Barr cites '10 episodes' in Mueller report detailing possible Trump obstruction

[yota691]

Mueller should be ashamed of himself: Joe diGenova

Quote

Joe diGenova: With full Mueller report out, time to go after the real conspirators

 

[bostonangler]

How does the Mueller investigation compare historically?

As we’ve reported, the investigation of President Bill Clinton over Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky — headed by Kenneth Starr and then by his successor, Robert Ray — cost upward of $52 million over half a decade. Another $40 million-plus went toward a handful of other Clinton-era independent counsel investigations.

Meanwhile, the investigation of Reagan administration officials over the Iran-Contra Affair, headed by Lawrence Walsh, topped out at more than $47 million over a roughly similar period.

Those figures are direct costs only, and are not adjusted for inflation. Their price tags would be far higher if converted to 2018 dollars.

 

On top of the millions of dollars worth of luxury apartments and homes, Manafort was also forced to forfeit money he had in three of his bank accounts and a life insurance policy. In all, Manafort had to give up an estimated $46 million in assets between the homes and bank accounts. 

 

 

 

Mueller’s office has not yet filed an expense report for the last six months of his investigation, but including the DOJ’s contributions, the total reported cost so far is $25.2 million.

Given that the last three expense reports have covered about six-month timespans, and the last report was approximately six months ago, it is likely that the office will file its fourth and final one soon. The first three reports totaled approximately $6.8 million, $10 million and $8.5 million, respectively. So the last one, if comparable to the others, would make the final dollar amount of Mueller’s probe between $32 million and $35 million.

Though that is a lot of money, the investigation may have actually paid for itself by uncovering tax evasion and fraud.

 

Paid for without government monies... No added debt... A win win.

 

B/A

Edited April 20, 2019 by bostonangler

[nstoolman1]

Keep on thinking that. Win...Win.

Peoples lives were ruined and a Nation turned against itself, stories that were important ignored, MSM attacked a duly elected President.

Top D.o.J. officials attempted a treasonous coup and openly admitted it. One political party paid for a false document and then sold it to the D.o.J. who then lied to a F..IS.A. court to start an illegal investigation.  There would have been no money spent if all the illegal stuff had not been allowed in the first place.  

 

[Pitcher]

9 hours ago, bostonangler said:

Paid for without government monies... No added debt... A win win

 

The entire Special Investigation was bogus and should have never been started in the first place. It is not a win win.  The Russian Collusion story will go down in History as a Coup Attempt of an elected President. History will tell a story about a cabal of arrogant, power hungry, and very demented people.( think they are above the law). History will not be kind to this cabal of people stupid enough to think they could get away with over throwing the President on such flimsy evidence.  They are all traitors and should be indicted and tried in court!!!

 

Tax cheats and a few process crimes (perjury traps) along with gestapo tactics and threatening of family.  Dems should be so proud.  

Dems are in full panic mode because they know what they did.  The Truth will emerge and it’s going to get REAL, real soon for the perpetrators, otherwise known as the traitorous Dems.  

 

 

[yota691]

Mueller's report looks bad for Obama

By Scott Jennings

 

Updated 3:59 PM ET, Fri April 19, 2019

 

 

 

 

Scott Jennings, a CNN contributor, is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and former campaign adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell. He is a partner at RunSwitch Public Relations in Louisville, Kentucky. Follow him on Twitter @ScottJenningsKY. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN)The partisan warfare over the Mueller report will rage, but one thing cannot be denied: Former President Barack Obama looks just plain bad. On his watch, the Russians meddled in our democracy while his administration did nothing about it.

 

Scott Jennings

The Mueller report flatly states that Russia began interfering in American democracy in 2014. Over the next couple of years, the effort blossomed into a robust attempt to interfere in our 2016 presidential election. The Obama administration knew this was going on and yet did nothing. In 2016, Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice told her staff to "stand down" and "knock it off" as they drew up plans to "strike back" against the Russians, according to an account from Michael Isikoff and David Corn in their book "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump".

Why did Obama go soft on Russia? My opinion is that it was because he was singularly focused on the nuclear deal with Iran. Obama wanted Putin in the deal, and to stand up to him on election interference would have, in Obama's estimation, upset that negotiation. This turned out to be a disastrous policy decision.

 

 

Obama's supporters claim he did stand up to Russia by deploying sanctions after the election to punish them for their actions. But, Obama, according to the Washington Post, "approved a modest package... with economic sanctions so narrowly targeted that even those who helped design them describe their impact as largely symbolic." In other words, a toothless response to a serious incursion.

 

The Mueller report is shocking

But don't just take my word for it that Obama failed. Congressman Adam Schiff, who disgraced himself in this process by claiming collusion when Mueller found that none exists, once said that "the Obama administration should have done a lot more." The Washington Post reported that a senior Obama administration official said they "sort of choked" in failing to stop the Russian government's brazen activities. And Obama's ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, said, "The punishment did not fit the crime" about the weak sanctions rolled out after the 2016 election.

A legitimate question Republicans are asking is whether the potential "collusion" narrative was invented to cover up the Obama administration's failures. Two years have been spent fomenting the idea that Russia only interfered because it had a willing, colluding partner: Trump. Now that Mueller has popped that balloon, we must ask why this collusion narrative was invented in the first place.

 

The speech Donald Trump will never give

Given Obama's record on Russia, one operating theory is that his people needed a smokescreen to obscure just how wrong they were. They've blamed Trump. They've even blamed Mitch McConnell, in some twisted attempt to deflect blame to another branch of government. Joe Biden once claimed McConnellrefused to sign a letter condemning the Russians during the 2016 election. But McConnell's office counters that the White House asked him to sign a letter urging state electors to accept federal help in securing local elections -- and he did. You can read it here.

I guess if I had failed to stop Russia from marching into Crimea, making a mess in Syria, and hacking our democracy I'd be looking to blame someone else, too.

But the Mueller report makes it clear that the Russian interference failure was Obama's alone. He was the commander-in-chief when all of this happened. In 2010, he and Eric Holder, his Attorney General, declined to prosecute Julian Assange, who then went on to help Russia hack the Democratic National Committee's emails in 2016. He arguably chose to prioritize his relationship with Putin vis-à-vis Iran over pushing back against Russian election interference that had been going on for at least two years.

 

If you consider Russian election interference a crisis for our democracy, then you cannot read the Mueller report, adding it to the available public evidence, and conclude anything other than Barack Obama spectacularly failed America. Subsequent investigations of this matter should explore how and why Obama's White House failed, and whether they invented the collusion narrative to cover up those failures.

[yota691]

 

[8th ID]

Thanks Yota! obummer and the demonrats got what they deserved. How many remember this:

 

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/12/obama-admin-sent-taxpayer-money-oust-Netanyahu

 

The US administration, under the direction of obama, meddled in Israel’s elections. obama was totally anti Israel. President Trump is totally for Israel. Look at what he has done for Israel. When we stand with and for Israel, this nation will prosper. I choose to stand with President Trump!

[Muleslayer]

12 hours ago, 8th ID said:

When we stand with and for Israel

Amen!

[yota691]

DoingRight  🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇮🇱  🔶 🔶 🔶‏ @DoingRight1

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I love it. It’s about time guests are speaking up about bias commentary against conservative views. Newscaster calls Barr a liar over Mueller report and guest wasn’t having any part of it. @DoingRight1 follows back all #MAGA #KAG

 

 

 

 

6:38 AM - 20 Apr 2019

[yota691]

Joe diGenova calls Barr 'one of the finest lawyers
3,384 views

George Aspen
Published on Apr 19, 2019
Joe diGenova, an informal adviser to President Trump, defended Attorney General William Barr during a Thursday appearance on Hill.TV, saying Barr is "one of the finest lawyers this country has ever produced."

Original here: https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/439...

The former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and staunch Trump backer made the remarks while being interviewed by hosts Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball, who asked if Barr might have lied in his comments about whether a sitting president can be indicted.

"I'm asking if Barr is a liar, is really the question," Ball said, referencing Thursday's press conference with Barr to discuss special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

"Don't you dare suggest that Bill Barr is a liar," diGenova said. "I've known him for 30 years. He's one of the finest lawyers this country has ever produced."

"There's not one shred of evidence that anything he said — either the other day, or now, or today — was a lie," diGenova added. "Don't ever say that in front of me about Bill Barr. You have no evidence that he lied, and you know it."

"What I'm telling you is that what he said today is inconsistent with what's in the report," Ball responded.

"That's not a lie," diGenova shot back.

"OK, fine," Ball said.

"It's not fine. You're on national television calling the attorney general a liar," diGenova said.

"I didn't say that," Ball responded.

"You suggested it very strongly," diGenova said.

Mueller's report suggests that the investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice was influenced in part by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which says a sitting president cannot be indicted.

Barr told reporters during Thursday's news conference that Justice Department officials had asked Mueller “about the OLC opinion and whether or not he was taking the position that he would have found a crime but for the existence of the OLC opinion.”

“He made it very clear, several times, that he was not taking a position — he was not saying but for the OLC opinion he would have found a crime,” Barr said.

Congressional Democrats have said they want Mueller to testify on Capitol Hill to answer questions about his report.

— Julia Manchester

[Pitcher]

The Truth always gets out.  Time for some perp walks on the Dem side of the isle.  

[new york kevin]

18 minutes ago, Pitcher said:

The Truth always gets out.  Time for some perp walks on the Dem side of the isle.  

Amen to that Pitcher. I agree with you 100% . Albeit,  I am not naive, and expect some Republicans not associated with the Trump WH directly,  will also be walking the court halls in cuffs some day for the crimes discovered under the Mueller Report.  The Deep State is bipartisan in that reprehensible regard.

Edited April 22, 2019 by new york kevin

[Pitcher]

I agree New York kevin, there will probably be some Reps that are guilty and if so let them pay the price for treason. 

There are a lot of swamp dwellers in DC.  There are also people in high offices that don’t believe the people of this country have the right to elect a person they don’t agree with.  I mean the smelly Wal Mart people, the gun and Bible people, the Fly Over People and the

 DEPLORABLES, shouldn’t be able to elect a person like Trump. How uncouth, those barbarians.  How dare they not vote for the Exalted ones choice  (Barry and HRC). Arrogant, smug, elitists.  Let anyone who had a part in the Coup rot in jail if found guilty after their day in court.  

[yota691]

 

[yota691]

 

[yota691]

 

Obama’s Campaign Paid $972,000 To Law Firm That Secretly Paid Fusion GPS In 2016

Since April of 2016, Obama's campaign organization has paid nearly a million dollars to the law firm that funneled money to Fusion GPS to compile a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump.

OCTOBER 29, 2017 By Sean Davis

Former president Barack Obama’s official campaign organization has directed nearly a million dollars to the same law firm that funneled money to Fusion GPS, the firm behind the infamous Steele dossier. Since April of 2016, Obama For America (OFA) has paid over $972,000 to Perkins Coie, records filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show.

The Washington Post reported last week that Perkins Coie, an international law firm, was directed by both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillarious Clinton’s campaign to retain Fusion GPS in April of 2016 to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump. Fusion GPS then hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to compile a dossier of allegations that Trump and his campaign actively colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 election. Though many of the claims in the dossier have been directly refuted, none of the dossier’s allegations of collusion have been independently verified. Lawyers for Steele admitted in court filings last April that his work was not verified and was never meant to be made public.

 

OFA, Obama’s official campaign arm in 2016, paid nearly $800,000 to Perkins Coie in 2016 alone, according to FEC records. The first 2016 payments to Perkins Coie, classified only as “Legal Services,” were made April 25-26, 2016, and totaled $98,047. A second batch of payments, also classified as “Legal Services,” were disbursed to the law firm on September 29, 2016, and totaled exactly $700,000. Payments from OFA to Perkins Coie in 2017 totaled $174,725 through August 22, 2017.

FEC records as well as federal court records show that Marc Elias, the Perkins Coie lawyer whom the Washington Post reported was responsible for the payments to Fusion GPS on behalf of Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, also previously served as a counsel for OFA. In Shamblin v. Obama for America, a 2013 case in federal court in Florida, federal court records list Elias as simultaneously serving as lead attorney for both OFA and the DNC.

OFA, which managed Obama’s successful re-election campaign in 2012, retooled after that campaign to focus on enacting the president’s agenda during his final term in office. The group reorganized again after the 2016 election and planned to use its staff and resources to oppose President Donald Trump. During the entire 2016 campaign cycle, the group spent only $4.5 million, according to FEC records.

Federal records show that Hillarious Clinton’s official campaign organization, Hillarious For America, paid just under $5.1 million to Perkins Coie in 2016. The DNC paid nearly $5.4 million to the law firm in 2016.

The timing and nature of the payments to Perkins Coie by Obama’s official campaign arm raise significant questions about whether OFA was funding Fusion GPS, how much Obama and his team knew about the contents and provenance of the dossier long before its contents were made public, and whether the president or his government lieutenants knowingly used a partisan political document to justify official government actions targeting the president’s political opponents named in the dossier. According to the Washington Post, Fusion GPS was first retained by Perkins Coie on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillarious Clinton’s presidential campaign in April of 2016.

At the same time that Hillarious’s campaign, Obama’s campaign organization, and the DNC were simultaneously paying Perkins Coie, the spouse of one of Fusion GPS’s key employees was working directly for Obama in the West Wing. Shailagh Murray, a former Washington Post reporter-turned-political operative, was serving as a top communications adviser to Obama while the Obama administration was reportedly using information from the dossier to justify secret surveillance of Trump campaign staff. Murray is married to Neil King, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who was hired by Fusion GPS in December of 2016. While at the Wall Street Journal, Kingworked alongside Fusion GPS’s core team, even sharing bylines with Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS executive who personally hired Steele to probe Trump’s alleged Russia connections.

The importance of the dossier funded by Democrats, commissioned by Fusion GPS, and compiled by Steele, is difficult to overstate given that its contents were reportedly briefed to both President Obama and then-President-Elect Trump. The dossier was eventually published in full by BuzzFeed on January 10. On January 6, then-FBI Director James Comey had briefed Trump on the allegations in Steele’s dossier. Steele admitted in court filings that he had shopped much of the information in his dossier to numerous media outlets beginning in September of 2016.

Fusion GPS, which has been accused of illegally operating as an undisclosed agent of foreign governments, is currently facing multiple congressional inquiries into its activities and its clients. Bill Browder, whose attorney was allegedly murdered by Russian authorities after publicizing explosive allegations of Russian fraud and money laundering, alleged in congressional testimony last July that Fusion GPS was paid by Russians to undermine U.S. sanctions against the country. Late last week, Fusion GPS reportedly struck a deal with U.S. House investigators regarding a federal subpoena of the firm’s bank records. And in September, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reportedly requested that the U.S. Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit provide his committee with all suspicious activity reports related to Fusion GPS’s bank transactions.

Following reports of Perkins Coie’s role in funneling money to Fusion GPS, the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan campaign finance watchdog, filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that the secret funding schemes violated federal campaign disclosure laws.

Fusion GPS is also facing a separate defamation suit in federal court related to claims in the dossier. That case, which was brought by three Russian businessmen who claim to have been libeled in the Steele dossier, was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., in early October. Fusion GPS is yet to respond to those allegations in court.

[jg1]

29 minutes ago, yota691 said:

payments, also classified as “Legal Services,”

But they were not for legal services! Isnt that tax evasion!!!

Like the college scandal, where the parents said, money was given as donations but realy was a pay off for their kids grades. 

[stt]

Fake news in the Mueller report isn't anything sacred anymore. This is out of hand it's time to abolish the dem platform,