Robert Mueller Delivers Report to Attorney General

 

According to news reports, Robert Mueller has delivered a report to Attorney General Bill Barr. Fox News:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has submitted to Attorney General Bill Barr his long-awaited report on the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race and possible collusion with Trump associates — marking the end of the politically explosive probe and the beginning of a new battle over its contents and implications. Mueller is “not recommending any further indictments,” a senior DOJ official told Fox News.

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  1. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    Django (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Max Ledoux (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I think that Jonathon V. Last (“JVL”) has the most wise conclusion about the Mueller Report. He writes:

    “Two weeks after the public finally sees it, most of the people who dislike Trump will be arguing that the report is terrible for Trump. And most of the people who like Trump will be arguing that the report vindicates Trump.

    Sure, but the people who hate Trump will be lying and the people who like Trump will be telling the truth.

    No Max. To paraphrase a great judge that I appeared before, the people who hate Trump will believe that they are telling the truth, and the people who love Trump will believe that they are telling the truth. The real truth will likely be somewhere in between.

    The truth does not always lie somewhere in between. If a group of radical math students believe that 2 + 2 = 5 for large values of 2, that doesn’t mean that one can balance his checkbook using that formulation.

    I was a math major before Law School.  You would not believe how many people don’t add up their expenses accurately!

    • #61
  2. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    The real truth will likely be somewhere in between.

    The truth exists independent of its proximity to either pole; there’s no Goldilocks zone where we can expect to find it. 

    What’s interesting to me are the people who believe that the “soft coup” idea is prima facie ridiculous, even as they suggest that such a thing was absolutely necessary. 

    • #62
  3. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Max Ledoux (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I think that Jonathon V. Last (“JVL”) has the most wise conclusion about the Mueller Report. He writes:

    “Two weeks after the public finally sees it, most of the people who dislike Trump will be arguing that the report is terrible for Trump. And most of the people who like Trump will be arguing that the report vindicates Trump.

    Sure, but the people who hate Trump will be lying and the people who like Trump will be telling the truth.

    No Max. To paraphrase a great judge that I appeared before, the people who hate Trump will believe that they are telling the truth, and the people who love Trump will believe that they are telling the truth. The real truth will likely be somewhere in between.

    The truth does not always lie somewhere in between. If a group of radical math students believe that 2 + 2 = 5 for large values of 2, that doesn’t mean that one can balance his checkbook using that formulation.

    I was a math major before Law School. You would not believe how many people don’t add up their expenses accurately!

    Mine was computer science and math, but math and law?  I can’t get my mind around that.

    • #63
  4. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    Django (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Max Ledoux (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I think that Jonathon V. Last (“JVL”) has the most wise conclusion about the Mueller Report. He writes:

    “Two weeks after the public finally sees it, most of the people who dislike Trump will be arguing that the report is terrible for Trump. And most of the people who like Trump will be arguing that the report vindicates Trump.

    Sure, but the people who hate Trump will be lying and the people who like Trump will be telling the truth.

    No Max. To paraphrase a great judge that I appeared before, the people who hate Trump will believe that they are telling the truth, and the people who love Trump will believe that they are telling the truth. The real truth will likely be somewhere in between.

    The truth does not always lie somewhere in between. If a group of radical math students believe that 2 + 2 = 5 for large values of 2, that doesn’t mean that one can balance his checkbook using that formulation.

    I was a math major before Law School. You would not believe how many people don’t add up their expenses accurately!

    Mine was computer science and math, but math and law? I can’t get my mind around that.

    I scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of the SAT, and was halfway through my 30 hour requirement for my math major after my first semester.  That allowed me to pick up classes in whatever other areas I wanted to during my three years as an undergraduate, getting a minor in psychology, and graduating with Honors in Psychology.  I had argued with my parents about every possible issue as a child, and Law was a natural for me.  Also the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) had a math section to it, helping me do well in it.

    But, if I had it to do over again, I would have majored in computer science.  Life is full of different choices along the way.  

    • #64
  5. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    The real truth will likely be somewhere in between.

    The truth exists independent of its proximity to either pole; there’s no Goldilocks zone where we can expect to find it.

    What’s interesting to me are the people who believe that the “soft coup” idea is prima facie ridiculous, even as they suggest that such a thing was absolutely necessary.

    Exactly.

    • #65
  6. Guruforhire Inactive
    Guruforhire
    @Guruforhire

    There is going to be a thrown bone, we just have to wait to find out what it is.

    • #66
  7. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    They tried to force Corsi to lie.

    The dossier is pure fiction from Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

    … and there are Republicans that don’t care.

    • #67
  8. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    They tried to force Corsi to lie.

    The dossier is pure fiction from Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

    … and there are Republicans that don’t care.

    There was Russian collusion, or at least  Peter Steele says there was;  the ones he contacted when he wrote the dossier.

    • #68
  9. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Percival (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    They tried to force Corsi to lie.

    The dossier is pure fiction from Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

    … and there are Republicans that don’t care.

    There was Russian collusion, or at least Peter Steele says there was; the ones he contacted when he wrote the dossier.

    That used to be the only version. There are some that think the DNC created it and then he put his stamp on it. It was a Fusion GPS project.

    • #69
  10. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Mollie’s thoughts on the subject 

    • #70
  11. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    What it comes down to basically is that nobody within the Republican political campaign operator/consultant establishment would touch Donald Trump in 2015, because they thought he was a joke and/or was doing it just to hype his own name and the next season of “Celebrity Apprentice” and would drop out before ever getting the nomination. They didn’t want their careers to be ruined, so Trump ended up taking on anyone who would have him, which in this case turned out to be Paul Manifort, who had already soiled his reputation with his connections to Eastern European unsavories. Those are the only things the Muller probe ended up catching, and they were there irregardless of Manifort’s time as Trump’s campaign manager.

    The second thing goes to Trump’s temperament and its combination of narcissism, reflexive combativeness over slights, Attention Deficit Disorder and Twitter addiction. Anyone who thinks Trump was colluding with Putin, while at the same time bemoaning Trump’s lack of decorum due to the above flaws, has to believe the man was somehow able to control all those flaws — especially in the wake of his 11/8/16 victory — and not taunt his enemies in some way  that would have revealed Vlad’s hand in denying Hillary her rightful victory.

    He could not have kept it to himself for the 2 1/2 month interregnum between Election Day and Inauguration Day, let alone the nearly 2 1/2 years between the election and the release of Mueller’s report. It was simply a gianormous waste of time and money, caused not just by people who wanted to damage Trump, but from people whose egos are so tied into the belief that they’re the best and the brightest and therefore destined to rule that they could not believe this moron had beaten them. They really did put their faith in the idea that Russia had been involved, even if that meant they had to believe Trump was both an idiot and so devious he could keep all those connections hidden from the world.

    • #71
  12. WI Con Member
    WI Con
    @WICon

    Annefy (View Comment):

    https://mobile.twitter.com/gopchairwoman/status/1109257481858043904

    Am on my phone so this is the best I can do. Click on the link to see Mollie’s thoughts on the subject

    Mollie is terrific. I recall when this farce first started, she was on a Special Report panel with Jonah Goldberg as a ‘newbie’ and she pushed back against the conventional wisdom spreading like wildfire through ‘that town’. 

    She simply asked for facts & evidence. Over two years later and we haven’t ever got them, just rumors and obfuscation from the FBI, DOJ and CIA.  Mollie, Byron York, Tucker Carlson, VDH are the real journalistic heroes here.

    • #72
  13. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    WI Con (View Comment):

    Annefy (View Comment):

    https://mobile.twitter.com/gopchairwoman/status/1109257481858043904

    Am on my phone so this is the best I can do. Click on the link to see Mollie’s thoughts on the subject

    Mollie is terrific. I recall when this farce first started, she was on a Special Report panel with Jonah Goldberg as a ‘newbie’ and she pushed back against the conventional wisdom spreading like wildfire through ‘that town’.

    She simply asked for facts & evidence. Over two years later and we haven’t ever got them, just rumors and obfuscation from the FBI, DOJ and CIA. Mollie, Byron York, Tucker Carlson, VDH are the real journalistic heroes here.

    Here, via Mediaite, is Mollie’s earlier appearance on Fox following the report’s release, and Chris Wallace’s comments that followed, which encapsulated the efforts to justify the Muller investigation — 1.) It’s Trump’s fault for firing Comey, and setting up the conditions that led to Sessions having to create the Special Counsel; and 2.) Mueller caught Manifort and a few other people, so that justifies the time and money involved, even though nothing he caught them on had anything to do with Trump being in Putin’s back pocket, and could have been investigated via normal DOJ channels.

    • #73
  14. Max Ledoux Coolidge
    Max Ledoux
    @Max

    WI Con (View Comment):

    Annefy (View Comment):

    https://mobile.twitter.com/gopchairwoman/status/1109257481858043904

    Am on my phone so this is the best I can do. Click on the link to see Mollie’s thoughts on the subject

    Mollie is terrific. I recall when this farce first started, she was on a Special Report panel with Jonah Goldberg as a ‘newbie’ and she pushed back against the conventional wisdom spreading like wildfire through ‘that town’.

    She simply asked for facts & evidence. Over two years later and we haven’t ever got them, just rumors and obfuscation from the FBI, DOJ and CIA. Mollie, Byron York, Tucker Carlson, VDH are the real journalistic heroes here.

    Agree! She’s terrific. Yeah, those other guys, too. 

    • #74
  15. Max Ledoux Coolidge
    Max Ledoux
    @Max

    Just in case anyone still thought David Frum had anything useful to say about American politics anymore, I hope this tweet disabuses that notion:

    • #75
  16. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Chris Wallace is in deep denial. Hack.

    • #76
  17. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Max Ledoux (View Comment):

    Just in case anyone still thought David Frum had anything useful to say about American politics anymore, I hope this tweet disabuses that notion:

    That is dimwitted. Do you suppose that he’s referring to the nonsense on FaceBook? A $150K ad buy? The DNC “hack?”

    Sorry, Davey. Mueller has nothing, and all you had was Mueller.

    • #77
  18. Max Ledoux Coolidge
    Max Ledoux
    @Max

    DrewInWisconsin (View Comment):

    Chris Wallace is in deep denial. Hack.

    Wallace is a registered Democrat. 

    • #78
  19. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    The real truth will likely be somewhere in between.

    The truth exists independent of its proximity to either pole; there’s no Goldilocks zone where we can expect to find it.

    What’s interesting to me are the people who believe that the “soft coup” idea is prima facie ridiculous, even as they suggest that such a thing was absolutely necessary.

    Color me in violent agreement with this.

    • #79
  20. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Jon1979 (View Comment):

    WI Con (View Comment):

    Annefy (View Comment):

    https://mobile.twitter.com/gopchairwoman/status/1109257481858043904

    Am on my phone so this is the best I can do. Click on the link to see Mollie’s thoughts on the subject

    Mollie is terrific. I recall when this farce first started, she was on a Special Report panel with Jonah Goldberg as a ‘newbie’ and she pushed back against the conventional wisdom spreading like wildfire through ‘that town’.

    She simply asked for facts & evidence. Over two years later and we haven’t ever got them, just rumors and obfuscation from the FBI, DOJ and CIA. Mollie, Byron York, Tucker Carlson, VDH are the real journalistic heroes here.

    Here, via Mediaite, is Mollie’s earlier appearance on Fox following the report’s release, and Chris Wallace’s comments that followed, which encapsulated the efforts to justify the Muller investigation — 1.) It’s Trump’s fault for firing Comey, and setting up the conditions that led to Sessions having to create the Special Counsel; and 2.) Mueller caught Manifort and a few other people, so that justifies the time and money involved, even though nothing he caught them on had anything to do with Trump being in Putin’s back pocket, and could have been investigated via normal DOJ channels.

    Well, at least Mueller got Manafort off the streets (and into solitary confinement). Making America safe again!

    Remember back when the Treasury Secretary was a tax cheat (and didn’t do any jail time)? Those were the days!

    Oh, yeah, and Trump fired Comey (who, if he had been ethical, would either have recommended indictment of Hillary or would have resigned in protest over the impossible situation he was in) at Rod Rosenstein’s recommendation!! 

     I wouldn’t trust these people to help me across the street.

    • #80
  21. Barfly Member
    Barfly
    @Barfly

    DrewInWisconsin (View Comment):

    Chris Wallace is in deep denial. Hack.

    He comes by it honestly, I’m afraid. It’s an instructive exercise to watch Chris critically and compare him to his father, both his personality and his techniques. I’ve done it a couple of times – I had to watch the interview a few times first just to get past the dissonance it generates but once that’s dealt with it becomes illuminating.

    Chris Wallace is an interesting case. This is a good place to start with Mike:

    https://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/touching-the-raw-amygdala-part-ii-mike-wallace-debates-a-marine/

    When I watch Chris Wallace I come away with the idea that I want to trust this guy and that he’s trying, but underneath it I get that edge that says “keep your eyes open.” There’s no question about one thing – Chris Wallace is a very intelligent r-selected specimen. He might have opinions I like and the format of his show helps keep him honest, vs. the prepared ambush nature of “60 Minutes.” But my senses tell me his nature is to betray.

    • #81
  22. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    Oh, yeah, and Trump fired Comey (who, if he had been ethical, would either have recommended indictment of Hillary or would have resigned in protest over the impossible situation he was in) at Rod Rosenstein’s recommendation!! 

    That’s what I keep wanting one of these idiot journos to mention.

    Rosenstein recommended that Trump fire Comey. Comey leaks memos to his journalist pals with the stated intention of getting a special investigation. Rosenstein does exactly that. All this is plain for everyone to see, and these idiot journos keep pretending like it’s all perfectly ethical.

    I sure hope that now that this is done, there is a reciprocal investigation into the whole DOJ/FBI/Clinton/Obama/DNC/FusionGPS/Russia/CNN/MSNBC/et al collusion to bring down the President.

    Justice is a joke. We know that laws don’t apply to Democrats or their Deep State flunkies.

    • #82
  23. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Guruforhire (View Comment):

    There is going to be a thrown bone, we just have to wait to find out what it is.

    Yes, that’s my bet.  I’m guessing it will involve “interactions” between the Trump campaign and Wikileaks and/or Russian contacts a la the infamous Trump Tower meeting.  This is not to say these will prove anything or be particularly meaningful, but Mueller’s team–out of self-justification –will probably find someway to make something sound nefarious in the absence of finding anything criminal.   

     

    • #83
  24. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Can’t disagree with this.

    • #84
  25. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Barfly (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin (View Comment):

    Chris Wallace is in deep denial. Hack.

    He comes by it honestly, I’m afraid. It’s an instructive exercise to watch Chris critically and compare him to his father, both his personality and his techniques. I’ve done it a couple of times – I had to watch the interview a few times first just to get past the dissonance it generates but once that’s dealt with it becomes illuminating.

    Chris Wallace is an interesting case. This is a good place to start with Mike:

    https://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/touching-the-raw-amygdala-part-ii-mike-wallace-debates-a-marine/

    When I watch Chris Wallace I come away with the idea that I want to trust this guy and that he’s trying, but underneath it I get that edge that says “keep your eyes open.” There’s no question about one thing – Chris Wallace is a very intelligent r-selected specimen. He might have opinions I like and the format of his show helps keep him honest, vs. the prepared ambush nature of “60 Minutes.” But my senses tell me his nature is to betray.

    Being on Fox, Wallace does control his inclinations better than, say, if he was on one of the other networks where they want you to be Unfair and Unbalanced, even in the news and non-commentary parts of the broadcast day. But if the 2020 election is the political Super Bowl, the release of the Muller report was at least the NFC Championship game, and Wallace’s reaction fo Hemmingway’s comments showed he had a rooting interest in the other team and was miffed that the refs apparently didn’t spot that penalty that changed the outcome of the game (Saints fans from back in January know what that emotion feels like).

    • #85
  26. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    DrewInWisconsin (View Comment):

    Can’t disagree with this.

    …so that justice is done.

    • #86
  27. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    WI Con (View Comment):
    She simply asked for facts & evidence. Over two years later and we haven’t ever got them, just rumors and obfuscation from the FBI, DOJ and CIA. Mollie, Byron York, Tucker Carlson, VDH are the real journalistic heroes here.

    Mollie Hemingway is great and should replace the strident Judge Jeanine. Of the journalistic heroes you mention, one prominent name was left out: Sean Hannity. Night after night he went through the facts of the case and defended the administration to the point that it was boring. Still, he should be given his due. 

    • #87
  28. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    Percival (View Comment):

    Max Ledoux (View Comment):

    Just in case anyone still thought David Frum had anything useful to say about American politics anymore, I hope this tweet disabuses that notion:

    That is dimwitted. Do you suppose that he’s referring to the nonsense on FaceBook? A $150K ad buy? The DNC “hack?”

    Sorry, Davey. Mueller has nothing, and all you had was Mueller.

    Max Ledoux (View Comment):

    Just in case anyone still thought David Frum had anything useful to say about American politics anymore, I hope this tweet disabuses that notion:

    What political position does Frum even purport to represent.  He appears to me to have always been the lone Party of David Frum.   Given Frum currently despises Trump,  he now has aligned himself with (R)/conservative Never Trumper’s, yet even before there was a Trump, David Frum had long  been the go to “conservative” invited on the MSM news shows to bad mouth the (R)’s and conservatives in general.

    It seems as if Frum has made a mildly lucrative second career of going against the (R) Party he once worked for, and now finds himself with some serious NeverTrump competition, thus prompting Frum to get a little more outrageous in his commentary in order to be heard amid the din of the other NeverTrump noise.

    • #88
  29. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Goldwaterwoman (View Comment):

    WI Con (View Comment):
    She simply asked for facts & evidence. Over two years later and we haven’t ever got them, just rumors and obfuscation from the FBI, DOJ and CIA. Mollie, Byron York, Tucker Carlson, VDH are the real journalistic heroes here.

    Mollie Hemingway is great and should replace the strident Judge Jeanine. Of the journalistic heroes you mention, one prominent name was left out: Sean Hannity. Night after night he went through the facts of the case and defended the administration to the point that it was boring. Still, he should be given his due.

    Dan Bongino has also done yeoman’s work in his daily podcast. Highly recommend he and DC McAllister’s book Spygate. Spygate 2 is in the works 

    • #89
  30. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    Max Ledoux (View Comment):

    Just in case anyone still thought David Frum had anything useful to say about American politics anymore, I hope this tweet disabuses that notion:

    That is dimwitted. Do you suppose that he’s referring to the nonsense on FaceBook? A $150K ad buy? The DNC “hack?”

    Sorry, Davey. Mueller has nothing, and all you had was Mueller.

    Max Ledoux (View Comment):

    Just in case anyone still thought David Frum had anything useful to say about American politics anymore, I hope this tweet disabuses that notion:

    What political position does Frum even purport to represent. He appears to me to have always been the lone Party of David Frum. Given Frum currently despises Trump, he now has aligned himself with (R)/conservative Never Trumper’s, yet even before there was a Trump, David Frum had long been the go to “conservative” invited on the MSM news shows to bad mouth the (R)’s and conservatives in general.

    It seems as if Frum has made a mildly lucrative second career of going against the (R) Party he once worked for, and now finds himself with some serious NeverTrump competition, thus prompting Frum to get a little more outrageous in his commentary in order to be heard amid the din of the other NeverTrump noise.

    After Obama’s win in 2008, Frum decided he could be the new intellectual leader of the Republican Party, and his prescription was that the nation had moved permanently to the left, and the only way for the GOP to remain relevant was to move left with the country. The fact that more people opted to at least side, if not wholeheartedly support, the Tea Party movement irked him to no end, and he’s spent the past decade either railing at conservatives for not comprehending his brilliant political tactics, or working with people like Mike Bloomberg to try and create the Frumpublican Party No Labels political movement so he could be the shining light of his own power base.

    • #90
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