Posted on 04/30/2019 11:29:37 AM PDT by ransomnote
The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public by Barr late in the afternoon of March 24
Muellers letter was sent to Barr on March 27
A day after Mueller sent his letter to Barr, the two men spoke by phone for about 15 minutes, according to law enforcement officials. (So March 28)
BARR HEARING ABOUT MUELLER REPORT BEFORE SENATE JUDICIARY CMTE
[TEXOKIE NOTES/TAKEAWAYS - Not a transcript]
5/1/19
GRAHAM opened with his statement and made some cogent remarks/questions before addressing Barr directly. I was not making notes at that time, so did not capture them.
With FEINSTEIN - my take aways from Barrs testimony is that the situation of the lawyer being told by Trump to fire Mueller, was not as the press has been touting.
The lawyer, Don McGahn, had already given his evidence to Spec Councel, and Trump was asking him to go to Mueller and consider whether to step down because of conflict of interest. It was left to Mueller, and he did not step down. The other consideration was that Trump wanted the lawyer to document his perspective that Trump did not ask him to fire Mueller. This was not obstructive intent because it was a legitimate Executive responsibility to oversee the Spec Counsel. The Govt would not be able to find obstructive intent, especially as there was no underlying crime.
GRASSLY Barr take aways:
Mueller spent lots of bucks. Question IN order for a full accounting of the Russian interference in our election, shouldnt Mueller have considered the PeePee dossier as part of the Russian pattern of interference?
Barr does not know if Mueller actually did or did not look at that.
B did say he would be exploring that.
G: re Vol 2: Mueller assembled data from a large investigation on obstruction, then made no findings, but dumped it on Barrs desk to make a determination of whether or not obstruction. Mueller had referenced the policy of DOJ not to charge/indict sitting Presidents. Is this an accurate statement about your conversation with Mueller?
B: Yes. He was not saying that but for the OS he would have found obstruction
G: If he had found substance which fulfilled the terms of Obstruction, would he have stated that finding?
B: I believe so.
G: Was it Ms responsibility to make such a finding.
B: RR and I thought so, but Pres wouldnt be charged as long as in office.
G: asked about unauthorized media contacts
B: we have a number of investigations under way
LEAHY
Spoke of March 24th letter and Muellers comments about it. They were going around some kind of timing as to what Barr knew about Muellers concerns about the concerns regarding the letter. He spoke to Mueller - not Ms team.
Talking about Sessions unrecusing himself being wrong or not wrong.
Talked a bit about the phrase that Ts campaign expected to benefit from the Russian attempts to interfere. Ls time expired before B could answer.
CORNYN
Spoke of the proposition that Comey should be fired. Affirmed from Barr that the Prez had that authority. C went on to discuss Comeys July announcement regarding no prosecutor charging Hillary even after the list he made.
Why didnt Obama admin investigate in 2014 more regarding the Russian efforts to interfere in 2016?
B: Is impressed with Muellers work re the IRA. If that work had been started before Mueller, we would be further along.
C: how do we not know that Steele Dossier is not part of the Russian disinfo? B: cant state that it with confidence. Im reviewing that.
C: brought up Brennans concern about Russian interference but instead of doing something about it, DOJ and FBI focused efforts on Hillary and began investigating Trumps campaign,
C: What steps did the investigators do to put their thumbs on the scale. Discussed What is a defensive briefing. He got to the lack of warning to DJTs campaign of possible foreign interference by the DOJ/FBI.
DURBAN
He commented about the Repubs efforts to Lock her up, and wonders what Barrs role is about these efforts against Hillary. He got into the March 24th letter about not exonerating the Prez. Barr went over the timeline of events and Muellers perspective of wishing for more context about why he didnt make the obstruction finding himself. Regarding Bs letter regrind the release of the conclusions of the Mueller report, he used analogy of stating what announcing the verdict to a trial is. You would go to the finding of the trial, not summarize how those findings were arrived at.
D: Got into whether or not Prez actually cooperated fully. Also got into the Don McGahn situation. He is wanting to know if he knows any reason why McGahn shouldnt testify before the committee? Also should Mueller? D tried to say that Trump waived his exec privilege. Barr stated, no he didnt waive. B stated that he has already stated publicly that he had no objection to Mueller testifying. Re: McGahn, that is up to Prez.
Mr LEE:
Is there any evidence that Putin has something on the president as charged by Nancy Pelosi?
B: none that Im aware of
L : Any evidence that DJT is a Russian agent?
.NO
L : Swallwell has claimed acts on Russian behalf? Does DJT do that?
B: None Im aware of.
L : speaks of the Russian investigation was not conducted with impariality. Began July 31, 2016 with PapaD. Also asks about FISAs.
B: That seems to be the story at this time. I want to find out what actually did start the investigation, as this is pretty thin substance.
L : Was Carter Page under surveillance
..[named date]
B: I D K These are things I need to look at. Overreach seems to have been done by people at the top who are no longer there. Im working with Chris Wray who has done a superb job. We are working together to try to reconstruct. He points out that the FBI has been handicapped in looking back by the existence of the OIG and the Mueller investigations.
L : Talks of FISA warrant for C. Page was based on the Steele Dossier. Has Mueller report confirmed that Page had secret meeting with Igor Session [Setchen?]
B: I cant recall that; I dont remember that. Let me just say I do not want to get too deeply into the FISA issues because of the current investigation by OIG.
L : Page also met with [Russian name?] about Hillary? Does the Mueller report confirm this?
B: I dont think so.
L : does it confirm Page discussed info about Hillary with anyone?
B: Not that I recall
L: Im glad you are looking into all this; public has right to know.
[FOX NEWS broke in with news from House Judiciary CMTE votes to allow staffers to question AG Barr tomorrow at 9:00, which reportedly B is opposed to]
WHITEHOUSE
When did you first learn of NYT and Wash Post stories that would make existence of this letter [dont know which letter he is referring to because of the break by FOXNEWS]
B: Could have been yesterday, not sure.
W: discusses the timing of when B decided to release that letter to Congress. The letter contained Executive Summaries which Mueller had sent Barr. Barr established that the eXEUTIVE SUMMARIES were contained in the report. Barr explained that there were redactions in those Exec Summaries. They got into Mueller called Barrs letter as a Summary Barr states he had not had any intention to Summarize. He goes on to state he had been given the authority to handle and release the M Report.
Issue of OLC opinion was taken up and regarding whether Prez could have a day in court by waiving something
Whitehouses questioning very difficult for me to follow,
Talks about Spying. Barr comes from intelligence and states the word has no problem has no pejorative meaning in his mind. He points out the word is used commonly in the press. W states that the word is not commonly used in the Department [of Justice?]. His time is over
. Barr states:
its commonly used by me!
LUNCH BREAK
I saw you were hanging out on another thread beyond the trees regarding the Barr hearing.
Someone over there said “the thoughts here are as deep as a dime.” Ummm...yeah.
Spending time out there on this kind of topic is just plain toxic to one’s outlook. You’re far stronger than me.
https://heavy.com/news/2019/04/trystan-andrew-terrell/
“Five facts you should know about Terrell”
(He is autistic!)
She must have been PO’ed about his spending (and criminal) habits too!! :)
mark
I see just 6 tweets this morning.. ??
This morning I went to take something to my daughter who lives on the mountain side, I passed the area there are two large tents in place at the Border Patrol facility and another one next to the Texdot facilities. It does not appear that they are quite ready yet.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8977662/russia-nuke-missiles-venezuela-cuban-missile-crisis/
Russia has secretly installed nuke missiles in Venezuela, US politician claims in chilling echo of Cuban Missile Crisis
by Jon Lockett
FTA:
Are you saying the Russians will put nuclear missiles in Venezuela? Carlson asked.
What I am suggesting is that they are already there, answered Diaz-Balart, without offering any evidence to back up his claim.
I bet DJT leans on the Brits to extradite.. (”Ve Haf da FVEY..”)
It was funny when the Pubs were questioning Barr about leaks just before Leahy got his time...
bwahaha..Leaky Leahy..!
Thanks for doing this summary of Barr’s testimony. TF
its much worse....the entrenched DC crowd...thinking the rubes in “Flyover Country” might actually some day throw them all out and turn off the tax spigot at their trough, have been busy actively selling us all out to our “frenemies”
What I am suggesting is that they are already there, answered Diaz-Balart, without offering any evidence to back up his claim
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
now THAT’s chilling.
I wish someone would ask him if it’s a crime for a Congressperson to leak classified information, and if he found that such crimes had occurred, would he prosecute them.
I don’t think the Russians are stupid enough to put nukes in Venezuela. One thing they are about is control.
The problem is that when you think it is time to bury your guns, it is past time to dig them up.
~~~~~
Good one!!!
Oh my...stunning is right!!!
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=bc0_1423721020
February 11, 2015, Admiral Ace Lyons
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