Posted on 01/21/2020 1:38:31 PM PST by billorites
People close to Robert Mueller believe "something happened" to the former special counsel over the course of his two-year Russia investigation, according to a reporter.
The Washington Post's Carol Leonnig, who is the co-author of the new book A Very Stable Genius about President Trump, described on Tuesday how difficult it was for some of Mueller's close family friends to watch his shaky testimony before Congress last summer.
“Phil [Rucker] and I, my co-author, we are not medical professionals, but over and over again, John, we heard from people who are very close to Bob Mueller who found him a different person, a changed person, after two years of this investigation,” Leonnig told CNN host John Berman.
“They don’t know what that’s about,” Leonnig continued. “Some of them do and haven’t shared that with us. But they know that something happened. He’s a different person. He was stumbling over his words. You saw him in July in his testimony before Congress, there were people that I spoke to who are very, very good family friends of his who said, ‘I couldn’t watch the television anymore, I had to turn it off. It wasn’t the Bob I knew.'"
After a 22-month investigation, Mueller's team did not find sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy took place between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. He also declined to make a determination about whether Trump may have obstructed justice but did lay out 10 instances of possible obstruction that Democrats viewed as a road map to continue investigating and possibly seek impeachment. Trump is now facing two articles of impeachment stemming from his dealings with Ukraine.
Speculation about Mueller's health began to swirl when the former FBI director, known for being sharp and competent, appeared to have difficulty hearing lawmakers' questions and failed to recall key facts from his report when he testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees in July.
In their book, Leonnig and Rucker wrote that when Attorney General William Barr met Mueller before his report was released, Mueller read from his notes, and his "hands shook as he held the paper. His voice was shaky, too." Barr and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, "couldn’t help but worry about Mueller’s health.”
The Washington Post reported in July that Mueller's team denied rumors that the then-74-year-old's cognitive acuity was wavering, prompting Democrats to compel him to appear publicly. His resulting performance had some Democrats privately questioning whether Mueller was all there mentally.
“It was a painful reminder that age catches up to all of us,” one unnamed House Democrat who questioned Mueller said at the time. “Here you have this Vietnam hero and this post-Sept. 11 FBI director. You could tell he was having a hard time hearing, and it was like, ‘Ugh! This is not how I want him to be remembered.'"
Some critics, Berman said, believe Mueller just was not up to grappling with the "modern era of political warfare and may have got gamed out by the presidency."
“Many of our sources felt very strongly that Bob Mueller was playing a 1950s Boy Scout game," Leonnig said. "He was being an honorable icon and standard-bearer of the Department of Justice, whereas Bill Barr was playing in Trump’s 2000s, and he was messaging this very well. He was the first person to get out the message: Donald Trump’s been exonerated."
In early October, it was announced that Mueller had returned to work at the private law firm WilmerHale.
I agree entirely with you; I don’t feel sorry for this fraud in the slightest - he ruined many lives with his lies, hired only leftwing radicals, used Gestapo like raids on people who at the worst committed questionable white collar offenses and were neither physically threatening nor showing plans to flee the country, sat there gobsmacked while one lie after another was told. I think Mueller looked down in the Gates of Hell and saw his fate and he is probably come to the realization that the future ain’t good.
Mueller is pulling a “Vinny the Chin.”
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I wish I had thought of that comparison. Are you a New Yorker?
Bkmk
Bkmk
Being up to your ears in a stinking, filthy, cesspool for 2-3 years, constantly choking on and spitting out demoncrat fecal matter, will get you every time...
He violated several persons’ 4th Amendment; so God violated his 4th dimension.
There is no punishment sufficient for him in this life or the next.
Isn’t Mueller good friends with Leaky Lyin’ Curtains Comey?
Karma came to call. And his conscience tormented him.
MUle Face is a DESPICABLE DEMOCRAT CREEP!! History WILL catch up to him!
Brooklyn
Mueller didn’t have anything to do with the report. And, it sounded like it... this was all new information prepared for him by Andrew Weissman.
Mueller was a front man purposed to lend creditability. Backfire, but a well deserved one.
Then there’s the reporter’s creds. She’s not too smart. On MTP Sunday she maintained the partisan GOA report of last week was legit, whereas it’s been proven to be a union run organization, answering to Congress, and a POS.
Any reporter should have known. Her bias is showing.
Or, like Frodo wearing the ring, the evil consumed him.
Wait, he was pretty evil to begin with.
Bingo.
If he truly was in that shape, they would have brought in someone else. It was all part of the plan.
That’s what I think. He’s two years older and three years past his allotted time.
Yeah. He sold his ethics, honor, reputation and soul. For what?
Re what does Mueller do at Wilmer-Hale law firms? A caseload of Hale Marie’s!.
“Mueller didn’t have anything to do with the report.”
I know, but he was the face of it. And if them pretending he was vital or majorly involved, and his elevator obviously doesn’t go to the top floor, they’re not above using him for negating the investigation.
Mueller knew the investigation was based on a number of lies and did nothing to stop it at the outset when had to know there was an attempted coup in progress.
He also knows the walls are closing in and his friendship with Barr will not help him.
Cognitive dissonance creates anxiety which preoccupies the brain causing one to display bizarre behavior.
Just look at the leadership of the democratic party.
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