led the prosecution of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was sentenced to a total of seven-and-a-half years in prison for financial crimes and work he did for the Ukrainian government. Weissmann is the best-known member of the special counsel’s team other than Mueller himself. Conservatives criticized Weissmann after it was discovered that he attended Hillary Clinton’s party on Election Day 2016. He also met with Associated Press reporters on April 11, 2017, to discuss a case against Manafort. Mueller would not be appointed special counsel until a month later, on May 17, 2017. Weissmann’s departure is the clearest sign yet that Mueller’s investigation is wrapping up. News outlets have reported that Mueller & Co. were in the…

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November Trial Date Set for Roger Stone

A federal judge in Washington on Thursday set a Nov. 5 trial date for Roger Stone — a longtime friend and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump — to face seven charges, including that he lied to Congress and obstructed a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she expects that Stone’s trial could last “at least” two weeks. Stone appeared before Jackson to answer questions about whether he violated her order prohibiting him from publicly talking about his criminal case when he attacked prosecutors in a new introduction to a paperback edition of a retitled book, “The Myth of Russian Collusion,” about the election three years ago. His lawyers had told Jackson in a court filing earlier this week that Stone had no intention of violating her gag order against him and they were not trying to hide information about the republished version of the book at the time Stone last appeared before her on Feb. 21. On Thursday, she again told Stone, a self-described political “dirty trickster,” that he must comply with the gag order to not talk publicly about the case. “I expect compliance,” Jackson said. She imposed the gag…

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President Donald Trump Wows Conservatives at 2019 CPAC

President Donald Trump delivered a raucous, rally-style speech during his appearance at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday where he let capacity crowd know how he felt about everything from the Robert Mueller Investigation and Hillary Clinton’s emails to the booming US economy and North Korea. During one of the president’s longest speech to date, Trump was not shy about telling the crowd how he honestly felt about the  Mueller Investigation. “Unfortunately you put the wrong people in a couple of positions, and they leave people for a long time that should not be there and all of a sudden they’re trying to take you out with bullsh*t,” Trump said to the crowd. The president criticized Jeff Sessions’ lack of a role in the investigation. “Now Robert Mueller never received a vote, and neither did the person that appointed him,” Trump said in a southern accent. “As you know the attorney general says, ‘I’m going to recuse myself.’ And I said, ‘Why the hell didn’t he tell me that before I put him in?’” The Mueller Investigation was not the only thing that Trump critiqued. The president called asking Russia to get Hillary Clinton’s emails a “joke.” “If…

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Commentary: The Greatest Constitutional Crisis Since the Civil War

by Conrad Black   The most immense and dangerous public scandal in American history is finally cracking open like a ripe pomegranate. The broad swath of the Trump-hating media that has participated in what has amounted to an unconstitutional attempt to overthrow the government are reduced to reporting the events and revelations of the scandal in which they have been complicit, in a po-faced ho-hum manner to impart to the misinformed public that this is as routine as stock market fluctuations or the burning of an American flag in Tehran. For more than two years, the United States and the world have had two competing narratives: that an elected president of the United States was a Russian agent whom the Kremlin helped elect; and its rival narrative that senior officials of the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and other national intelligence organizations had repeatedly lied under oath, misinformed federal officials, and meddled in partisan political matters illegally and unconstitutionally and had effectively tried to influence the outcome of a presidential election, and then undo its result by falsely propagating the first narrative. It is now obvious and indisputable that the second narrative is the correct one. The authors, accomplices, and dupes…

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Rep. Cohen Spouts Conspiracy Theories on CNN, Saying President Trump is Using Attorney General Barr to Abruptly End Mueller Investigation

Congressional Democrats are threatening to subpoena the report to be issued by special counsel Robert Mueller, and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) is spouting off conspiracy theories about the new attorney general as well. The threat comes with reports that the special counsel may issue the report on so-called Russian interference in the 2016 elections next week, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on CNN’s “New Day,” which the network posted on Twitter. AG William Barr “has to make a decision — is he going to be the people’s lawyer or is he going to be the President’s lawyer?” @SenBlumenthal says as sources tell CNN that the Justice Department is preparing for Mueller report as early as next week. https://t.co/o1rWjoIe29 pic.twitter.com/ZR9AXMOTqa — New Day (@NewDay) February 21, 2019 Attorney General William Barr was reticent recently about whether he would allow Mueller to testify before Congress, and whether he would resist a subpoena if it were issued for the report, Roll Call said. Meanwhile, Cohen, who is well known for providing colorful yet not always-appropriate soundbites, had a few things to say about Barr during an interview on CNN. The video is available here. Cohen, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee,…

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Report: Mueller Has Expanded Investigation of Kushner

by Chuck Ross   Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly looking into White House adviser Jared Kushner’s business dealings with foreign investors during the presidential transition period. Mueller’s investigators have asked witnesses in interviews as recently as this month about Kushner’s negotiations for financing for a New York City office building owned by his family’s company, Kushner Companies, CNN reports. The new line of inquiry signals that Mueller’s interest in Kushner has expanded beyond any contacts he had with Russians during the 2016 campaign, according to CNN. Of particular interest is Kushner’s meetings just after the election with the chairman of Anbang Insurance, a Chinese company that purchased a stake in the Kushner Companies property at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Mueller’s team has yet to reach out to Kushner Companies’ executives for interviews, according to CNN. A meeting that Kushner had during the transition period with Sergey Gorkov, chairman of the Russia-owned bank Vnesheconombank, is also coming under scrutiny. Kushner has said that the Dec. 2016 meeting was held to discuss official government business. The bank has said publicly that Gorkov attended the meeting as part of a “roadshow of business meetings” that he was conducting in the U.S.…

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Court Filing Shows Manafort Faces More Than 19 Years in Prison

Paul Manafort, the one-time chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, could spend more than 19 years in prison on tax and bank fraud charges, according to court papers filed Friday. Documents filed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office reveal that Manafort faces the lengthiest prison term imposed in the Russia investigation if a federal judge agrees to it. It would also place the 69-year-old Manafort at serious risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. The potential sentence stems from Manafort’s conviction last year on eight felony charges that accused him of carrying out an elaborate scheme to conceal from tax authorities the millions of dollars he earned overseas from Ukrainian political consulting. It is one of two criminal cases pending against Manafort in which he faces prison time. Though Mueller’s office did not recommend a precise sentence for Manafort, prosecutors said they agreed with a calculation by federal probation officials that his crimes deserve a punishment of between 19 and 24 years. They also lay out in great detail for U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III how they say Manafort’s greed drove him to disregard American law. “In the end, Manafort acted for more than a decade…

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Commentary: After the Coup Is Over

by Julie Kelly   As the perpetrators of one of the most shameful scandals in American political history begin slowly to retreat, we are left to ponder one overarching question: What now? The tale we’ve been told for more than two years—that Donald Trump’s campaign team, possibly even the candidate himself, colluded with the Kremlin to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election—has been exposed as a lie. Various investigations into this alleged conspiracy are coming up empty and the accomplices are trying to change the subject. Even more pathetically, some still are clinging to the farce, desperate to salvage whatever still remains of their already sketchy credibility. To describe it as a witch hunt, the president’s preferred term, is too generous. The American public has witnessed a seditious attempt by powerful interests garrisoned throughout our political complex to overthrow a sitting U.S. president. The orchestrated and failed coup has exceeded the routine combat of our two-party system, where out-of-power partisans disrupt and agitate the other side. No, this has been a full-scale insurrection that has violated the boundaries of law, normalcy, and civility in an unprecedented way. Both Democrats and Republicans have been complicit. The national news media…

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Top Takeaways From William Barr’s AG Confirmation Hearing

by Fred Lucas   William Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee he wouldn’t be intimidated by anyone, including President Donald Trump, who nominated him to serve as attorney general. “I am not going to do anything that I think is wrong, and I will not be bullied into doing anything I think is wrong. By anybody. Whether it be editorial boards, or Congress, or the president,” Barr said Tuesday in response to questions by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “I’m going to do what I think is right,” he said. Barr testified all day before the Senate committee, talking about issues ranging from abortion and the First Amendment to Hillary Clinton and the controversial Uranium One deal. Here are seven big takeaways from the first of two days of confirmation hearings for Barr. 1. ‘You’re Crazy’: On Independence Much of the questioning from senators revolved around special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and Moscow’s potential ties to the Trump campaign. Barr’s general assertion of independence, however, could affect more issues if he is confirmed, as expected. Having served already as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush from November 1991 through January 1993 allows him…

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Commentary: Mueller’s Collusion Hoax Collapses

by Conrad Black   The sudden death of the unutterable nonsense of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government, announced as it was in the hand-off to the Southern New York U.S. Attorney of the shabby fruit of Michael Cohen’s plea bargaining, has divided onlookers into three communities of opinion. The true believers in the collusion canard are left slack-jawed, like the international Left after the announcement of the Nazi-Soviet Pact: an immense fervor of faith is instantly destroyed; it is the stillness of a sudden and immense evaporation. The professional Trump-haters, the Democratic Party assassination squads in Congress and the media, like disciplined soldiers, have swiveled with parade ground precision and resumed firing after a mere second to reload, at the equally fatuous nonsense about illegal campaign contributions. Disreputable, contemptible myth-makers and smear-jobbers though they are, they deserve credit for fanaticism, improvisation, and managing in unison to sound half plausible in the face of the crushing defeat they have suffered and the piffle and pottage they are left to moralize about. Third, and slowest to respond, so sudden has been the change of the whole Trump-hate narrative, are those who never wavered from the requirement of…

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