Free Republic

Now that Robert Mueller has closed up shop as special counsel and shot off fireworks at his final press conference, the country can step back and assess the job he did. The results are decidedly mixed. Mueller made two vital contributions. The first was an in-depth investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He concluded it was systematic and favored Donald Trump. The second was an intensive examination of possible coordination between the Russians and the Trump campaign. He concluded that no charges were warranted against any Americans. The country needed those investigations and Mueller deserves praise for conducting...

Most people don't quite know what to make of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's alarm about Manhattan prosecutors' decision to throw President Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, into Rikers Island prison. It was an unprecedented move. Yet she's hardly a supporter of people connected to President Trump - she actually wants the president impeached. But she's right about what she's reading:

WASHINGTON — When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke last weekend at the California state Democratic Party convention, she was greeted with cries of “Impeach! Impeach!” from the crowd. The reality, however, is far different: Among House Democrats, a majority do not currently support even opening a formal impeachment inquiry, let alone an actual vote to impeach President Donald Trump, House members and staff say. About one-quarter of House Democrats publicly support opening an impeachment inquiry against Trump. More say they are moving closer to that position as the White House continues to defy congressional demands for documents and witnesses. The...

The Trump campaign is requesting that a federal court sanction the Democratic National Committee (DNC) over its lawsuit alleging that the campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, citing special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. In a court filing Tuesday evening, attorneys for the campaign said Mueller’s findings show that the campaign did not work with Russia to meddle in the election, and that the charges against the campaign should be dismissed and the DNC sanctioned as a result. ... Calling the lawsuit “a politically motivated sham case,” the campaign said the DNC is acting to move forward...

A court filing Thursday revealed that Flynn had notified his attorneys Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony that he is “terminating” them as his counsel and has already hired new lawyers to replace them. (Reuters) – Former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn has dismissed the legal team that represented him in his dealings with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and retained new counsel, according to a court filing on Thursday. The move to dismiss lawyers Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony of Covington & Burling LLP comes ahead of Flynn’s sentencing, which was postponed in December after the judge in...

A major witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was arrested Monday on child-pornography charges, after flying into the U.S. for the first time since his cooperation with Mr. Mueller’s team. George Nader, a dual U.S. and Lebanese citizen, was charged in a criminal complaint more than a year ago, in April 2018, after he had spent hours with Mr. Mueller’s investigators detailing his contacts with Trump allies and efforts to set up meetings between Trump campaign associates and a Russian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin. Nobody connected to the Trump campaign was charged as a result of Mr....

Over the weekend, another ranking Democrat, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, appeared to placate the Donkey Party’s increasingly radicalized and Marxist base by intimating POTUS Donald Trump likely will be impeached by the House “at some point.” The Hill reported: When Tapper asked Clyburn if he thought Democrats would launch impeachment proceedings against Trump, he said “yes, that’s exactly what I feel.” “What Nancy Pelosi is trying to do, and the rest of us in the House of Representatives, is developing a process to efficiently move on this issue so when we get to the vote, something she calls...

A man with citizenship in Lebanon and the United States was arrested this morning after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on charges of transporting visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. According to court documents, George Aref Nader, 60, was charged by criminal complaint after he arrived at Washington-Dulles International Airport on Jan. 17, 2018 from Dubai in possession of a cell phone containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The charges were unsealed after his arrest this morning. Nader previously pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to...

One of the more unfortunate effects of the Trump-Russia investigation — and there have been many — is the weakening of traditional standards of argument and proof in the public debate over allegations that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to fix the 2016 election. (Just for the record: It didn't.) In particular, angry disputes about the president have done terrible harm to the principle that an investigator, be it a journalist or a prosecutor, should meet at least some standard of proof before leveling an accusation. Two examples. First is the so-called Steele dossier, the collection of wild allegations...

The Office of Inspector General’s report on the FBI and Justice Department’s handling and mishandling of the investigation of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized, non-secure email server to conduct secret government business as Secretary of State revealed real and damning information on the mainstream media and their tight relationship with the deepest members of the deep state. But for some reason this story has just disappeared into the ether. And with all this talk of collusion you’d think this would be a hot topic. While the FBI was leaking classified information, reporters were funneling bribes...

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging caution and patience in response to those in her party clamoring for impeachment proceedings against President Trump, her top deputies are signaling it’s only a matter of time before they begin. South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, said in an interview Sunday that he believes impeachment proceedings ultimately will be launched against Trump at some point in the future. He suggested Democrats are already laying the groundwork in Congress. “I think we’ve already begun,” Clyburn said on CNN's "State of the Union." “We’ve got all of these committees...

Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz, who wrote the introduction for the final Mueller Report that the former special counsel turned into the Justice Department following the “Russian collusion” witch hunt designed to depose POTUS Donald Trump, said Friday it’s time for Congress to get rid of the position altogether. In an appearance on Fox News’ Laura Ingraham program, Dershowitz agreed with Attorney General William Barr’s statement that Mueller “should have come to a conclusion” regarding whether or not the president actually obstructed justice — a preposterous allegation in the first place, given his intense cooperation with Mueller’s probe.

n that twinkling zone between man and myth, Robert Mueller transcends the mundane. Even in refusing to reach a conclusion on criminal conduct, he is excused. As Mueller himself declared, we are to ask him no questions or expect any answers beyond his report. But his motivations as special counsel can only be found within an approved range that starts at “selfless” and ends at “heroic.” Representative Mike Quigley defended Mueller’s refusal to reach a conclusion as simply “protecting” President Trump in a moment of “extreme fairness.” Yet, as I noted previously, Mueller’s position on the investigation has become increasingly...

Roger Stone posted an Instagram story Sunday afternoon calling for former CIA Director John Brennan to be hung for treason. “This psycho must be charged, tried, convicted" the provocateur and Republican operative wrote, below which he placed a photo of Brennan and then added, "and hung for treason,” The post was removed by Instagram soon after it was posted, with the company saying it "violated our Community Guidelines." Stone, 66, was arrested at his Florida home on Jan. 25 and charged by special counsel Robert Mueller with lying to Congress, obstructing justice, and witness tampering. He pleaded not guilty and...

--SNIP-- The backdrop of conspiracy and coordination made every Trump-Russia episode, including routine political activities, look sinister. The Trump Tower meeting looked ominous in the context of conspiracy and coordination. Donald Trump's public statements about Russia and Vladimir Putin looked incriminating. Michael Flynn's conversations with the Russian ambassador looked suspicious. And more.

On Friday’s edition of Real Time, host Bill Maher took shots at Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who gave a press conference earlier in the week declaring that “If we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.” While many in the media have taken that statement as an invitation for Congress to impeach President Trump, Maher took a page out of Trevor Noah’s playbook and made light of Mueller’s remarks.

In his first public statement since the beginning of his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, special counsel Robert Mueller said he did not intend to testify to Congress and explained that he did not have the "option" of charging the president with a crime.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana ripped Democrats over their hesitancy to bring about impeachment proceedings against President Trump, telling them that if they wanted to go forward the should "buy a spine." Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the Republican senator said that his Democratic colleagues need to make a definitive decision on the matter, but noted that if they decide to move forward, they will likely regret the “Sisyphean task” of impeaching the president. “It’ll be tough going in the Senate,” Kennedy said. “Impeachment polls right up there with skim milk among the American people, but my advice...

“If they allow [GOP Reps.] Meadows and Jordan and few of the others there, they’ll eviscerate him more than they did Michael Cohen,” said Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney during and after the Mueller probe. Giuliani said it would be “emotionally satisfying to have” Mueller testify and that “in terms of the politics of it, I would love to have him testify. I think he’s afraid to.” The former New York City mayor and current Trump lawyer said he’d spoken to the president both before and after Mueller’s televised statement to the press. Asked to describe Trump’s views, Giuliani...

Veteran journalist Bob Woodward said he is not confident that special counsel Robert Mueller did a exhaustive job in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a podcast interview last week with former Obama adviser David Axelrod, Woodward said the Mueller case lacks the kind of solid evidence from the Watergate scandal — mainly the thousands of hours of Nixon tapes — that could be used to determine President Trump had obstructed justice. "Quality of evidence, as you know, really matters," said the Washington Post associate editor, who said he has read the Mueller report twice. Asked...