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Robert Mueller’s ‘final statement’ was a disgraceful mess
NY Post ^ | May 29, 2019 | John Podhoretz

Posted on 05/29/2019 12:57:50 PM PDT by COUNTrecount

Special prosecutor Mueller’s statement upon the shuttering of his two-year investigation into the Trump campaign was weird even by the standards of the weirdness of the past couple of years. “Charging the president with a crime was not something we could consider,” he reported. Indeed, even pursuing that question, he added, would have been unconstitutional under long-standing Justice Department guidelines.

But then he said that if his office could have exonerated the president, it would have: “If we had confidence the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

Granted, he said pretty much the same thing in the report he produced: “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.”

His statement was only 8 minutes long. The report is 400 pages long. It matters what he chose to repeat from it and what he did not. He wanted the American people to hear him speak those words. He wanted to emphasize this point.

The “I couldn’t exonerate him” point is discomfiting for another reason, which is: Since when do prosecutors exonerate people? That isn’t a prosecutor’s job. Maybe in the aftermath of a wrongful conviction, with irrefutable physical evidence, prosecutors will say something exculpatory. But even in most of these cases, they usually drop charges on grounds of insufficient evidence, not positive proof of innocence.

The obvious rejoinder here is that the president of the United States isn’t just any person and that it is bad for our government and our country for a dark cloud to hang over the president’s head. Therefore,dissipating that cloud would be a good thing (even if such a purpose was not in any way Mueller’s charge when he was hired in 2017).

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: declassification; fbi; fisa; impeachment; jamescomey; lisapage; peterstrzok; robertmueller
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To: 1Old Pro; Jim Noble

Parsing Mueller’s words leads me to believe somebody from his office will testify to Congress. But it won’t be him and from what I have saw today he is not up to a vigorous debate on this sujbect. I could be wrong but no doubt the Dems want the circus to continue and they need a body to testify to do that.


61 posted on 05/29/2019 2:10:15 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: jonrick46

The AG’s job is not to fight political wars. That’s why the one mistake with Sessions was that Trump appointed a politician to a position that isn’t cut out for them.


62 posted on 05/29/2019 2:16:03 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave." -- Frederick Douglass)
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To: Robert DeLong
"refusal to take Russian hacking seriously..."

I'm still waiting to see the evidence of any Russian hacking of the election, particularly since I have seen multiple statements from the federal government that no Russian hacking of the election occurred. If Podhoretz is referring to fake Facebook postings, that is nonsense. Whatever some Russians posted on Facebook, Americans posted thousands of times more material - fake or real, depending on whose side you are on, and how you define "real" in political conversations.

If Podhoretz is referring to the leaking of emails and other documents, then he is basically saying that learning the truth about the DNC and Clinton "hacked" the election. By that test the entire world of journalists are hacking every election when they publish the truth about candidates.

63 posted on 05/29/2019 2:16:15 PM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: COUNTrecount
a mass-murdering Boston mobster who ended up dying in California...

Minor correction. Whitey Bulger lived many years in California before he was arrested. After his arrest and conviction for some reason the federal government transferred him to a notoriously violent prison in West Virginia. He was murdered the day he arrived there, suggesting his killers knew he was coming.

Dead men don't talk.

64 posted on 05/29/2019 2:20:52 PM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: COUNTrecount

Mueller knows full well he failed to accomplish the assigned mission = to uncover Russian collusion. There is solid evidence of Russian collusion only it wasn’t with Trump or the Republican campaign. It was Russian collusion with H. Clinton and Obama. Mueller failed to investigate that fact and thereby failed in his job as Special Counsel. Maybe he fears his failure will be publicized and his name will go down the gutter of history. This has monumental consequences.


65 posted on 05/29/2019 2:21:01 PM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said theoal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: euram

One big question I’ve always had is, if he was charged with investigating “Russian interference” in the 2016 election, why didn’t he investigate Clinton obvious involvement with the Russians and the fact that the dossier was at least partially of Russian origin

For Mueller and his merry band of Clintonites to come out with a 440-page “report” and not this statement by Mueller, how can anyone with any sense even take either of these events seriously since they were designed to “get Trump” any way they could.


Mueller was quite clear today he wasn’t interested in discussing anything not in the report. How convenient.


66 posted on 05/29/2019 2:27:17 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: USCG SimTech
If I were the president, from now on I would reference Mueller in response to any inquiries regarding the investigation.

“I have provided all the information there is to provide on the subject. Neither I nor any of my staff have anything further to say, and will not respond to any of your questions.”

67 posted on 05/29/2019 2:27:51 PM PDT by daler
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To: daler

Exactly!!

Two can play that game, leftists.


68 posted on 05/29/2019 2:31:00 PM PDT by Jane Long (Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow.)
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To: ldish

Boy you know more than me.

A Marine?

If I can’t say something nice about a marine, I wont say anything at all.

Though I made the exception of military in general with McCain.

If the Marines on this board don’t mind, THEN I’ll have at mueller again.


69 posted on 05/29/2019 2:51:35 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: ldish

What else was he up to the past few years?


70 posted on 05/29/2019 2:52:03 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: COUNTrecount

OK, campers. I am SICK and TIRED of anyone who says that the “Mueller Investigation” is an actual “investigation.” It is all part of the same damn process!! The “investigation” is the same thing as the “dossier” is the same thing as the “report” is the same thing as the “announcement no crime was committed but can’t exonerate” as the same thing as “IMPEACH THAT BASTARD TRUMP ALREADY!” thingee.

Same thing. Do NOT justify ANY part of the process by delineating the “phases” of the “investigation” and the “conclusion” and the “impeachment process.” It is all ONE LONG CON designed to JUSTIFY the non-action by the House to work with the rest of Congress and the president.

In short, it’s the SAME...DAMN... THING!! Don’t justify ANY of this crap by treating them as separate entities worthy of respect. STAT!


71 posted on 05/29/2019 3:13:34 PM PDT by GOP Congress
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To: lodi90

Graham was vouching for Mueller character today. Minutes after he smeared AG Barr as a liar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But, I’ve been told by numerous freepers that there is a “new and improved” Flimsey Grahamnesty 2.0 who has had a miraculous change since McCain croaked.


72 posted on 05/29/2019 3:21:34 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: technically right

if I were him I’d reconsider that
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You aren’t him and he’s still a Bush League Republican despite some people’s wishful thinking.


73 posted on 05/29/2019 3:25:30 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: COUNTrecount

” Indeed, even pursuing that question, he added, would have been unconstitutional under long-standing Justice Department guidelines.”

But they spent how much time and $ and an entire @200pp volume on the obstruction question ??? Seems they DID pursue that question.

Or am I missing something?


74 posted on 05/29/2019 3:29:06 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: Dr.Deth

That’s all this is. Can any one of us PROVE that we’ve never committed a serious crime? You can’t prove a negative which is why we have the presumption of innocence. This is no different than a policeman harassing you saying “I think you’ve done something, I don’t know what, I’ve no evidence of wrongdoing, so prove you didn’t do ‘something’, oh, you can’t - well then, that must be evidence of wrongdoing”.

Ugh... what an absolute disgrace. Of course the media assume the ignorance of everyone and play this up as though it actually has meaning.


75 posted on 05/29/2019 3:29:49 PM PDT by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing of poor moral choices among everybody)
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To: TonytheTiger7777

Flimsey Grahamnesty is up to his eyeballs in the crimes of the Kenyanesian Usurpation, from the illegal war to overthrow the government of Libya to running guns from there to Syrian jihadists.

He has backed EVERY amnesty attempt since 2006 to give the Democrats a permanent majority.

He was McCain’s wingman for years so I’m sure he knew all about McCain’s role in delivering the phony dossier.

If we don’t turn out the Bush League Republicans we will deserve to lose our country.


76 posted on 05/29/2019 3:30:36 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: rfp1234

I am guessing Barr recorded his conversation with Mueller where Mueller stated that he wasn’t basing his decision not to indict on the Obstruction issue based on not being able to indict a sitting President. I trusted in Barr and am betting Barr is one pissed off cowboy


77 posted on 05/29/2019 4:05:03 PM PDT by DirtyDawg (eat fruit)
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To: COUNTrecount

Try watching the Mueller statement with the sound down... he sure looked like a scared puppy to me... and now questions could be asked. What does that tell you?


78 posted on 05/29/2019 4:07:36 PM PDT by hecticskeptic
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To: hecticskeptic

Don’t turn the sound down! He didn’t just look scared, he sounded so. As someone else noted earlier, he was almost quivering at times; and slurring his words and nearly slobbering.

If he hadn’t turned out, today, to be even lower and scummier than I had thought - if that’s possible - I’d almost feel sorry for him.

History isn’t going to treat this man and his cohort in the affair kindly at all.


79 posted on 05/29/2019 4:18:49 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it")
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To: outofsalt

I’m certain Mueller does not want to testify about HAMR, either, which he must know a lot about...

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/211247-obama-signs-executive-order-to-build-first-ever-exascale-supercomputer

https://www.commdiginews.com/politics-2/worse-than-watergate-obama-dropped-surveillance-hammer-on-trump-had-proof-89747/


80 posted on 05/29/2019 5:02:12 PM PDT by polymuser (It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. Noel Coward)
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