Mr. Barr’s Political Puff-Piece Press Conference

Well, that was interesting. We all knew Attorney General Barr, would continue in his role as White House cheerleader, but why was Rod Rosenstein there, standing up for everything Barr said as he turned the Mueller Report into a political puff-piece for Donald Trump?

There is so much disingenuity and flip-flopping going on that it’s difficult to keep track, but I seem to remember AG Barr saying he would not be sending the report over to the White House before releasing it to the Congress. However, that’s exactly what he did, giving the President’s lawyers a legal leg-up on everyone else.

“William Barr writes he has ‘no plans’ to give Trump or the White House a chance to review the report before its release.” – 3/29/19 Politico

The pundits and writers will now go through the report line by line, as both the Republicans and the Dems seek to use it to their political advantage. Initially though, it appears the bar for what constitutes a campaign’s illegal contact with a foreign power is set so high, that it was unreachable by Mueller’s team. As for obstruction, Mueller found there were ten possible counts, but passed the buck onto the congress to decide whether anything should or could be done about them.

For a time, the question of whether a president can be indicted appeared to be unsettled law. Then, at some point during the Mueller investigation, someone inside the DOJ announced that it was settled law and that the Department’s position was that a sitting president cannot be indicted. A position which was then endlessly parroted by the pundits. This, despite a 56 page memo the New York Times got its hands on indicating the issue was resolved during the investigation of Bill Clinton by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. The memo says in part, “It is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the president’s official duties,” the Starr office memo concludes. “In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law.”  -NYT’s

Apparently reversing their earlier decision, the Department of Justice now does not agree with Mr. Starr’s legal team. They now think the president is above the law, so the answer as to what legally can be done to the President – other than impeachment or removal from office by using the 25th Amendment – is apparently absolutely nothing. It follows, that in all likelihood, nothing will be done so long as Republicans continue to control the Senate.

It is somewhat surprising that the AG has agreed to turn over an unredacted version of the report to congressional leaders for their perusal. He may be doing this because DJT’s lawyers have decided the wisest course of action is to keep it out of court.

An analysis by key congressional leaders will be worth waiting for, as will Robert Mueller’s testimony before congressional committees. AG Barr, says he has no problem with Mueller testifying. At least, that’s what he is saying now. One wonders if he’ll get a phone call from the White House directing him to change his mind. Again.

As for all the rest of it – all the noise to come – I’ll be preserving what sanity I have left by watching baseball, as we appear to be stuck with Trump and his bizarre band of cronies until the next election despite evidence of obstruction of justice and obvious collusion with the Russians, even if it doesn’t meet one legal standard or another. Like so many Americans, I am now officially suffering from chronic Trump fatigue.

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