April 8, 2019
In a highly partisan move the House Judiciary Committee authorized their Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to use a subpoena in an attempt to force the Justice Department to give Congress the full unredacted report, along with all the underlying evidence that was used by the Special Counsel, led by Robert Mueller, to reach their conclusion. Nadler stated that he would not immediately issue the subpoena, “But if we cannot reach an accommodation, then we will have no choice but to issue subpoenas for these materials”.
In their quest for damaging information on Trump, Nadler ‘s committee also authorized the issuance of subpoenas for five former White House aides, including Donald McGahn II, Steve Bannon, Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus, and Annie Donaldson.
Barr is not Required to Release Anything
In spite of not being required to make public any of the report, Barr has agreed to release as much of the report as the law and Justice Department regulations allow, by “mid April’. According to Barr, his office is currently working with the Special Counsel’s office to scrub the report of classified material, secret grand jury testimony, intelligence sources and methods, and details “that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational information that could be harmful to peripheral third parties.”
The law prohibits Barr from releasing anything classified and any material gathered from grand jury testimony in his report. Grand jury testimony is kept secret because it often includes sensitive information from private citizens such as bank records, medical information, personal texts, and maybe even false testimony.
Further, Justice Department regulations disallow the release of information deemed derogatory against those not being charged with a crime. It would be a miscarriage of justice for the government to spread allegations that can not be proven, and may even be false. In spite of the fact that Barr is following the law and regulations, Nadler and his angry disappointed Democrat colleagues are accusing him of attempting to hide the truth.
Barr is not legally required to provide Congress with any information about the contents of the report. Moreover, the regulations call for the report to be confidential; and for the eyes of only the attorney general. Barr is only required to: 1. notify Congress when an investigation began and concluded. 2. Provide an explanation of any actions overriding the Special Counsel. Barr has not taken any actions overriding Mueller’s conclusions.
Hypocritically the House Democrats are asking Barr to do exactly what they, and many others rightly accused former FBI Director James Comey of doing to Hillary Clinton. Although Clinton wasn’t charged with a crime, Comey publicly trashed her laying out all of her misdeeds denigrating her in the eyes of the public.
The Starr Investigation is not Precedent for Mueller
Many have cited the Starr Report, the product of an Independent Counsel investigation into then President Bill Clinton, which was provided to the public, as precedent for why the Mueller Report should be released in full. However, the Mueller probe involved a Special Counsel Investigation, not an Independent Counsel. The Independent Counsel statute expired in 1999. It was not renewed because many felt that the public probe into President Clinton was unfair and harmful to the country.
Unbelievably, among those who were extremely critical of the Starr Independent Counsel investigation, and the release of its findings, was the man now leading the charge for the release of the full Mueller report – Jerry Nadler.
On the Charlie Rose show in 1998 Nadler argued why the Starr Report shouldn’t be made public:
“We should always remember the prosecutor’s report – its nature it’s a one-sided report.” Later on in the interview he added – “It’s grand jury material. It represents statements which may or may not be true by various witnesses salacious material, all kinds of material that it wouldn’t be fair to release…as a matter of decency, and protecting people’s privacy rights, people who may be totally innocent third parties-what must not be released at all.”
In a 1999 article in New York Times Nadler even refered to the Starr Independent Counsel as a “partisan coup d’etat”.
Ken Starr, the man who led the Independent Counsel which investigated Bill Clinton, agrees that derogatory information about a subject not being charged with a crime should be kept confidential. In an Op-ed Starr wrote:
“…one of the fundamental principles of public prosecution: though shalt not drag a subject or target of the investigation through the mud via public criticism. Prosecutors either seek an indictment, or remain quiet.”
Starr also acknowledged an indisputable truth:
“its clear that its all-out war against the president. The House of Representatives the majority is seeking to use its entire power to do everything it can on every front to go after the President of the United States.”
Complaints about Barr’s Summary
Democrats are using the hearsay criticism, from “associates” of some of Mueller’s investigators, whom as the NY Times has reported, believe that Barr did not accurately portray Mueller’s conclusions, to discredit Barr’s portrayal of Mueller’s conclusions. It’s important to remember who Mueller chose to be on his investigative team. The majority of the prosecutors were Hillary Clinton/Democrat supporters; evidence indicates that not one was a supporter of Donald Trump.
Mueller’s purported “right-hand man”, Andrew Weissmann, was not only a Hillary donor he also attended her election night party. Another prosecutor Jeannie Rhee, was a deputy assistant attorney general during the Obama administration, and donated to both Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s campaigns. Unbelievably Rhee also worked as an attorney for Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, and for Ben Rhodes- Obama’s deputy national security advisor. And of course the infamous Peter Strzok, who was removed from Mueller’s team a couple of months into the investigation when virulent anti-Trump messages he sent and received were discovered on his work phone by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.
In spite of a team of prosecutors consisting of “angry Democrats”, as President Trump referred to those working with Mueller, the investigation unequivocally determined that there was no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russians, which was the main objective of the probe. They, however, seemingly could not come to a consensus on whether President Trump obstructed justice, and left it to Barr to decide.
The sources in the NY Times reporting are more than likely expressing dissatisfaction with Barr’s conclusion that Trump did not obstruct justice. The bottom line- Trump never fired Mueller, or anyone involved in the Special Counsel probe, even though it would have been within his powers. Moreover, why would he obstruct the probe of a crime he did not commit, and therefore knew he would be exonerated?
Democrats Plan B
Democrats are disconsolate because their greatest hope of overturning Trump’s presidency, proving Russian collusion, has evaporated. Now they are stamping their feet and demanding six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns by April 10. The IRS has a policy of auditing all sitting president’s tax returns, and apparently have not discovered anything problematic with Trump’s returns, yet the House Ways and Means Chairman, Richard Neal has said in a statement –
“On behalf of the American people, the Ways and Means Committee, must determine if that policy is being followed , and, if so, whether these audits are conducted fully and completely.”
In other words- Democrats are looking for their plan B in their quest to impeach the president, or at the very least quash his 2020 re-election chances. If Democrats were ever granted access to Trump tax returns, which assumedly are voluminous and complex, they would no doubt dissect them for any scintilla of a transgression which would be spun into an impeachment charge.
The upshot- Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s Chief of Staff on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace stated that Democrats will never be successful in their attempt to coerce Trump into releasing his tax returns.
Any day now Barr is expected to release his redacted version of the Mueller Report. Undoubtedly it will contain negative information about Trump which will become fodder for the Never Trump left. Unfortunately, the media will echo those on the left, but thankfully we have a commander-in chief who’s not afraid to fight back.
