Breaking: Special Counsel Robert Mueller will make a statement on camera on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election at 11am ET
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 29, 2019
Just a warning that there is a greater than 50% chance that this Mueller statement will be boring or disappointing so the best thing to do is just ignore it until 11 and see what he says.
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 29, 2019
!!! pic.twitter.com/IxVMHyTOie
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) May 29, 2019
I am trying to keep my expectations down.
The floor is open for your speculations.
Update: Live Feed
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Can’t see how this could be anything noteworthy. If there’s one thing Mueller does well, it’s never making waves.
JPL
The Russian government continues to interfere with our elections.. blah blah blah
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m reading the Mueller report right now. I’m still on that first part about Russian interference and it seems uncontroversial (unless you’re Trump, I guess). Last night, Amash said it was the second part about obstruction that made him advocate impeachment.
Still it would be good if we did something to stop anyone from interfering again. At the moment, Rs seem happy to let Russia continue to help them.
Old School
I assume he will not be taking questions.
Luciamia
No questions though
PaulWartenberg
He will likely come out to say he is willing to speak to Congressional committees about the Mueller Report under certain conditions but that it relies on the Department of Justice’s permission. Probably trying to force Barr into letting him, but Barr never will. A kind of passive-aggressive protest that will let him keep his integrity but allow trump and Barr to sweep the whole damn thing under a rug.
In better news, Boris Johnson has to go to court to answer for fraudulent statements he made during the 2016 Brexit campaigns. It will certainly crimp his chances of becoming the next Prime Minister… hopefully throw the whole thing into an emergency General Election.
Jerzy Russian
@Luciamia:
I don’t have enough faith in most reporters to ask questions that are not blindingly stupid.
PaulWartenberg
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m at that part as well. It’s the least partisan and less controversial part of the Mueller investigations… and yet McConnell and the Senate Republicans won’t DO ANYTHING about it because it would prevent their own efforts to suppress voters.
JPL
The White House was notified last night, and since trump hasn’t been angry tweeting, I think he clears trump.
donnah
I have given up on the idea that Mueller can do anything to “save us”. He did a good job of research and investigation and we may still see benefits of his labor, but his relevance is now secondary to what else takes place through subpoenas and other means.
Barbara
At some point, Mueller has to understand that loyalty to institutions is only honorable when those institutions are open and accountable to the public at large. Institutional integrity is not intended to be a closed loop that serves only to backstop the people who directly work for those institutions. This seems to be Mueller’s particular blind spot.
Barbara
@donnah: Well, he was never going to save us from President Pence, so I always saw him as important in unearthing and preserving the truth, not in operationalizing the truth, so to speak.
Baud
Yeah, Mueller has more integrity than Comey. It’ll be anodyne.
Aleta
The Who+ The Roots “Won’t Get Fooled Again”(Classroom Instruments)
hells littlest angel
What I’m sure he WON’T say: no collusion.
The Moar You Know
Lucy and the football ring a bell? He’s doing this in an attempt to not testify. Fuck this guy.
Quinerly
MSNBC reporting that the WH doesn’t know what Mueller will say. Just got a heads up last night that Mueller will make a statement.
rikyrah
Porn star fornicator- BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Low life Trump – lying, crooked, tax evader, porn star fornicator – should take his ridiculous self home, resign, and free us of what we will have to do to impeach him and throw him out of office!
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) May 28, 2019
Emma
Expecting Mueller to turn into a revolutionary hero is a waste of time. He’s not going to break out of his restrictions now.
Quinerly
@The Moar You Know: I’m not quite as strong as you?, but I’m getting very tired of Mueller’s “integrity.” He should have clarified everything back in March. It’s ridiculous he hasn’t made a statement.
TaMara (HFG)
Probably just going to say there is no truth to Michael Wolff’s new book regarding indictments.
Ella in New Mexico
He’s going to announce something we’ve all known was true but officials have been hiding in order to prevent social panic and chaos:
Extraterrestrial alien life forms are real and our government has been working with them for decades.
Also, that he has plenty to say on his investigation to Congress, in private.
Cacti
It will be a whole lot of nothing, I suspect.
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: I figured you nailed it in the last thread when you guessed it would be a denial of the Wolff book’s allegations about drawing up an obstruction indictment. But now The Post is reporting it will be more substantial than that:
Huh. Guess I’ll have to tune in after all, though I agree with the Eeyores that it’s likely to be disappointing.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: I’m cranky. If Mueller doesn’t actually say something of substance, I will be pretty fed up with him. This has been a complete fuck up since March. As I said above, he should have started talking in March when he delivered his report to Barr.
mrmoshpotato
@PaulWartenberg:
I could go for some of that right now. I wish we had a ‘no confidence’ vote in the US.
Quinerly
NY Times reporting that the statement will be “substantial” and “lengthy.”
Cacti
The fact that he’s speaking “with permission from the Department of Justice” makes me believe he’s about to confirm that he’s a Republican first.
Nothing remotely damaging would have been green lighted by Consigliere General Barr.
germy
Quinerly
Leadership of House Committees got no heads up like the WH. MSNBC reporting.
germy
Cacti
@Quinerly:
Sounds like the fix is in.
germy
JPL
I am watching my grandson, and so I might have to depend on all of you to tell me if our nightmare is coming to an end.
germy
The Justice Dept. says his statement will be “lengthy and substantial” ?
So the opposite of how Stormy described her encounter with Trump?
Quinerly
@germy: MSNBC reporting that Mueller’s statement will be 8 minutes long. ?
Ohio Mom
I would be very happy to be wrong but I suspect this will be a carefully parsed statement, too subtle for Republicans to fully comprehend, and thus will be misinterpreted, discounted and ignored by them. He’s not going to say anything the rest of us don’t already know.
Mueller’s puny effort will only serve strengthen my belief that the only good Republican is a dead Republican (why yes, I am in a very bad mood today).
chris
@Cheryl Rofer: Sanity break while we wait. Thought of you when I saw this cat in harness.
Quinerly
@Ohio Mom: I’m with you. Mueller is still employed by DOJ and Barr is his boss. “Integrity” and all….
germy
Meanwhile, the Gaslighter In Chief:
Brachiator
Whatever Mueller says, Trump will say that it totally exonerates him.
JPL
@germy: He’s such a f..king asshole.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: He thinks he’s clever. He is not.
japa21
Remember, this statement has already, in all likelihood, been read and approved by Barr.
germy
@JPL: @Dorothy A. Winsor:
As funny as a pair of crutches, as grandma used to say.
dww44
@Quinerly: Mueller or no Mueller. I don’t believe that for a moment. Why would any rational person? With each passing day, Mueller’s refusal to testify before the people’s house, the Congress, but now agreeing to stand in front a Department of Justice podium which has forfeited all pretense of justice sends very bad vibes to me. I’ve given up on him. When will the Democrats in Congress actually ACT! It is way past time. The time for reasonableness is over. Dithering is not good for Democrats or the Country.
wv blondie
He was “negotiating” (why does a witness get to negotiate?) with the House committee to make a public opening statement, then take questions behind closed doors. So my bet is that he delivers that opening statement.
germy
geg6
Call me when he says something that actually means something. So far, he’s been a big whiff.
Most likely, he’s going to go up there and call the House Dems doodyheads for insisting that he testify in public. Can’t let his vaunted integrity be sullied by seeming to dump on his buddy AG Barr or possibly hint that he actually understands that his recommendation to Congress might lead to…horrors!…politics.
Fuck this guy.
Chief Oshkosh
@Cacti:
Yep, it’s what I’ve been saying for a long time. Mueller is simply the best Republican out there. That doesn’t mean he’s a very good human being, nor even a good American.
trollhattan
@germy:
The saying in our family was “Funny as a rubber crutch”, which could be taken two very different ways.
Cheryl Rofer
I’ve updated with the C-Span live feed.
Frankensteinbeck
Judging from his statements and actions so far, I’m expecting a technical explanation of the scope of his investigation, and the fact that prosecuting Trump was never his job. It will amount to ‘Read the report.’
PsiFighter37
Is it too early to have a drinking game paired with this? Asking for a friend.
Cheryl Rofer
Quinerly
@PsiFighter37: Tequila shots every time a pundit says “Mueller and integrity” in the same sentence?
Cheryl Rofer
Speaking now
Betty Cracker
He’s resigning and says the written word speaks for itself.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: I’m listening. Not watching. He sounds nervous.
Cheryl Rofer
Betty Cracker
Reiterates that if Trump were exonerated of obstruction, the report would have said so. Cites DoJ policy not to charge POTUS with a crime.
dww44
@Quinerly: I agree;he does sound nervous. Most surprising reveal thus far.
Cheryl Rofer
Some argument with this among lawyers on my TL.
Frankensteinbeck
My stress levels can’t take watching, but it sounds like I called it.
Betty Cracker
Says any testimony before Congress wouldn’t go beyond report but isn’t saying he wouldn’t appear…so far.
Cheryl Rofer
Quinerly
Mueller: “The report is my testimony.”
Cheryl Rofer
Betty Cracker
“Multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election, and that deserves the attention of every American.” Annnnd, that’s all folks!
RandomMonster
Boo.
khead
Time for subpoenas. Like, lots of subpoenas.
RandomMonster
Basically it was just to say, “I will not be testifying further.”
Aleta
marcy wheeler earlier this morning
JPL
So Mueller is just confirming that he could not indict trump because of a policy, not based on the evidence. Nancy needs to start impeachment hearings. Maybe have prolonged hearings and then next year start the actual process.
germy
PsiFighter37
Meh, a whole lot of nothing there. My only other takeaway is that Mueller sounds pretty old. Also not someone who has any interest in going out on any limbs.
Betty Cracker
Mueller said he doesn’t doubt the “good faith” of Barr. What a load of horseshit.
Cheryl Rofer
1. Cannot say that the President was not guilty of a crime.
2. Cannot charge a sitting President.
3. The report is my testimony. I don’t want to appear before Congress, and making the underlying materials available to Congress is not up to me.
4. There was interference in the 2016 election with the intention of swaying the result. Pay attention and do something about it.
JPL
So Mueller wants to go and hide under his blankets. Thanks Mueller, we all do.
Ohio Mom
Feh. It seems both Comey and Mueller both picture themselves the protagonist of a Greek Tragedy.
This is making me rethink the truth of Greek Tragedies (sorry, high school English teachers).
There is nothing heroic about either one of them, they made their choices freely, based on a value system they knew better than to embrace.
Frankensteinbeck
The irony is that this is exactly what Comey should have done: Stick to his job and avoid editorializing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I don’t think Mueller’s statement was “nothing.” He reiterated his most important conclusions, which is more or less what needs to be done every day and in hearings. He did NOT completely exonerate Trump. He didn’t indict him, not because he thinks Trump is not guilty, but because of a DOJ policy. The Russians interfered. It’s not new but it tries to cut through the endless gaslighting and point us back to what matters. He feels he did his job. Congress needs to do its job.
Chief Oshkosh
I still find it appalling that some memo from a long time ago, written under different circumstances, that somewhat says that it would be preferable that a sitting president not be indictable is now treated as though it’s Article I of the US Constitution declaring that the President does not have to follow laws.
It was just one person’s opinion! If the Dems EVER get the House and Senate again, they ought to address this and the electoral college. Get rid of both.
geg6
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Pretty hard for them to do when he says he wants no part of any of it and he would be a massively important witness.
Just another Republican coward.
Fuck this guy. Just fuck him.
Soprano2
What Mueller didn’t say – “no conspiracy”, “no obstruction”. What he did say – “no exoneration”. Wonder how Faux News will cover it. He also seems to believe our hair should be more on fire about the Russian interference, which I agree with.
Frankensteinbeck
@Chief Oshkosh:
The latter would require a constitutional amendment, and if we ever get that much power again, a whole lot of problems will be moot.
bystander
Guess it’s easier to shoot evil commies in their native land than it is to speak clearly and plainly to your fellow citizens. Whodathunkit?
germy
O. Felix Culpa
@Cheryl Rofer: In other words, the subtext is GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!
JR
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Agree completely.
Mueller is neither a politican nor a revolutionary. People need to stop expecting these things of him.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Agreed. “If we had concluded the president did nothing wrong we would have said so” [paraphrasing] seems like his version of “Get off your asses and act, Congress.”
satby
Party before country always, huh?
Not sure why he would sound nervous about that.
plato
@RandomMonster: Yup, that’s how I read it. Will be interesting to see how the dems will proceed now.
feebog
Well, he clearly took the “I’m exonerated” claim away from Trumpov. Beyond that, there was nothing new. May light a fire under a few more Dems though.
randy khan
Well, I sure would have rather hear Mueller say he would welcome the opportunity to answer questions from appropriate Congressional committees, but I can’t say I’m entirely surprised he said the report speaks for itself. (I mean, after all, it does – any fair reading of the report more or less comes out to what his statement said.)
Still, I think he should be asked to testify and, if necessary, subpoenaed.
Mnemosyne
I’m stuck in a waiting room with Chuck fucking Todd on the teevee saying that Nancy Pelosi has to impeach but never mentioning that McConnell has already said that the Senate will acquit no matter what the evidence shows.
But it’s all Nancy Pelosi’s fault if Trump doesn’t get convicted by the Senate. ?
geg6
@germy:
And is now too cowardly to testify in Congress.
Chief Oshkosh
@Frankensteinbeck: A postal service is also established in the Constitution, yet the Republicans have weakened it and see-privatized it over the decades. Dems should fix that, but use the R’s approach as a playbook for how to make the EC function better for the country.
ETA: Not by privatizing it (the EC), but by weakening it so that the will of the people prevails.
Josie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You are on target. He has done what he saw as his job and is expecting others to do theirs. We keep wanting one person or one event to solve all this. Things don’t work that way. We all need to do everything we can on multiple fronts to bring about the change that we need. My small plan is to donate to Senator Harris and to the Yellowhammer Fund. I have to have faith in Nancy Pelosi and congressional leaders to do their part in dealing with Trump.
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
So Mueller is telling Congress to take this further, but without any testimony or other help from him?
Martin
@trollhattan: That’s precisely what it is. Mueller has been consistent that ‘I did the job my employer allowed me to do – charing the President with a crime is not something I’m allowed to do.’ which is a blatantly open invitation to the party that is allowed to charge the president with a crime.
I suspect that Mueller does have a date to testify, and now he’s cutting off obvious lines of harassment from various members of Congress. Further, I’m sure Mueller is increasingly alarmed along with other Republicans that Trump and Kim are now colluding to attack a US presidential candidate.
Hoodie
@trollhattan: Yep, that is a giant tell considering how much a by the book guy Mueller is. This whole statement is out of the ordinary for him. His statement about Barr’s intentions also seems to be a backhanded compliment, e.g., “I assume he means well, but he should be worried more about Russian interference than why the FBI started this investigation.” People need to read between the lines and not expect some dramatic climax.
PJ
@Chief Oshkosh: @JR: Mueller did what he thought his job was, but that doesn’t make him any kind of hero (unless you compare him to the average Republican in the government, for whom not doing their job is why they are there). If he felt it was important enough, regardless of whatever legally non-binding opinion some DoJ lawyer came up with decades ago on the subject, he could have brought charges against Trump for obstruction.
geg6
@Amir Khalid:
Exactly. Fuck him. He and his report are both worthless without his testimony.
plato
@Ohio Mom: Yup. I never bought their hagiographies often peddled around here. In the end, they proved to be rethugs after all.
geg6
@Martin:
And the evidence for this is…???
Fleeting Expletive
I’m not quite sure I’m buying the impeachment-only reasoning. DOJ policy is inherently mutable, the no-indictment letter dating from 1974, maybe? Do we elect a king every 4 years or what? Could a president walk up to and assassinate someone and you’d have to tabulate the requisite majorities in an assembled joint session of congress to vote to impeach him?
I understand the Mueller it-would=be=unfair argument, but it just doesn’t all make sense.
Martin
@Frankensteinbeck:
We’ll get the interstate compact before then. We’re at 189 EVs, so we need 81 more. Legislation is pending in OR, NV, MN, ME, which would get us to 216. Other states have legislation pending, but I’m not confident it’d pass – NC, SC, GA, AZ, WI, OH. It’s enough to get over 270, and is easier than getting ⅔, but it’s still not easy. State gerrymandering has been extremely effective at holding state legislatures.
Citizen Alan
@Frankensteinbeck:
There’s a way around it that would not require a constitutional amendment, but it would be massively controversial on a scale not seen since FDR’s court-packing scheme: Increase the number of Representatives. If we have, say, one rep for every 200,000 people, it would dramatically increase the number of electoral votes held by the more populous states at the expense of the trackless wastes of Wyoming. And it can be achieved with a simple act of Congress.
Martin
@geg6: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1132459370816708608
I know it’s just another day in Trump’s Twitter feed, but that’s never been done before, not even with an allied head of state, let alone someone like Kim. The only reason why Kim would offer an opinion on Biden is to recruit Trump. If he did offer an opinion, then it worked, and that’s terrifying. If he didn’t offer an opinion, then Trump is lying and fabricating a relationship which is just a different form of terrifying.
Either way, its message coordination with North Korea against a US presidential candidate.
rp
I don’t know if this is going to move the needle much, but it seems like a fairly big deal to me. He (a) put his report back on the front pages, (b) said very clearly that he didn’t exonerate Trump — and having him say it out loud is different from putting the words on paper, and (c) said very clearly that bad guys interfered with the 2016 election.
Hoodie
@Martin: So Trump is Chairman Kim’s favorite candidate. That would be a great campaign slogan – for Biden. Maybe some Soviet realist artwork with Trump in a Mao Jacket.
PenAndKey
@Citizen Alan:
It really says a lot that the original method of assigning representatives before the 1929 reapportionment act broke the House is Joe seen as “controversial on a scale not seen since FDR”.
As far as I’m concerned the fact we’ve gone nearly a century without properly balancing the House delegitimizes the entire thing. With our current demographics the small (ie Conservative) states should never hold power in the House. It shouldn’t even be close.
Mnemosyne
@rp:
I know that us political junkies don’t think it’s a big deal, but watching MSNBC, all of the talking heads were saying it was A Big Deal, so it may sway more people than we think.
I mean, when Chuck fucking Todd is calling for impeachment …
J R in WV
@dww44:
Can’t believe you actually think Pelosi’s committee chairs are dithering. They’re conducting formal investigations into a vast number of illegal conspiracies on the part of Trump, his family and his appointees. These investigations need to issue subpoenas, file court cases, litigate to obtain evidence and force testimony, and then use the evidence and testimony to formulate dispositive reports.
After those investigations are completed, THEN Madam Speaker Pelosi will convene a special committee to weigh all the evidence and testimony in those reports and to vote on a long series of impeachment motions. There will also probably be indictments of people not holding the office of President.
The dramatic timing of this procedure is Thankfully up to Speaker Pelosi, not to random jerks posting on the internet! And it will be dramatic!
dww44
@J R in WV: Respectfully I’m of the age of Nancy Pelosi and her entire policy has been to “dither” in the matter of holding Trump accountable. The entire messaging apparatus of her leadership team has been “wait and see”. Even random jerks like me are sick of the unwillingness on the part of Pelosi and many of her leadership to unequivocally come out and say and do the right thing. I invite you to go read Atrio’s morning post:
J R in WV
@Chief Oshkosh:
I agree about the DoJ policy memo, which should be done away with ASAP. That’s easily dealt with by an incoming AG with integrity, and can be made permanent with a law that makes everyone subject to the law.
Unfortunately the electoral college cannot be dealt with simply by an act of congress, it’s a constitutional issue that would require an amendment to repair, and the Republicans will never allow that, as long as they can prevent it.
Ruckus
@Fleeting Expletive:
If we are all citizens of the same country, we all have to abide by the same laws. And the president is first and foremost a citizen. After that he/she is the leader, who has some more freedoms and power than the rest of us. But he/she has to be subject to the same laws the rest of us are or this isn’t a democracy.
J R in WV
Well, dww44, we’re going to have to disagree with the timing issues here. I too was a witness to both the Nixon Impeachment hearings, which ran for a couple of years IIRC, and which were seriously about high crimes, and the Clinton Impeachment hearings, which were a laughing stock used by the Republicans in an attempt to break real Impeachment so it could no longer be used against the real criminals in our political system.
I think Speaker Pelosi intends to impeach Trump at what she calculates will be the most advantageous moment in the 2020 election cycle, knowing that Russian tool McConnell will work to find Trump Not Guilty of whatever Pelosi’s House impeaches him for. Because we don’t want Trump declared innocent by the Senate way early in the election cycle.
Now, I know and you should all know that acquittal by a jury of one’s peers is NOT a declaration of innocence. It’s a declaration of not enough evidence presented to convince the jury of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, which is a long way from innocent. It is impossible, logically, to prove a negative, that one has not done something, which is why our judicial system requires that a suspect is shown to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
My logic and rhetoric class was nearly 50 years ago, so I’m not going to go into a discussion of why proof of a negative is impossible, but the founders were well educated and understood rhetorical argument perfectly well, which is why we’re where we are. Mueller’s report shows that Trump, aka Individual 1, is guilty of several crimes. The relevant committees will establish that guilt, on TV, live, over and over, as well as new crimes not covered by Mueller’s report, like money laundering, bribery, etc. I can’t imagine what all will be disclosed in the committee hearings.
But months from now, when the investigatory committees finish their work, and the task is handed over to the impeachment committee, we’ll know all the crimes there are to cover in those hearings, which will also be live on TV. Just before the election. Madame Speaker will allow her committees to pound that illegality drum all the way up to the election, and as a climax, McConnell’s fellow conspirators will find Trump not guilty, in spite of all the bold evidence.
Unless, perhaps, McConnell and his fellow conspirators are resting in their prison cells unable to vote for being in prison? That would be swell, but unlikely.
TenguPhule
@Ohio Mom:
Come sit by me.
mrmoshpotato
@Mnemosyne:
WOAH! WOAH! WOAH! Are you saying Chuckles has left his Bothsiderist Bullshit Bunker, or are you saying when he leaves it?
Also, FYWP for eating my first draft.