Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Mueller: Barr Is A Dick Head (Okay, I May Be Paraphrasing)

Mueller: Barr Is A Dick Head (Okay, I May Be Paraphrasing)

by | 125 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Fasten your seatbelts. It’s gonna get bumpy:

“The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”

The letter made a key request: that Barr release the 448-page report’s introductions and executive summaries, and made some initial suggested redactions for doing so, according to Justice Department officials.

Justice Department officials said Tuesday they were taken aback by the tone of Mueller’s letter,

Oh, I’m just sure they were taken aback…that it leaked.  Shot across the bow.

ETA this tweet I posted down thread:

 

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  1. 1.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    As usual, Sen. Harris is on this:

    Since the Mueller report was completed, Attorney General Barr has acted more like the president’s attorney than a protector of the rule of law. This isn’t normal.

    Today my colleagues and I called on the DOJ Inspector General to investigate DOJ’s handling of the Mueller report.

    No idea yet whether her tweet was before or after the Post story. If before, that is some truly uncanny timing. Either way, her political instincts remain impeccable.

  2. 2.

    Archon

    I guess Barr and Trump thought they would have first mover advantage on narrative but if they honestly thought the findings in the report wouldn’t get leaked they truly are idiots.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Barr has proven, again and again, to be a man dedicated to protecting the guilty from being punished for their actions.

  8. 8.

    TenguPhule

    Mueller told the attorney general that the depiction of his findings failed to capture ‘context, nature, and substance’ of probe

    Or to put it simply, Barr lied.

  10. 10.

    Kathleen

    To me this is the most important point Mueller made in two quotations cited by WAPO:

    In that call, Mueller said he was concerned that news coverage of the obstruction investigation was misguided and creating public misunderstandings about the office’s work, according to Justice Department officials.

    Throughout the conversation, Mueller’s main worry was that the public was not getting an accurate understanding of the obstruction investigation,
    officials said.

    I’m glad someone shares my concern about the Mainslime Media Propatainment Purveyors’ attempts to gas light us into submission.

  13. 13.

    West of the Rockies

    Speaking of Harris, in the latest poll, how can she behind the B Boys (Beto and Mayor Pete)? I hope the debates clear out the lighter weight candidates. I think both men have their gifts and uses. Not gonna trash them because they are on our team and may do great things. But Harris (and Warren) need to lead things.

    That’s my damn 2 cents worth.

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    I feel much better. I was afraid that Mueller would turn out to be another Federalist Society Republican stooge collaburator like Rosenstein. It is a new game when a former FBI director calls a current Attorney General a liar.

  18. 18.

    TenguPhule

    @Kathleen:

    Throughout the conversation, Mueller’s main worry was that the public was not getting an accurate understanding of the obstruction investigation,
    officials said.

    I’m sorry, is this Mueller’s first encounter with Barr? Does he really not know what kind of an asshole Barr is?

  19. 19.

    VeniceRiley

    @West of the Rockies: A helpful tweeter just shared 1991 cycle polling. Bill Clinton was at 1.7% and Mario Cuomo was in front at 20, with other names like Lloyd Bensen high on the list.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @West of the Rockies

    All that the current polling is reflective of (if even that) is what a likely outcome might be if an election was held right this minute.

    One can purchase more accurate barometers at the 99¢ store.

  25. 25.

    BlueDWarrior

    @West of the Rockies: She’s stuck because everyone is in their camps and basically no one wants to leave their already entrenched camps.

    This happens a lot in early stages of Primaries… remember when Scott Walker led the Republicans in the 2016 cycle, for quite some time in 2015.

  27. 27.

    TenguPhule

    Justice Department officials said Tuesday they were taken aback by the tone of Mueller’s letter, and it came as a surprise to them that he had such concerns. Until they received the letter, they believed Mueller was in agreement with them on the process of reviewing the report and redacting certain types of information, a process that took several weeks. Barr has testified to Congress previously that Mueller declined the opportunity to review his four-page letter to lawmakers that distilled the essence of the special counsel’s findings.

    Anyone want to bet Barr never made that offer to Mueller?

    Also, the Justice Department is simply shocked at all the gambling going on inside of their own house.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    Mueller told the attorney general that the depiction of his findings failed to capture ‘context, nature, and substance’ of probe 

    Kind of like what Comey did but in the opposite direction.

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @TenguPhule: Yeah, because public statements by officials always tell us exactly what they are thinking at the time. Spoiler alert: Captain Renault was not actually shocked that there was gambling at Rick’s.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Archon:

    I guess Barr and Trump thought they would have first mover advantage on narrative but if they honestly thought the findings in the report wouldn’t get leaked they truly are idiots.

    FTFY.

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    Yess!!! Get his azz Tish!

    The NY AG ain’t playing no games with Chump co.

    @kylegriffin1
    The New York Attorney General has reportedly interviewed more than 2 dozen undocumented immigrants who claim they were underpaid or not paid at all while working extra hours at Trump National Golf Club Westchester, the Washington Post reports
    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1123340027814133766

  32. 32.

    Dan B

    @VeniceRiley: Thanks for this. People are freaking out that Harris and Warren are stuck at single digits when the public has no idea who they are – yet. Pete is the miracle story generator. Beto had a story and now is fading. Harris and Warren are building their ground games and policy. The month before the primaries is the only time that matters for media.

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    @rikyrah: Well that was, um, something. Didn’t do much for me but maybe, despite my nym, I am not their target audience.

  38. 38.

    jl

    Josh Marshal translates the Barr DOJ BS that the press credulously reported:

    @joshtpm
    ” Pretty clear that the “irritation” of Barr and his aides is that Mueller had presented them with a report designed for public consumption and clearly aimed at Congress. In other words, he seriously complicated the cover up plan. ”
    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1123377496265764865

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    @TaMara (HFG) – @NotMax
    Worth repeating from a couple of threads ago.

    In a 48-page opinion Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan denied a motion from Trump to dismiss the case.…

    “The President’s definition, however, disregards the ordinary meaning of the term as set forth in the vast majority of Founding-era dictionaries; is inconsistent with the text, structure, historical interpretation, adoption, and purpose of the Clause; and is contrary to Executive Branch practice over the course of many years,” Sullivan wrote.

  42. 42.

    jl

    Looks like the Mueller report was not the magic potion that would kill the evil witches immediately that a lot of people thought it would be. And I am disappointed that Mueller interpreted his mandate so narrowly. It seems odd to me that obvious violations of campaign finance law would not make it into the report, and no indictments from Muller himself on it. It is also unfortunate, and I think overly careful, that Mueller seemed to look very strictly only within the timeline of the campaign for conspiracy and collusion.

    But… IANAL, and it looks like what Mueller did do, he did well, in good faith, and very carefully and completely.
    And the breaks, justified or not, that the Mueller team gave the Trumpsters won’t stop them from calling Mueller an ‘angry Democrat’ and if things get hot enough, a traitor.

  43. 43.

    Repatriated

    @Villago Delenda Est: And that’s probably the reason Rosenstein just bailed. Thought Barr would realize that he’d done as much “good” for Trump as he could, but the game was up and he’d have to come clean to Congress.

    Once he realized that Barr was seriously planning to keep stonewalling, that was it.

    The mealy-mouthed resignation letter was cover to forestall accusations of being partisan for when he (Rosenstein) has to go before Congress himself. Not that those attacks won’t happen, but it pushes them off for a bit.

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @jl: The thing is, Mueller passed on a metric shitton of potential indictments to various other jurisdictions: SDNY, NY AG, MD AG, etc.

    This is far from over. In fact, we’ve only seen the end of the beginning, to paraphrase Churchill.

  50. 50.

    Martin

    Active shooter at UNCC. 2 dead. Missed it at work as I was in an active shooter workshop.

    I am going to lose my shit soon.

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Spoiler alert: Captain Renault was not actually shocked that there was gambling at Rick’s.

    DAMMIT OMNES!! Now i’ll never be able to watch Casablanca.

    [pout]

  53. 53.

    Patricia Kayden

    Looking forward to Mueller’s Congressional testimony where he gets the chance to drag Trump and Barr (among others).

  60. 60.

    Gravenstone

    @lamh36: Senate is “friendly” territory, since it is Republican controlled. However, he will never sit before the House counterpart – short of being dragged in in chains. Which I would wholeheartedly support.

  61. 61.

    gene108

    @West of the Rockies:

    Speaking of Harris, in the latest poll, how can she behind the B Boys (Beto and Mayor Pete)? I hope the debates clear out the lighter weight candidates. I think both men have their gifts and uses. Not gonna trash them because they are on our team and may do great things. But Harris (and Warren) need to lead things.

    I think people are hesitant to elect a non-white man. I don’t think it’s because a woman can’t get more votes than Trump, because that is objectively not true, but rather the insane backlash that was unleashed, when Obama got elected, which is part of the reason we have Trump.

    Hopefully, we’ve learned our lesson about complacency, since 2016, but you never know, how erratic voters will react to things and those guys are needed for us to win.

  63. 63.

    Gravenstone

    @Repatriated: @LivinginExile: To be fair to Rosenstein, he had announced plans to retire earlier, but agreed to stay on until the Mueller report was published. So the timing of his exit now isn’t exactly surprising. But yes, if he was given a heads up that this Mueller response was going to become public, that might have been the last bit of incentive needed to punch out.

  64. 64.

    tobie

    @jl: There’s good reason to believe Rosenstein restricted the scope of Mueller’s inquiry. I wish those restrictions had been made public.

  65. 65.

    lamh36

    @RealEOC
    John Singleton on his greatest achievement

    #RIP

    https://twitter.com/RealEOC/status/1122997879096975361

    “I’ve been in this business 26 years…and I haven’t lost my soul…whole lot of people in this business don’t know which way is up…but I’ve had my highs and my lows but…I’m happy..”

    Even thinking he died too young…this clip made me feel sad but better…as he said, “he was happy”

  70. 70.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @oldgold: He can’t do jack shit about the state investigations. Federal prosecutors, on the other hand, can be tampered with. If you’re going for broke to protect the shitgibbon, might as well take them on.

  72. 72.

    gene108

    @Gravenstone:

    However, he will never sit before the House counterpart – short of being dragged in in chains. Which I would wholeheartedly support.

    I really hope the U.S. Attorney for DC issues warrants for peoples arrests for defying Congressional subpoenas. I’d love to see Barr, Don, Jr., and anyone else associated with this mess dragged into the Capitol jail.

    But that’s not likely to ever happen…

    The realistic option is if Barr refuses to Congressional requests to testify before the House, they impeach him. The Senate won’t convict, but I want all the corruption Barr has done out in front of the public.

    Also, I wish the media would quit reporting on how unshakeable his base is. Trump got 46% of the popular vote, in 2016, and now sits at a 37% approval rating. Why not engage the 9% of people, who no longer support Trump or the 56% of people, who disapprove of his performance?

    I think focusing solely on the blind loyalty Trump has with Republican voters and politicians obscures how actually unpopular he is, and how people view all this obstruction as just more proof of his corruption.

    I mean the media acts like Democrats didn’t win 41 more seats, in the House of Representatives in 2018, or flipped a bunch of state legislatures, governorships, ended Republican super-majorities in states they couldn’t fully flip, or anything like that, which might indicate Republicans and Trump aren’t overly popular.

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @gene108: The vermin of the Village are in the tank for Donald. They’ve been desperately trying to “normalize” the short-fingered vulgarian, for the sake of their corporate overlords’ unquenchable thirst for ad revenue based on high ratings.

  76. 76.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    DAMMIT OMNES!! Now i’ll never be able to watch Casablanca.

    Oh, quit whining! It’s not as if he told you that Darth Vader was actually Rick’s fathe …. oops.

  78. 78.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @tobie: Good question I don’t know the answer to. Generally there is so much going on with the various federal prosecutors that the AG simply can’t track everything they’re doing, but might focus on a few high profile things. SDNY has the lead in going after the Trump Organization, so they’d get some scrutiny, I’d think.

  83. 83.

    rk

    I seriously don’t understand why people are so willing to lose all credibility for Trump. I despise all republican presidents, but I can still understand why people would lie for, say Bush Jr. But Trump? Why? Trump’s nothing but an empty, vulgar, lying buffoon. He has no sense, no loyalty to anyone. Why would Barr volunteer for a job to cover up Trump’s illegalities? Anyone who’s looked at Trump’s people should know that no one survives Trump’s orbit with their reputation intact. It’s a mystery to me. He came in, lied to congress, lied to the public and eventually everything will come out. It’s not like scrooge Trump is going to give him a couple of million bucks. What’s in it for Barr?

  84. 84.

    SFAW

    @Repatriated:

    MILFs.

    Um, you realize that it’s about motherfuckin’ snakes on a motherfuckin’ plane. That’s not quite the same, although the two share some phonetic similarities, I guess.

  87. 87.

    Repatriated

    @rk: The attempt to save the GOP — or at least conservatism — at all costs, by defending Trump as long as possible. If they could have held it off until closer to 2020, it might even have worked. It was an extreme longshot, but with a compliant media it wasn’t totally outside the realm of possibility.

  90. 90.

    SFAW

    @rk:

    What’s in it for Barr?

    The belief that he is acting in what Rethugs call a “patriotic” manner. Unfortunately, Rethug “patriotism” is approximately the same as what the rational world calls “treason,” “betrayal,” “anti-American,” or just plain “evil.”

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    @raven

    “In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.”

  92. 92.

    moops

    @rk: This is just the siren song for the ratfucker. The GOP is in need and they start ratfucking. Look at Jacob Wohl. Trump wasn’t paying him. Trump doesn’t even know him. These idiots just start doing it to reinforce the GOP, or to kick Democrats.

  93. 93.

    Raven

    @NotMax: And the Alps were a simple people, they lived on a diet of rice and old shoes. . .and the lord Alps them that Alps themselves!

  94. 94.

    SFAW

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    You also probably believe that Billy is never coming back.

    Ya know, I think I’d rather be Rick-rolled than watch THAT shit again.

    ETA: Not that I’m asking to be Rick-rolled, you understand. Also, please no Starland Vocal Band.

  95. 95.

    SFAW

    @Repatriated:

    I omitted the snakes as that was too obvious an answer.

    I understood that. I just thought the “MF” tie-in needed to be mentioned. Then again, most persons consider me strange.

  97. 97.

    Jay

    @rk:

    It’s the Wohl Effect. Living for 3 generations inside the Conservapedia bubble, with minimal push back from the MSM and a radicalized base, has lead them to believe they can live without consequences,

  98. 98.

    Repatriated

    @SFAW: Naw. Just because it’s implicit doesn’t mean it couldn’t be improved by making it explicit.

    Oh, wait.

  99. 99.

    Raven

    Robert Coover wrote “A Night at the Movies includes the story “You Must Remember This”, a piece about Casablanca that features an explicit description of what Rick and Ilsa did when the camera wasn’t on them.

  100. 100.

    Repatriated

    @Jay: Hey, it’s worth a shot (from their perspective). Worked well enough during Iran-Contra, right?

    It’s not the ’80s anymore, though. And as you note, they may not be able to understand that, or the implications thereof.

  101. 101.

    gene108

    @rk: @Repatriated:

    Agree with Repatriated. It is all about protecting the Republican brand. They decided they will live or die with Trump, and are doubling down on Trump, because they don’t have an effective strategy, yet, to distance themselves from him.

  105. 105.

    tobie

    @Another Scott: Thanks for digging the document up. It always seemed strange that Mueller’s team could investigate Manafort’s business dealings and finances prior to the campaign but not Trump’s. I gather that there might have been a further letter from Rosenstein restricting the scope of the inquiry. The coverup of coverups of coverups here is getting dizzying.

  106. 106.

    tobie

    @rk: My guess is that he blackmails them. That’s what Bezos showed us when he went public about having an affair. Someone thought they could blackmail him by threatening to disclose this information. He basically said said, “Suck it.” How many people would have the nerve to do that?

  108. 108.

    japa21

    @tobie: I have always wondered. I think he has a lot of info on a lot of people. Somebody will tell him to shove it one of these days,

  110. 110.

    rk

    @tobie:

    My guess is that he blackmails them

    I’m pretty sure he has something on Lindsey Graham. But Barr? The mind boggles. A Barr sex tape??

  112. 112.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @rk: Who says it’s sexual for all of them? There’s bound to be countless financial improprieties in a lot of these people’s pasts. Plus some are probably abusers and who knows what else.

    @Steve in the ATL: And smoking, amphetamines, sniffing glue, etc. In the Dump administration*, every week is the wrong week to quit all those things!

  115. 115.

    gwangung

    @gene108:

    Trump got 46% of the popular vote, in 2016, and now sits at a 37% approval rating. Why not engage the 9% of people, who no longer support Trump or the 56% of people, who disapprove of his performance?

    This is, I believe, the strategy of Biden and Sanders, to focus on that 9%.

    Other candidates focus on the 56% who disapprove but don’t vote.

  119. 119.

    J R in WV

    @Just One More Canuck:

    @Villago Delenda Est: what is “Snakes on a Plane” about?

    Planes are a sophisticated wood working tool, which take a tiny slice off a piece of wood. So snakes on a plane must be about snakes in a high end cabinetry shop, where sophisticated wood working is going on.

  120. 120.

    J R in WV

    @matt:

    So far, the sissy fight nature of the opposition to Trump has been striking.

    So… you don’t know anything about Watergate? Or about Iran-Contra? Presidents have a lot of power, are you willing to give up your job in order to fight Trump’s administration?

    What about your family, willing to put them in hazard? Go to jail for American freedom?

    Didn’t think so… troll.

  121. 121.

    SFAW

    @rk:

    But Barr? The mind boggles. A Barr sex tape??

    That would only be necessary were Barr unwilling to be the guy who covers things up. He’s clearly willing to cover anything up for any Rethug.

  122. 122.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Please Please PLEASE don’t tell me which side won the Civil War.

    I won’t tell you, but I will give you a hint: it’s not who history books say it was.

    [Yes, I know that’s an exaggeration, brought on by the current hostage-taking and traitorous actions of the Slave State politicians.]

Comments are closed.