Mueller report concludes it was not needed to begin with

[dukkha]

How would you like to spend two years and $30 million assembling a report that concludes you were not needed in the first place? Voilà: the Mueller report. Nice work if you can get it.

The report is appropriately thick, D.C. thick. It takes more than 400 pages to state the obvious: There was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians to swing the 2016 election. Zip. Nada. Nothing to see here.

It goes on to tee up a question about obstruction of justice that the special counsel was not asked to investigate — and then doesn’t answer it. Wait. What?

These are some of the most elite prosecutors in the country, and they went full Hamlet on a legal determination a third-year law student would knock down between Budweisers. This is what we get for $30 million? Make a call; that’s your job as prosecutors.

It doesn’t seem the special counsel team is fooling anyone. It showed that it would indict a ham sandwich if it could. The obvious answer is that it had no confidence in a criminal obstruction case.

Instead, it punted to the Trump-appointed attorney general. One gets the sense this may have been by design.

Well, what about all the Russians who were indicted by Mueller’s team for trying to interfere with the election? Those were chip-shot FBI counterintelligence investigations that were well in flow when the special counsel took them over. They didn’t need special counsel magic.

Had they remained FBI-controlled cases, the indictments would have been sealed and the subjects arrested when they likely returned to the United States for more mischief in 2020. We can forget about that now.

Attorney General William Barr during his press conference early Thursday said that the “bottom line” is that no American coordinated, conspired or colluded with the Russian government to interfere in the presidential election. America should be grateful, he added.

No, America should be disgusted. Here’s a real bottom line: A cabal of politicians and bureaucrats frivolously and cynically manipulated the levers of government to further their own political greed and lust for power by trying to exploit a falsehood. It cost us over $30 million and needlessly pitted Americans against one another.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-ho...was-not-needed

[dukkha]

the FBI — indeed, a cornerstone agency in the continual struggle to ensure the integrity of our democratic republic — was hijacked by an irresponsible director and deputy director who insulated themselves from the rest of that seasoned, sober organization and embarked on a foolish misadventure fueled by either their stupidity or political bias. It looks like it was a combination of both.

They were egged on, like gullible dupes, by a politically motivated CIA director and director of national intelligence. Former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and the team they assembled on the seventh floor of FBI headquarters started an investigation based on insufficient cause and the obvious Russian active-measures operation.

They likely used investigative techniques that violated established guidelines, ran informants against U.S. persons in violation of established guidelines and misused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process to deeply invade the privacy of an American citizen.


And they did all this against the campaign of a person running for president of the United States. When the attorney general characterized this as “unprecedented,” he was simply stating a fact.

It will take a special kind of courage to now hold accountable those who misused the positions entrusted to them to further a made-up and costly theory of collusion. There is a sense that the attorney general is serious about seeing true justice done.

AG Barr is taking flak but hopefully will stand firm. The triumph of rule of law over political thuggery is at stake. This is vitally important for future presidential administrations of both parties, and true statesmen will recognize that.

[Tranquillus in Exile]

And they did all this against the campaign of a person running for president of the United States. When the attorney general characterized this as “unprecedented,” he was simply stating a fact.

It was indeed unprecedented, because there were prima facie grounds for suspecting that the campaign of a major presidential contender might have been compromised by a hostile foreign power. Such a suspicion had never arisen before in US history, but it did arise in 2016, and the possible implications were enormous.

I say this as someone who was always doubtful (50-50, you might say) on the collusion issue: it needed to be investigated.
If Barr wants to investigate some more, let him. We'll see what he finds.

[dukkha]

It was indeed unprecedented, because there were prima facie grounds for suspecting that the campaign of a major presidential contender might have been compromised by a hostile foreign power. Such a suspicion had never arisen before in US history, but it did arise in 2016 and the possible implications were enormous.

I say this as someone who was always doubtful (50-50, you might say) on the collusion issue: it needed to be investigated.
If Barr wants to investigate some more, let him. We'll see what he finds.

per Lisa Page- this in terms of the Mueller investigation:
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/40...before-mueller
After nine months of using some of the most awesome surveillance powers afforded to U.S. intelligence, the FBI still had not made a case connecting Trump or his campaign to Russia’s election meddling.

Page opined further, acknowledging “it still existed in the scope of possibility that there would be literally nothing” to connect Trump and Russia, no matter what Mueller or the FBI did.

“As far as May of 2017, we still couldn’t answer the question,” she said at another point.

[archives]

per Lisa Page- this in terms of the Mueller investigation:
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/40...before-mueller
After nine months of using some of the most awesome surveillance powers afforded to U.S. intelligence, the FBI still had not made a case connecting Trump or his campaign to Russia’s election meddling.

Page opined further, acknowledging “it still existed in the scope of possibility that there would be literally nothing” to connect Trump and Russia, no matter what Mueller or the FBI did.

“As far as May of 2017, we still couldn’t answer the question,” she said at another point.

The Email thing really is funny, they cherry picked a dozen or so phrases out of five thousand plus Emails and used them to formulate an orchestrated conspiracy. Let me repeat that, a dozen or so phrases out of five thousand plus Emails

Common sense alone dictates if this grand "deep state" plot existed you would think they could come up with more than a dozen phrases from five thousand Emails to verify its existence.

And the last thing Trump/Barr want is to regurgitate the offset of these investigations, you know there is a reason Trump never allowed the full unredacted version of those FICA applications to see the light of day even though his House stooges were screaming for them

[dukkha]

The Email thing really is funny, they cherry picked a dozen or so phrases out of five thousand plus Emails and used them to formulate an orchestrated conspiracy. Let me repeat that, a dozen or so phrases out of five thousand plus Emails

Common sense alone dictates if this grand "deep state" plot existed you would think they could come up with more than a dozen phrases from five thousand Emails to verify its existence.

And the last thing Trump/Barr want is to regurgitate the offset of these investigations, you know there is a reason Trump never allowed the full unredacted version of those FICA applications to see the light of day even though his House stooges were screaming for them

the post you replied to has nothing to do with "Emails" ( and I think you mean texts between Page and Strzok)

we'll see -the IG report comes out soon -criminal referalls from Nunes to DoJ last week.
Barr isn't a weak kneed Sessions.

I gave you the reason the other day why Trump walked back the FISA release
per "5 Eyes" requests

[Truth Detector]

It was indeed unprecedented, because there were prima facie grounds for suspecting that the campaign of a major presidential contender might have been compromised by a hostile foreign power. Such a suspicion had never arisen before in US history, but it did arise in 2016, and the possible implications were enormous.

There was ZERO reason to believe this and you had to be the dumbest of dumb fucks to think that the cabal of corrupt Obama holdovers could pull this stupid fabrication off.

I say this as someone who was always doubtful (50-50, you might say) on the collusion issue: it needed to be investigated.
If Barr wants to investigate some more, let him. We'll see what he finds.

I hope he does; there are corrupt assholes like Comey, John Brennan, McCabe and James Robert Clapper Jr. that need to be walked off in handcuffs. The entire mainstream media and the Democratic Party of the Jackass have done more to make a mockery of our institutions and electoral process than any foreign entity could ever have hoped for.

You Fascistic morons on the left can be proud of the divisive damage you are doing and still continuing to do. I say burn all of your bridges and begin the impeachment proceedings.

QUOTE=Tranquillus in Exile; If the GOP doesn't do something about Trump before too long, they'll be fucked. That's the truth.

[Earl]

How would you like to spend two years and $30 million assembling a report that concludes you were not needed in the first place? Voilà: the Mueller report. Nice work if you can get it.

The report is appropriately thick, D.C. thick. It takes more than 400 pages to state the obvious: There was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians to swing the 2016 election. Zip. Nada. Nothing to see here.

It goes on to tee up a question about obstruction of justice that the special counsel was not asked to investigate — and then doesn’t answer it. Wait. What?

These are some of the most elite prosecutors in the country, and they went full Hamlet on a legal determination a third-year law student would knock down between Budweisers. This is what we get for $30 million? Make a call; that’s your job as prosecutors.

It doesn’t seem the special counsel team is fooling anyone. It showed that it would indict a ham sandwich if it could. The obvious answer is that it had no confidence in a criminal obstruction case.

Instead, it punted to the Trump-appointed attorney general. One gets the sense this may have been by design.

Well, what about all the Russians who were indicted by Mueller’s team for trying to interfere with the election? Those were chip-shot FBI counterintelligence investigations that were well in flow when the special counsel took them over. They didn’t need special counsel magic.

Had they remained FBI-controlled cases, the indictments would have been sealed and the subjects arrested when they likely returned to the United States for more mischief in 2020. We can forget about that now.

Attorney General William Barr during his press conference early Thursday said that the “bottom line” is that no American coordinated, conspired or colluded with the Russian government to interfere in the presidential election. America should be grateful, he added.

No, America should be disgusted. Here’s a real bottom line: A cabal of politicians and bureaucrats frivolously and cynically manipulated the levers of government to further their own political greed and lust for power by trying to exploit a falsehood. It cost us over $30 million and needlessly pitted Americans against one another.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-ho...was-not-needed

Excellent.

Thanks.

[Getin the ring]

There is no shame in such matters.

Things like this are protected by the establishment that perpetrates them. This isn't the first and it won't be the last.
I think we are all equally appalled by Washington, the waste and the obvious disregard for what 30 million dollars is, or would mean to most of us.
On a witch hunt to appease hurt feelings.
Our money is like afterthought to them, they take in trillions from us so what's 30 million here or there.

And the real irony is that when half of us unite in a protest vote to this establishment, we send someone like Trump there to make that very point, enough is enough....NO WE DONT WANT ANOTHER CLINTON JUST BECAUSE IT"S HER TURN...
the other half joins the establishment to protest that someone dare protest.

It's a maddening circle that will never be fixed because it feeds itself.

[Poor Richard Saunders]

Conclusion one from the Mueller report - Russia interfered with the US election. That conclusion is supported by the indictments of several Russians. It also includes a lot of evidence.
Conclusion two - While the Trump campaign accepted help from Russia it didn't rise to criminal because the Trump campaign seemed to be unaware it is illegal to do so.
Conclusion three - Because of the DoJ standard of not indicting a President and because the DoJ also has a policy of giving people a chance to defend themselves in court if they accuse them, the Office decided they couldn't do anything more than lay out the evidence. To reach a conclusion would violate one of the 2 policies in place.

I would suggest you read the report. It lays out quite a bit of evidence of obstruction. Whether it is criminal is a question we don't have an answer to. Whether it is acceptable behavior by someone who has taken an oath to defend the Constitution should be pretty obvious.

[Darth Omar]

Conclusion one from the Mueller report - Russia interfered with the US election. That conclusion is supported by the indictments of several Russians. It also includes a lot of evidence.
Conclusion two - While the Trump campaign accepted help from Russia it didn't rise to criminal because the Trump campaign seemed to be unaware it is illegal to do so.
Conclusion three - Because of the DoJ standard of not indicting a President and because the DoJ also has a policy of giving people a chance to defend themselves in court if they accuse them, the Office decided they couldn't do anything more than lay out the evidence. To reach a conclusion would violate one of the 2 policies in place.

I would suggest you read the report. It lays out quite a bit of evidence of obstruction. Whether it is criminal is a question we don't have an answer to. Whether it is acceptable behavior by someone who has taken an oath to defend the Constitution should be pretty obvious.

Jonathan Turley addressed obstruction in his recent column.

It basically came down to Mullet not knowing whether Trump had criminal intent when he discussed removing Mullet. In Mullet’s words ‘he couldn’t tell what Trump was thinking’ or to the effect.

That, coupled with the fact the investigation itself, produced no crime, equals no charge. Or maybe more precisely, no charge worth pursuing. Unless, you’re really bad desperate to impeach and remove a president.

And yes, any third year law student could knock it down between Budweisers.

[dukkha]

Jonathan Turley addressed obstruction in his recent column.

It basically came down to Mullet not knowing whether Trump had criminal intent when he discussed removing Mullet. In Mullet’s words ‘he couldn’t tell what Trump was thinking’ or to the effect.

That, coupled with the fact the investigation itself, produced no crime, equals no charge. Or maybe more precisely, no charge worth pursuing. Unless, you’re really bad desperate to impeach and remove a president.

And yes, any third year law student could knock it down between Budweisers.

Thinking (intent) isn't a crime without an actionable obstruction.
Trump yelling at his staff, giving orders to his staff isn't criminal unless there is actionable obstruction

Volume II is a POLITICAL GUIDE for the dems to impeach ( a political action) Mueller was a political hit man.

I'm sure they figured out "no collusion" a year ago,but they kept it going hoping for a perjury trap like Flynn

[Darth Omar]

Thinking (intent) isn't a crime without an actionable obstruction.
Trump yelling at his staff, giving orders to his staff isn't criminal unless there is actionable obstruction

Volume II is a POLITICAL GUIDE for the dems to impeach ( a political action) Mueller was a political hit man.

I'm sure they figured out "no collusion" a year ago,but they kept it going hoping for a perjury trap like Flynn

If Mullet testifies before Congress he needs to be asked that very question.

The patently obvious answer is a preliminary finding of ‘no collusion’, a year ago, would have risked shutting down the investigation and costing Mullet and cronies millions of dollars in legal fees.

Isn’t DC just wonderful lol?

[dukkha]

If Mullet testifies before Congress he needs to be asked that very question.

The patently obvious answer is a preliminary finding of ‘no collusion’, a year ago, would have risked shutting down the investigation and costing Mullet and cronies millions of dollars in legal fees.

Isn’t DC just wonderful lol?

Muellet is much too slippery a fish ( lol) to get tied down to particulars.
It will be "we were still investigating all leads" or " we needed to look for intent" (and the dang Trump wouldn't give us an interview.)

It was a political hit job, ginned up by Comey and Rosenweasel's Deep State Creeps ,
prosecuted by a bunch of Hillary Dems.

[Truth Detector]

If Mullet testifies before Congress he needs to be asked that very question.

The patently obvious answer is a preliminary finding of ‘no collusion’, a year ago, would have risked shutting down the investigation and costing Mullet and cronies millions of dollars in legal fees.

Isn’t DC just wonderful lol?

It was all about the money and the fact that Mueller didn't like Trump either. He is corrupt as they come. Comey, he needs to be handcuffed and taken to prison.