Commentary: Crafting a New Image for Justice in America

American flag behind barbed wire and fence

Were I of a more entrepreneurial bent, I might go into the statuary business. I would specialize in those statues of “Justice” one sees, or used to see, decorating the façades of courthouses. The old-fashioned, now deprecated models featured a berobed and blindfolded female figure holding aloft a pair of scales. The symbology, now on its way to the graveyard of discarded ideas, was simple but noble.  Justice was blindfolded because she was no respecter of persons.  Neither rank nor party nor sex nor ethnic origin would figure into her calculation of guilt or innocence.  She held scales to emphasize her devotion to impartiality.

Since those ideals have long since been superseded, my thought was to go into business producing new statues of Justice.  The figure could still be female, or at least identify as female, but it should probably be obese and sport dreadlocks. She—or “she”—should not be wearing a robe but rather a T-shirt and dungarees. Instead of a blindfold, this new figure of justice would sport a pride-flag pin and a WinBlue membership card. She would still brandish scales, but one side would be loaded down with affidavits, subpoenas, and indictments.

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Commentary: Abandon the Swamp and Let it Rot

Suppose a document drops in the wilderness and no one is around to hear it. Does it make a sound? I submit that John Durham just tested this Bishop Berkeleyesque query. The special counsel spent four years beavering away in the forests of the deep state and what did he produce? Three hundred pages telling us what, for the most part, we already knew and with the result that exactly nothing, apart from a little hand wringing, will happen. 

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British Intelligence Found FBI Russia Collusion Probe so Absurd It Stopped Helping

British intelligence expressed skepticism about the FBI’s investigation into the Donald Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia in 2016, and eventually became so concerned it stopped cooperating, according to evidence made public in Special Counsel John Durham’s recent report.

Durham released his 300+ page report on the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion probe on Monday, representing the culmination of years of investigations. That report excoriated the FBI for pursuing the investigation without possessing any significant evidence of wrongdoing.

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Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: Is There Anything the FBI Won’t Do?

The FBI on Wednesday finally broke its silence and responded to the revelations on Twitter of close ties between the bureau and the social media giant – ties that included efforts to suppress information and censor political speech. 

“The correspondence between the FBI and Twitter show nothing more than examples of our traditional, longstanding and ongoing federal government and private sector engagements, which involve numerous companies over multiple sectors and industries,” the bureau said in a statement. “As evidenced in the correspondence, the FBI provides critical information to the private sector in an effort to allow them to protect themselves and their customers. The men and women of the FBI work every day to protect the American public. It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency.” 

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Commentary: Third Time’s a Charm for Merrick Garland

What do you suppose the chances are that Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s attorney general and chief enforcer, is a student of Søren Kierkegaard? Pretty slim, I’d wager. But his announcement yesterday that he was getting the old band back together and appointing yet another “special counsel” to investigate Donald Trump made me think that he should take a gander at Repetition, a book that Kierkegaard published in 1843 under the pseudonym Constantin Constantius.

The book is an arch, hothouse affair, full of Kierkegaard’s mocking and self-indulgent philosophical curlicues. But the MacGuffin of the book—whether one can really repeat the events of one’s life and, if so, what significance that repetition has—is something Garland might want to ponder for himself. I don’t think I will be spoiling things by revealing that Kierkegaard—or at least his pseudonymous narrator—concludes that, no, “there simply is no repetition” in life. 

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Democrat Poised to Succeed Pelosi Repeatedly Denied Legitimacy of Trump’s 2016 Election

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat poised to succeed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as his party’s leader in the House, has repeatedly denied the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s 2016 election.

But his claims of a stolen election and voter suppression have hardly gotten the same treatment as Trump and other Republicans who have raised ballot integrity issues and been endlessly branded as “election deniers.”

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Commentary: Former Feds Give Justice Department a Bad Name

Andrew Weissmann is one weird dude, to say the least.

Weissmann, an author, law professor, and MSNBC legal analyst, is a prolific user of social media—but rather than post a head shot on his Twitter bio page, Weissmann has a photo of a dog staring down a doll resembling Donald Trump lying face-up on the floor. It’s unclear if the dog is supposed to represent Weissmann, described as Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “pit bull” during the Russia election collusion investigation, or it’s just another indication of Weissmann’s insatiable obsession with the 45th president of the United States.

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Commentary: Conspirators in Their Own Words

For the last five years, the Left—defined as the fusion of the mainstream media, Silicon Valley, the radical new Democratic Party, and the vestigial Hillary Clinton machine—has crafted all sorts of conspiracies to destroy their perceived conservative enemies.

Their method has focused on one major projection: alleging conspiracy on the part of others, which is a kind of confirmation of their own conspiracies to destroy their opponents in general, and Donald Trump in particular.

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Alleged ‘Alternative’ Mueller Report Could Be Released Soon

Federal officials have allegedly discovered unused files from Robert Mueller’s unsuccessful Special Counsel investigation, and may decide to release them soon as an “alternative” report, according to Politico.

The documents recently found amongst Department of Justice (DOJ) files consist of findings by one of Mueller’s deputies, Andrew Weissmann, that were not included in the final report that was made public in early 2019. Weissmann first discussed his unreleased findings in a book he published last year called “Where Law Ends.”

“At least for posterity, I had all the members … write up an internal report memorializing everything we found, our conclusions, and the limitations on the investigation,” Weissman claims, “and provided it to the other team leaders as well as had it maintained in our files.”

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Investigation: Biden Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Tied to Alleged 2016 Clinton Scheme to Co-Opt the CIA and FBI to Tar Trump

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan figures prominently in a grand jury investigation run by Special Counsel John Durham into an alleged 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign scheme to use both the FBI and CIA to tar Donald Trump as a colluder with Russia, according to people familiar with the criminal probe, which they say has broadened into a conspiracy case.

Sullivan is facing scrutiny, sources say, over potentially false statements he made about his involvement in the effort, which continued after the election and into 2017. As a senior foreign policy adviser to Clinton, Sullivan spearheaded what was known inside her campaign as a “confidential project” to link Trump to the Kremlin through dubious email-server records provided to the agencies, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Republicans Demand Update on Long-Awaited Durham Report

After two years of waiting for a federal report on allegations of Democratic spying on the Trump campaign, Republicans are demanding answers.

More than 40 Republican U.S. senators sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Thursday requesting the release of the Durham report, the long-awaited results of an investigation into the controversial origins of the FBI investigation into Russian collusion.

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Commentary: Media Begins Its Meddling in the 2024 Primary

Paul Ryan wearing a red shirt and waving

In March 2018, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) took to the lectern to announce he had received “assurances” that President Trump was not considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller. “We have a system based upon the rule of law in this country.” A month later, Ryan announced his retirement from Congress. 

In July 2018, Ryan refused to permit an effort to impeach then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for obstructing congressional inquiries into the Russian collusion hoax. Ryan’s protection of Mueller and his untimely retirement helped tip the 2018 midterm elections against his party and Nancy Pelosi has held the speaker’s gavel ever since then. 

Mueller should have been fired and Ryan should have urged Trump to do it. Mueller proved himself to be a fumbling and doddering fool unable to grasp the basics of the investigation he supposedly led. The real directors of the witch hunt, Trump haters led by Andrew Weissman, abused the powers of the special counsel to leak, smear, and harass the sitting president. It was, from the very start, a political operation intended to deny Trump the full freedom and powers an elected president normally would enjoy. It wasn’t quite a coup because power didn’t change hands. But it added to the continuing loss of confidence Americans have in achieving political change through elections. 

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Mueller to Help Teach UVA Law Class on Russia Investigation

Russia investigation Special Counsel Robert Mueller will help teach a class on that investigation and the role of a special investigator at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Law, UVA announced Wednesday. Deputy Special Counsel Aaron Zebley and two other senior members of the team will teach the six-session in-person class next fall, with Mueller leading at least one class.

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Mueller Gathered Evidence Suggesting DNC, Clinton Camp Manufactured Russia Collusion Story

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office gathered evidence suggesting that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee launched a political “smear job” in spring 2016 tying Donald Trump to Russia collusion through the lobbying work of his campaign chairman Paul Manafort in Ukraine, according to memos that were excluded from the prosecutor’s final report.

The evidence, reviewed by Just the News, includes information obtained by State Department officials from a trusted Ukrainian source, a private investigator’s report, and an email exchange suggesting Tony Podesta — a Manafort business associate and brother of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta — tried at one point to slow down the opposition research project.

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Sidney Powell Reveals Pattern of Corruption at Richmond Rally

Former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell spoke at a rally for Fourth Congressional District candidate Leon Benjamin on Tuesday night. Men in suits and women in formal dresses enjoyed appetizers as they listened to Powell. She’s also the attorney or former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and is author of Licensed to Lie, a legal thriller/exposé of corruption in the Department of Justice.

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Mueller Team Members ‘Wiped’ Cell Phones, DOJ Records Show

Data from more than 25 government-issued phones used by members of the special counsel’s team was wiped or deleted during the course of the Trump-Russia probe, according to Justice Department records released on Thursday.

Several prosecutors on the special counsel’s team claimed they accidentally wiped their devices by entering incorrect passwords too many times. Others said they intentionally deleted data from their phones.

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Supreme Court to Determine Whether Congress Can See Redactions in the Mueller Report

The Supreme Court announced Thursday that it will hear a case that will decide whether Congress can see redacted portions of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The case’s arguments will most likely be heard in the fall after the presidential election, and the Supreme Court will likely reach a decision in 2021, The New York Times reported. The case came after the House Judiciary Committee requested grand jury documents the Department of Justice redacted from the Mueller report.

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Appeals Court Orders Dismissal of Michael Flynn Prosecution

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the dismissal of the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said in a 2-1 ruling that the Justice Department’s decision to abandon the case against Flynn settles the matter, even though Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

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AG Barr: Mueller ‘Ignored’ Evidence of Russian Disinformation in Steele Dossier

Attorney General William Barr said in an interview aired Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigators “ignored” evidence of possible Russian disinformation in the Steele dossier.

“I think that’s one of the most troubling aspects of this whole thing,” Barr told CBS News when asked about the possibility that the Kremlin fed disinformation to Christopher Steele, a former British spy who investigated the Trump campaign.

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Commentary: A Deep Dive into the Monstrous Lie Behind CrowdStrike and the ‘Russian Hack’

Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 presidential election was predicated largely on the claim Russian intelligence had hacked the Democratic National Committee’s servers ahead of the November election. Russia’s guilt is such an article of faith among our political class that a Republican-controlled Congress imposed sanctions on Russia and President Trump signed on, substantially worsening relations with an important and potentially dangerous nation. 

Since those sanctions were imposed, Mueller’s team confirmed the Russian espionage they were meant to punish. Since its publication last year, the Washington establishment has treated the Mueller report almost as a sacred document.

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Commentary: Republicans, Don’t Screw Up the Mueller Hearing

by Julie Kelly   Republicans will have a chance to redeem themselves this week after the farce they helped create: The special counsel investigation into alleged “collusion” between Russia and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. Robert Mueller is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee in a public hearing for a total of five hours on Wednesday—not nearly enough time to plumb the depths of his 448-page report or to grill Mueller about his tactics and partisan team of investigators. Republicans will need to make the most of the limited time they have. So, this seems like an appropriate time to remind Republicans that they are as much to blame as Democrats for foisting this costly, useless and destructive travesty on the American people. With few exceptions, Republicans capitulated to every single Democratic demand and the ongoing media-manufactured hysteria about the urgency required to investigate so-called “election collusion.” “Some of us very early on saw enormous conflicts [with Mueller], even conflicted as being a witness. We knew there was something wrong,” U.S. Representative Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), one of the few Republicans skeptical of the Mueller probe from the beginning, told…

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One America News Network’s Neil McCabe Joins the Tennessee Star Report to Discuss Robert Mueller’s Testimony

  On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill and Leahy talked to One America News Networks Neil McCabe about Mueller’s upcoming testimony and how the Democrats hope that he will say things that were not in the report in effort to open up impeachment hearings. The team noted that if Mueller does answer questions from Democrats that this would leave the window open for Republicans to hold him in contempt. Towards the end of the segment, the team discussed the possibility that the Mueller team had been leaking to Democrats during the entire investigation. Gill: A lot of stuff going on and to help us sort out some of it, Neil McCabe from One America News Network. Neil, good to have you back with us. McCabe: Hey, good morning. How’s it going? Gill: It tires me out just going down the list of all the stuff that’s going to happen. Leahy: Yeah. Neil, so you interviewed reporter John Solomon the other day. What did he have to tell you about James Comey and Robert Mueller? McCabe: What’s interesting is everyone talks about the Mueller…

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Washington Braces for Mueller’s Appearance Wednesday

  A leading House Democrat says special counsel Robert Mueller will give “very substantial evidence” that will make the case for impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump. “This is a president who has violated the law six ways from Sunday,” House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler told Fox television on the weekend. Legislators from Trump’s Republican Party, however, predict a highly anticipated hearing this week will amount to nothing more than a rehash of previously published information. Also speaking Sunday on Fox television, Congressman Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, accused Democrats of “going after things that we’ve already known.” Mueller is set to testify before two House committees Wednesday about his investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election and if Trump obstructed justice in trying to derail the probe. “We have to present, or let Mueller present, those facts to the American people…because the administration must be held accountable and no president can be above the law,” Nadler said. Mueller report conclusions  The Mueller report concluded there was not enough evidence to determine that Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia. But Mueller wrote he could not exonerate…

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US Lawmakers Delay Mueller Testimony by One Week

by Reuters   Former special counsel Robert Mueller will testify before two U.S. House of Representatives committees on July 24, one week later than originally scheduled, the chairmen of the panels said in a statement on Friday. Mueller, who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has agreed to appear for “an extended period of time,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said. Mueller had been scheduled to appear for two-hour public hearings before each panel. The earlier uncertainty presented a distraction for Democrats, who have billed Mueller’s testimony as a potential watershed moment that could focus attention on segments of his 448-page report that raise troubling questions about President Donald Trump’s efforts to impede the federal investigation. The Judiciary Committee also sought to interview former Mueller aides Aaron Zebley and James Quarles behind closed doors. But Rep. Steve Cohen told reporters they would not appear after the Justice Department directed them not to. Judiciary Committee members balked at the unofficial, earlier arrangement for Mueller, because many of the panel’s less senior lawmakers would not get time to ask questions. “Everyone on the committee wants an opportunity to examine Mr. Mueller,”…

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Mueller to Testify in Open Congressional Hearing

  Special counsel Robert Mueller has agreed to provide open testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee next month. The chairmen of the two panels, Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Rep. Adam Schiff, announced in a letter late Tuesday that Mueller would appear July 17, and that they and all Americans looked forward to hearing from him. Mueller led a nearly two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and allegations that President Donald Trump obstructed justice by trying to shut down the probe. He issued a report, a redacted version of which was made public in April, that concluded the Trump campaign had not colluded with Russia during the election, but reached no conclusion on the question of obstruction of justice. Trump has been highly critical of the process, repeatedly calling the investigation a “witch hunt.” His reaction shortly after Tuesday’s announcement came in the form of a tweet: “Presidential Harassment!” Mueller’s only public comments to this point have been at a news conference in May during which he read a prepared statement, but took no questions. Nadler and Schiff had issued subpoenas seeking to compel Mueller to testify, explaining that while they noted…

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House Intelligence Committee to Hold Hearing on Mueller Probe

by Chuck Ross   The House Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing next Wednesday about the “counterintelligence implications” of the special counsel’s investigation. Two former FBI national security officials, Stephanie Douglas and Robert Anderson, will testify at the hearing, which is entitled “Lessons from the Mueller Report: Counterintelligence Implications of Volume 1.” Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the committee, will focus on dozens of contacts between Russian government officials and operatives discussed in the special counsel’s report. Republicans could use the hearing to raise questions of their own about the partially-discredited Steele dossier, as well as about the role played by Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor who had contact with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. Schiff, who was a leading proponent of the collusion conspiracy theory, has had to refocus his line of attack on Trump in the wake of the special counsel’s report. The report said that prosecutors were unable to establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. It also said that investigators did not establish that Trump associates acted as agents of the Russian government. Schiff has said that the report does not shed light on what information the FBI…

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Tim Ryan Releases Statement in Support of Impeachment Proceedings

  Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) said the House “must begin impeachment proceedings” in a statement released Tuesday morning. Republicans criticized Ryan, a 2020 hopeful, for using the impeachment issue to “breakthrough in a crowded primary field” and “satiate his radical base.” But Ryan claims he came to the decision “after much thought and consideration and after both reading the Mueller report and hearing directly from the Special Counsel.” “In America, no one is above the law. In America, we have an elected president, not a king. In America, the people govern,” Ryan began his statement. “We must fully expose the lawlessness which has already occurred and prevent additional lawlessness from occurring. While it is unlikely that we will see a conviction in the Senate with its present Republican leadership more concerned with power and party than their constitutional duties and the rule of law, we can no longer sit by while a lawless president remains unchecked,” he continued. Statement on Impeachment pic.twitter.com/8pzx1zQnhC — Tim Ryan (@TimRyan) June 4, 2019 Ryan went on to suggest that avoiding impeachment would enable “this kind of lawless behavior to continue and to metastasize.” “Our republic cannot survive if we acquiesce to the view held…

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Nadler Responds to Mueller: ‘Falls to Congress to Respond to the Crimes’

by Henry Rodgers   House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler responded to special counsel Robert Mueller’s first public remarks Wednesday since his report was released, saying it is up to Congress to investigate the findings in the Mueller report. In a statement released by Nadler after Mueller’s press conference at the Department Of Justice, Nadler thanked Mueller for his service and said that “although Department of Justice policy prevented the Special Counsel from bringing criminal charges against the President, the Special Counsel has clearly demonstrated that President Trump is lying about the Special Counsel’s findings, lying about the testimony of key witnesses in the Special Counsel’s report, and is lying in saying that the Special Counsel found no obstruction and no collusion,” saying it is now Congress’ responsibility to act. “We would like to thank Special Counsel Robert Mueller for his service to our nation over the past two years. In his statement this morning, Special Counsel Mueller reaffirmed his report, which found substantial evidence that Russia attacked our political system and that the President sought to obstruct Mueller’s investigation over and over again. He also confirmed three central points: he did not exonerate the President of the United States of…

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Ohio Tea Party Leader Does Not Buy Into Robert Mueller’s Press Conference

  A local Ohio Tea Party leader believes Robert Mueller’s statements today were an attempt by the “Deep State” to help House Democrats push for impeachment after efforts to oust President Trump through the Special Counsel’s office failed. Tom Zawistowski, the President of We the People Convention, thinks it was not happenstance that Mueller’s press conference was the same day as former FBI Director James Comey’s op-ed appears in the Washington Post. “Today, wasn’t it a coincidence, that out of nowhere, Robert Mueller pops up on my TV at 11:00 AM to make a statement about his infamous ‘Mueller Report?’ Just happens to be the same day that Jim Comey has an op-ed in the Washington Post attacking the Barr investigation. Just happens that Attorney General Bill Barr is in Alaska and not part of this event,” the grassroots leader wrote in a statement. Mueller appeared in-person to deliver remarks Wednesday to address on-going concerns about his two-year-long investigation. He defended his investigation and reiterated that “insufficient evidence” existed to charge a “broader conspiracy.” Even though the Special Counsel defended his investigation, he did not fully clear President Donald Trump of any wrongdoing – although such a declaration would be well beyond the…

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Mueller Reportedly Reluctant to Testify Publicly About Russia Probe

by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller’s negotiations with House Democrats over his public testimony have reportedly hit a roadblock. CNN reports that Mueller is reluctant to testify publicly about the Russia investigation for fear of being seen as too political. The Washington Post is reporting that Mueller and Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have been unable to agree how much of the testimony would be done in public. According to The Post, Mueller wants to testify privately about topics that aren’t laid out in the lightly redacted special counsel’s report. Democrats hope to get Mueller to say whether President Donald Trump would face charges of obstruction of justice if he were not president. They also want Mueller to discuss his interactions with Attorney General William Barr regarding the investigation, as well as the release of the report. The report was less definitive on the issue of whether Trump attempted to obstruct the Russia probe. The report laid out 10 separate incidents that were investigated for possible obstruction, including Trump’s firing on May 9, 2017 of James Comey as FBI director. Mueller declined to make a decision on whether to recommend obstruction charges. That left the decision up…

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Gowdy: FBI Has Papadopoulos Transcripts That Are Potential ‘Game-Changer’

by Chuck Ross   Former Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said he is aware of potentially game-changing evidence in the FBI’s Russia probe regarding George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser. During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Gowdy indicated he has seen FBI transcripts related to Papadopoulos that contain potentially exculpatory information on the question of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. “If the bureau’s going to send in an informant in, the informant’s going to be wired, and if the bureau is monitoring telephone calls, there’s going to be a transcript of that,” Gowdy told host Maria Bartiromo. Gowdy continued: “Some of us have been fortunate enough to know whether or not those transcripts exist. But they haven’t been made public, and I think one in particular is going — it has the potential to actually persuade people. Very little in this Russia probe I’m afraid is going to persuade people who hate Trump or love Trump. But there is some information in these transcripts that has the potential to be a game-changer if it’s ever made public.” The FBI officially opened its counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign July 31, 2016,…

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Commentary: Which One of the Spygate Rats Will Flip First?

by CHQ Staff   The news that Attorney General William Barr has tasked Connecticut U.S. attorney John Durham to “examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was ‘lawful and appropriate.’” According to reporting by Dan Bongino’s team, Durham has previously investigated corruption in law enforcement and the destruction of CIA videos. Perhaps Durham’s most notable case was his unraveling of the FBI corruption and cover-up involving mobster Whitey Bulger and the Boston FBI field office while Robert Mueller was FBI Director. As Stephen Z. Nemo reported for Communities Digital News, Bulger, notorious head of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, was allegedly a confidential informant for the FBI. But it turned out Boston-based Special Agent John Connolly Jr. was the one working for Bulger, not the other way around. He and fellow FBI Special Agent John Morris, we now know, were hit men for Bulger’s gang, and Morris even once served as director of the FBI’s training facility at Quantico, VA. Today, the guy Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Stanford Blake said had “crossed over to the dark side,” Connolly sits in a 10’ x 11’ prison cell in a Florida maximum-security facility, convicted…

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Reports: Mueller Won’t Testify Next Week, Says House Judiciary Chair

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller will not testify before Congress next week, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee told reporters Friday, according to media reports. Chairman Jerrold Nadler said he hopes he does not have to subpoena Mueller to appear before lawmakers but that he would issue one if necessary, adding that negotiations are continuing, Bloomberg, Fox News and other outlets reported. Nadler also said his panel had again issued a subpoena to former White House counsel Don McGahn and that lawmakers expect him to appear May 21 or face being cited for contempt, a Fox News journalist said. The White House earlier this week had directed McGahn not to comply with an earlier summons. Representatives for the committee could not be immediately reached to confirm the comments. Mueller’s potential testimony comes as House Democrats seek to further their investigations following the release of Mueller’s report on his two-year-plus investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential obstruction by U.S. President Donald Trump and his campaign. Mueller’s team of prosecutors detailed extensive contacts between Trump’s campaign and Moscow but concluded there was insufficient evidence to show a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the campaign.…

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2018 Ohio Attorney General Candidate Signs Letter Saying Trump Should Be Prosecuted

  Steven Dettelbach, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio and 2018 Democratic attorney general candidate, joined nearly 800 U.S. Department of Justice alumni in suggesting that President Donald Trump obstructed justice in a Monday letter. “Each of us believes that the conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting president, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice,” the letter begins. It goes on to state that the “Mueller report describes several acts that satisfy all of the elements for an obstruction charge.” These acts include, according to the letter, conduct “that obstructed or attempted to obstruct the truth-finding process.” The letter claims that the “evidence of corrupt intent and connection to pending proceeding is overwhelming.” It discusses in detail the “attempts to fire Mueller and then create false evidence,” the “attempts to limit the Mueller investigation,” and the evidence of “witness tampering and intimidation.” “As former federal prosecutors, we recognize that prosecuting obstruction of justice cases is critical because unchecked obstructions—which allows intentional interference with criminal investigations to go unpunished—puts our…

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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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Report: Mueller Expressed Frustration to AG Barr About Letter to Congress

by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller expressed frustration to William Barr about how the attorney general described the findings of his investigation regarding obstruction of justice to Congress, according to a new report. The Washington Post reported that Mueller sent the letter on March 27, three days after Barr sent a letter of his own to Congress laying out what he said were the principal conclusions of the special counsel’s 22-month investigation. The revelation of Mueller’s letter comes on the eve of Barr’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the special counsel’s probe. Barr said in the March 24 letter that Mueller did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. More controversially, Barr said that Mueller made no decision on whether charges were warranted against President Trump for obstruction of justice. Mueller neither recommended charges nor exonerated Trump, Barr told lawmakers. But he said that after consulting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Justice Department lawyers, the Justice Department would not pursue a case against Trump, partially because there was no underlying conspiracy claim. President Trump’s supporters touted Barr’s remarks, saying that the Republican was…

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William Barr: ‘Surprised’ That Mueller Didn’t Make a Decision on Obstruction

by Chuck Ross   Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that he was “surprised” that Special Counsel Robert Mueller declined to make a decision on whether President Trump obstructed the Russia probe. During a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barr said that he was “absolutely” confident in his decision not to pursue an obstruction case against Trump. Mueller ended his 22-month investigation on March 22 without making a decision on the question of obstruction. Barr said in a letter to Congress on March 24 that Mueller was unable to make a decision on obstruction, and would neither recommend charges against Trump nor exonerate him. That left the decision to Barr, who decided after consulting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein not to pursue the obstruction case. “Were you surprised he was going to let you decide?” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham asked Barr of Mueller during the hearing. “Yes, I was surprised,” said Barr. “The other thing that was confusing to me was that the investigation carried on for a while as additional episodes were looked into, episodes involving the president, and so my question was ‘why were those investigated if at the end of the day you…

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Angie Craig Facing Criticism for Impeachment Comments

  Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN-02) hosted her fourth town hall last week and received several questions from constituents on moving forward with impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump. Up until Tuesday’s town hall, Craig had taken a relatively moderate position on the issue of impeachment and believed it shouldn’t be discussed until Mueller completed his investigation. “I believe the next step is for the Congress to request the unredacted version of the report. I believe the next step is for the committee chairmen to call a number of folks forward to testify, to fill in the facts for the American people,” Craig told her constituents Tuesday. “I am very troubled by the number of the potential areas of obstruction of justice that are mentioned in the report.” Some took the comments to mean that Craig supports moving forward with the impeachment process, including the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Yesterday Craig laid out for her constituents how exactly Congress should waste more of Minnesotans’ taxpayer money on baseless impeachment claims,” NRCC spokeswoman Carly Atchison said. “It is bizarre that Angie Craig now decides to pursue baseless impeachment, but regardless, she should stop peddling conspiracy theories and focus on Minnesotans.” Former Congressman…

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Commentary: The Eternal Conflict of the Progressive Mind

by Victor Davis Hanson   One of the strangest things about the series of psychodramas that surround the ongoing effort to remove President Trump before the 2020 election is progressive schizophrenia. In teenage fashion, one moment a player in the Trump removal intrigue is deemed by the media-progressive nexus a demigod. The next moment, he’s a devil. It depends solely on his perceived sense of utility. Robert Mueller, Saint to Sinner  When Robert Mueller was appointed in May 2017 as special counsel to investigate alleged Trump campaign “collusion” with Russia following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, he was practically canonized as a secular saint. The media was giddy over his “all stars” and “dream team” of almost all liberal lawyers who shortly would prove the supposedly obvious: sure winner Hillary Clinton lost only because the vile Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to sabotage her campaign by leaking John Podesta’s emails. As the Mueller investigation lumbered along over the last 22 months, the media periodically announced that their newfound hero had inside information, privileged but unnamed sources, and high-ranking anonymous officials who confirmed “the noose was tightening,” the “walls were closing in,” and “a bombshell” was about to go…

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Commentary: Was Robert Mueller Colluding With Russia?

by Christopher Roach   The Mueller Report was released last week. Undoubtedly it will be discussed much more than it is read. Many of the salient facts were already well-known, including Russian efforts to sow chaos and division among Americans during the 2016 presidential election using “active measures.” This sophisticated propaganda and narrative-making tools find their origins in the Soviet KGB. While some are pleased to deem President Trump a potential Russian agent because of his stated hopes for better relations with Russia and his tongue-in-cheek calls for Russia to find Hillary’s missing emails, it was clear long before last week that the Russian influence and hacking operations were not directed chiefly to aid his election. One can assume that Russia, like nearly every other observer, presumed Hillary would win. Consistent with this, the report states: “The [Russian Internet Research Agency] conducted social media operations targeted at large U.S. audiences with the goal of sowing discord in the U.S. political system.” Thus, they created fake grassroots organizations “(with names such as “Being Patriotic,” “Stop All Immigrants,” “Secured Borders,” and “Tea Party News”), purported Black social justice groups (“Black Matters,” “Blacktivist,” and “Don’t Shoot Us”), LGBTQ groups (“LGBT United”), and religious…

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Rep Steve Cohen of Memphis Wants to Formally Censure Donald Trump

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, wants to formally censure U.S. Republican President Donald Trump, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. This, after federal officials this week released Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report about alleged Russian interference and alleged collusion with Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the paper reported. “This illegal, unethical and immoral conduct by Donald Trump and misleading information by Attorney General (William) Barr needs to be sanctioned by our legislative bodies, and the way we can do that is through a censure resolution,” The Commercial Appeal quoted Cohen as saying. “There’s too much there not to see there’s a connection between Trump and Russia that is not healthy for the United States of America.” In his report, Mueller said he could not establish the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government — but he also said the Russian government would rather have Trump as president instead of his Democratic opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mueller also said he could not conclude whether Trump obstructed justice. “I think it’s pretty clear that what the Mueller report has presented is damning evidence that the president did in fact obstruct justice,” Cohen reportedly said. “The problem with impeachment is the Senate would…

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Minnesota Dems ‘Deeply Disturbed’ by Mueller Report, Republicans Say They’re Throwing a ‘Temper Tantrum’

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was officially released to the public Thursday. Reactions from Minnesota’s congressional delegation were predictably divided. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) said she was “deeply distributed” as she reviewed the report, claiming it has “proved Russian interference in the 2016 election.” “Second, there is ample evidence of attempts by the president to obstruct the investigation and the special counsel left it to Congress to decide whether that amounts to a crime. And the report demonstrates that the lies Trump associated told materially affected the course of the investigation,” Smith wrote in a statement posted to Facebook. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) agreed and pointed out that the report states that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election “in a sweeping and systematic fashion.” “So despite the endless doubts cast by the president, this happened. Case made for my bill for backup paper ballots and post-election audits,” Klobuchar wrote on Twitter. First Page of Mueller report says that Russian government interfered in 2016 presidential election “in sweeping and systematic fashion.” So despite the endless doubts cast by the President, this happened. Case made for my bill for backup…

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Your Guide to the Mueller Report

by Chuck Ross   After nearly two years of investigation, a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report is set to be released on Thursday morning. The report, which clocks in at nearly 400 pages, will contain Mueller’s findings about Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. It will also detail the investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russians, and whether President Trump himself attempted to obstruct the FBI’s probe by firing James Comey as FBI director. Attorney General William Barr has already revealed that Mueller & Co. were unable to establish that Trump associates conspired with Russia. But the report will likely shed light on how the investigation unfolded, and what other information was uncovered about any Russian attempts to infiltrate the campaign. Here is a guide for the report’s release. Where will it be released? The Justice Department has said the report will be sent to Congress and made public. It will likely be posted online, and can also be found at DailyCaller.com. What will be in the report? A lot. The report is the product of a 22-month investigation that relied on 2,800 subpoenas, 500 witness interviews, 19 prosecutors, 50 FBI agents…

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