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Notes continue after lunch:

PART TWO

BARR HEARING ABOUT MUELLER REPORT BEFORE SENATE JUDICIARY CMTE
[TEXOKIE NOTES/TAKEAWAYS - Not a transcript]

5/1/19

GRAHAM
[Came in late bc of FOX commentary late coming in]
Barr seems to be clarifying the situation of the defensive briefing brought up earlier.

KENNEDY
Addresses humans’ need to be heard. He wants to understand the Mueller / team to see if they have changed their conclusions - today.

At one point Mueller team was unhappy as evidenced by the letter from then which B released today.

B: It’s conclusions as to what?

K: as to collusion/ conspiracy
B: Not that I’m aware of

K: Of the decision not to bring an indictment o the President as to collusion / conspiracy has not changed? Nor for obstruction has not changed?

B: No

K: I take it the Mueller team was unhappy when you received the letter from Mr. Mueller?
B: I can’t speak to the team as a whole, When I spoke with Mueller he was concerned about the press coverage it had gotten the previous few days and he felt it needed more context as to why M and the team did not make a finding / decision about Obstruction. He wanted Barr to put out more info,

K: verified that the release of the Report actually took care of that concern found in the letter. Barr was not going to be in a position to be reesponding to the press by giving more and more data here and there, Mueller had wanted Barr to give out the Executive Summaries. However these summaries were not already vetted and needed redaction. Barr explained his position was to put out the report as rapidly as possible. Which he had the authority to decide to do.

Kennedy notes that we cannot control the press and what they print.

Asks Barr to go over the Muller team investigating obstruction….. WHY did he not make a finding? Barr said he couldn’t recapitulate it. Barr and his own people did not understand the reasoning. K says regardless of the reasoning, he did not issue an indictment.
K speaks of the two investigations: that of DJT and also of Hillary. How did the Hillary one start? We have a duty to find out why these investigations were started, who started them and the evidence on which they were started. WE hope you will do that and get back to us. [Barr does a small nod]
He is asking for the Prez and Barr’s release of “all documents pertaining to the 2016 election, with appropriate redactions. This would achieve letting the American People see the facts without having to go through a lot of spin and leaks, and rumors, etc. When you are investigating leaks in the DOJ and the FBI, I hope you will include the Mueller team as well. [Barr maintains neutral face]

KLOBUCHAR
[Known to us as JENNYASS OUT IN THE SNOW because she made her Presidential bid announcement out in a Raging Blizzard]

“I’m going to take us out of the weeds here”…… and gives her views without asking questions.

*4 page letter is a summary
*She said Barr had to go out of his way not to mention the letter in an answer about it
*We must hear from Mueller because you have said you didn’t know his thinking

She brings in the Russian interference.She has been working with Sen Lankford to get a “Secure Elections Act” passed.

She said White House admin made calls to stop it. She asked if Barr was aware of that. He said “NO.” She asks him if he will work with Sen Lankford and Herself to get this bill done. The act would require the use of back up paper ballots at all polls among other things.

Barr: I will work with you to secure our elections. I’m not familiar with your proposal and look forward to seeing it.

K:GRU targeted state and local agencies. They accessed data and also introduced malware into systems. Would you commit to have the FBI conduct a briefing to all senators on this?

Barr: just on Florida situation?
K: No an the entire Russia situation,
B: Sure
K: brings up situation of IRA buying ads, and that Graham and she are trying to put together honest ads legislation. Will you help with that?
B: In concept, yes.

K: a third concern from B’s confirmation had to do with B’s views on obstruction. Would anyone causing a witness to change testimony constitute obstruction, and B had said yes.
She gets into the Michael Cohen’s issue whereby his family had been used as leverage against Cohen. Barr says No that it does not fulfill the subornation of perjury.

Barr gives some good answers, but I didn’t try to write it all down. It was two lawyers getting into the weeds on legal concerns. Barr explains exactly why the cases she is bringing up are NOT OBSTRUCTION.

She continued with other cases which in her view are obstruction. Gets into the McGahn situation again. Basically Barr is a bad person for not seeing these cases like she does. Barr returns that the it [the 10 potential obstruction cases] fails on 3 elements:

1 -[my paraphrase] not sufficient to show an obstructive act because it is unclear whether the Prez knew that to be false. In fact the Prez was focused on the fact that he didn’t tell McGahn to FIRE Mueller [Barr says “McGahn” here, but I believe he means “McGahn to Fire Mueller” in other words, “I never told you to FIRE MUELLER. I asked you to bring up the conflict of interest.]

McGahn had already given evidence. Prez thought because of the press reports, that it was wrong. They were saying McGahn was told to “Fire” Mueller. The evidence of those reports is in the President’s favor. He wanted the error cleared up by McGahn correcting the record.

K’s position is that the 10 constitute a pattern. Each one may not rise to the level of obstruction, but the overall pattern points to it.

[The FOX NEWS footnote states that Barr had “looked at all ten cases of possible obstruction” - and they each failed to meet the standard of obstruction. He did not get to the other 2 of the 3 elements because her time lapsed.

She might be perhaps doing some good with the secure election legislation with Lankford and others….yet she remains a JENNYASS in every sense of the term, imho]

SASSE
He goes to Russia and the GRU in terms of hacking. He asks about Derapaska and who he is.
B: stated he did not want to get into that in the open setting,

S: Quotes Dept of Treasury statement as to who he is. [Quite a list of skullduggery including murder, and states then that in open session we can certainly agree he is a “bad dude”

In vol one, the part that deals with Paul Manafort is actually about Derapaska. He wants Barr to give a 101 to American citizens about him and Russia, Nato, the Ukraine, and the rules governing payment to them and their involvement in US election campaigns.

Sasse thinks the report puts in a lot of important factual data on 2016 election…. And a major takeaway is that Russia and even China will be seeking to interfere with the 2020 elections and it is critical we understand how this makes us so vulnerable. How and to what extent should foreign intelligence services be involved in our elections, and what should the American people know about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate going forward?

Barr asked him to pare down the huge broad question.

S: Could Russia or China, as evidenced by the OPM hack, come in and survey the political talent and target people who they could use as leverage?

Could a foreign country just pay for people they target to join this or that campaign and do the foreign county’s bidding? Barr says he doesn’t think it would be legal. S points out that sometimes DC people are put on retainer and the work done for the entity paying them is sometimes obscure. S is asking B to make sure that this kind of question is addressed by Barr and DOJ - at least to give guidelines to different campaigns.

Also: Should we be adding to counter intelligence briefings for individuals who have won the nomination so they can be better informed and ready to be up and running in get event they win the Presidency? He gets into defensive briefings, and should those be broadened by congress?

B: Absolutely….. and B speaks of the subtleties and pervasiveness of the foreign agents’ activities. He even states the briefing of even more people in govt should also be included so as to have more education on this. [encroachments / attempts to encroach, by foreign nations etc.]

Barr: The pattern is that foreign entities descend on our people and seek to influence them. Sasse points out the it is easier now in digital age to surround our people.

COONS:

Follows up on Klobuchar and Sasse issue of election security and states we need Barr’s and the President’s leadership to get this done to protect our election processes.

Then gets into Vol two and Obstruction. Points out the efforts to protect the Spec Counsel. He is concerned with Barr’s March 24th letter.

His bottom line is we need to hear more about the Spec Counsel from the Spec Counsel. Efforts to fire the Counsel by Prez are troubling. C speaks of the lapse of 3 weeks before the report was released. Calls McGahn’s letter requested by Prez is the creation of a false report/record. Barr demurred by saying that what Coons said was one interpretation, but there are other explanations of the scenario possible and the govt could not make a case for obstruction on that case.

COONS goes into all the coulda woulda shouldas about how the timing of release of report and thinking of Mueller. He again, as others, wants Mueller to testify before the Committee.

C then goes on to paint a scenario for the future, if a foreign intelligence agent approaches a campaign saying they have dirt on the opposition, should it be a response by the campaign to immediately contact FBI, and not just say, “ok - let’s meet.” Barr agreed to that particular scenario. Do contact the FBI if foreign agent contacts a campaign with dirt.

Then C says that Russians approached the Trump campaign offered dirt on Hillary, and campaign did not contact FBI. Which he implies, of course, makes DJT a criminal…. And all of his team.

Coons continue to complain bout the Barr letter stating the report results. Reiterates they want to hear from Mueller.

HAWLEY
Commends use of word “SPYING.” Barr affirms this was unprecedented, and that the ones engaged in this hid their investigations from superiors and there was/would be no oversight. Barr will get back with the committee about what he finds in his current investigations about this.

Gets into the 25th amendment standards. Asks B if the Prez is in any way meeting the standard of 25th amendment. Barr attributes the effort to use 25th to individuals, not the organization as a whole.

H speaks of the particular individuals - He was shocked by the Aug 26, 2006, text by Peter Strozk read earlier by Chairman Graham -

Strozk helped launch the counter spy operation - the text referred to was the one about the “smelly Walmart” people. This unelected bureaucrat had such contempt about the American people, and felt he had the right to overthrow the President they, the People were choosing. That is what is going on here today. H comments on their [bad actors in DOJ and FBI] power and blatant prejudice and use that to overturn the election. That in H’s mind is the real crisis here. If this continues and there is no accountability, then we no longer have a democracy.

[texokie takes a break! More later.]
Q Q Q Q Q Q Q

Thank you very much, I read all your notes.

I just found Lisa Mei Crowley’s notes, she won’t be able to listen after the lunch break. Now the unrolled threads have this stupid “mentions” thing instead of a name so I have to delete and put the name, and find the html and get rid of it so this is not a Wall O Text.

She says:
I’ll be watching/tweeting with my phone in my Jeep...(yes, I am taking a few hours off work for this!).

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1123589471251902464.html

Lindsey Graham said there’s an unredacted version and it doesn’t change the outcome.

.@LindseyGrahamSC: Special Counsel had 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, 2800 subpoenas issued, 500 witnesses interviewed, 500 search warrants executed, 13 requests to foreign gov’t for information, & over $25M spent over 2 years > still concluded NO COLLUSION with Russia.

.@LindseyGrahamSC: When the Mueller report is put to bed we’re going to look at how this all started.

.@LindseyGrahamSC apologized to any kids watching this hearing for quoting a text message with the F bomb.

@SenFeinstein up now. Blah, blah, blah...we don’t believe your conclusions. She’s now quoting the bogus WaPo piece claiming his memo threatened to undermine Mueller report. She’s lying. Mueller was concerned about how the MEDIA was distorting the report.

.@SenFeinstein now spinning the “Russia hacking of the DNC computers” & how the Trump campaign welcomed and encouraged Russia’s assistance.

.@SenFeinstein is so full of crap. She knows she is in a world of trouble.

.@SenFeinstein has the nerve to talk about deleted comms after HRC deleted over 33K emails, wiped her servers clean and smashed Blackberries with hammers?!

AG Barr looks completely bored.

Barr: During confirmation process there were 2 key concerns: 1-that he wouldn’t impede or curtail Mueller investigation; 2- if would he make Mueller rpt public. He didn’t impede Mueller and he did make the rpt public (as much as allowed by law).

Barr: Public version of the report was only 10% redacted. Most redactions in Volume 1 re: collusion.

Barr: Once they heard Mueller team was not reaching a decision on obstruction, Barr & RR made the determination that there was no obstruction.

Barr: re: 28 letter fm Mueller. Barr determined they needed to put out a memo with his bottom line conclusions as soon as possible. Analogy...like a trial verdict. Was not meant to summarize 410pg rpt. Barr offered Mueller chance to review memo before publicizing & he declined.

Barr just debunked Enemedia’s fake news report that Mueller was concerned with Barr’s conclusions. Mueller was concerned with how the media was misrepresenting his conclusions.

Lindsey Graham: were there any redactions Mueller objected to? RR and Barr came up with redaction categories. A few judgment calls where some of the redacted info might hurt someone’s reputation. No disagreements re: grand jury info.

Barr constantly consulted with Rosenstein re: obstruction and RR agreed there was no obstruction.

L. Graham reading quotes by Dems who denounced @Comey
Barr had a problem with how Comey handled HRCs email investigation. He doesn’t believe Trump terminating Comey was obstruction.

Barr said he trusts Mueller and believes he had all the resources needed and did a thorough job.

Feinswein citing how Trump directed McGahn to fire Mueller. Claims he is a credible witness. Barr & RR felt gov’t would not be able to establish obstruction. McGahn said he was told to go to RR to raise conflict of interest concerns. Trump said decision should be left w/RR.

POTUS was primarily concerned with press reports saying he directed McGahn to fire Mueller.

Chuck Grassley: Shouldn’t SC have considered whether Steele dossier was part of disinformation campaign? Barr is assembling all existing info fm OIG/others & looking at it.

Barr: If Mueller had found obstruction, he would’ve stated so.

Barr not really sure of Mueller’s reasoning for not reaching an obstruction conclusion.

BOOM! Barr re: leaks & unauthorized media contacts. “Multiple criminal leak investigations underway.”
Barr: POTUS fully cooperated with the investigation.

Senator Leahy sounds drunk.

Barr is clearly getting annoyed with Leahy’s questions.
mentions POTUS as the head of the Executive Branch had authority to fire Comey.

Barr: Defensive briefing was never given to Trump to alert him of Russian interference. Barr can’t fathom why that didn’t happen.

Mueller did NOT have concerns re: Barr’s findings in his 24 Mar letter!!

Durbin is such a DICK.

Barr has no objection to Mueller testfying.

SenMikeLee: Is there any evidence to suggest Putin has dirt on Pres Trump?

Any evidence that Pres Trump is a Russian agent?

Any evidence that Pres Trump acts on Russia’s behalf?

Barr: “None that I’m aware of.”

Barr re: Trump campaign members being spied on...he’s working closely with Wray to reconstruct exactly what went on.

Barr wants to stay away from currently getting too deep into the FISA issues because it’s currently under investigation by the OIG.

Barr: Mueller’s work concluded when he sent his rpt to the DOJ at which point “it became my baby.”

Barr: “I don’t think there was anything to have his (POTUS’) day in court over”.

Barr: “I think spying is a good English word.”

Barr re: use of the word “spying”: “It’s commonly used by the press. It’s commonly used by me”.

And with that, I need to get back to work. Won’t be able to live tweet when they return in an hour. I will be watching though!