I've just finished reading Volume II of "The Mueller Report". Volume II deals directly with Obstruction of Justice.
I've now read "The Mueller Report" in its entirety. It's a big book, but it's not the biggest book I've ever read. It is, however, the book that has taken me longer to read than any other book I've ever read.
This book should have taken me no more than 2 weeks to complete. It has taken me months. Putting aside my age (73) and the size of the type (tiny), there is no reason it should have taken this long - except for the emotional impact reading it has had on me.
Before I get into my emotional reactions, let me say Volume II clearly documents numerous instances of Obstruction of Justice. If you watched Mueller's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, you already know this. If you didn't, read the book. There is just too much there to summarize.
Volume II of the Report does not just list and detail instances of Obstruction of Justice. It analyses each instance based upon whether there was an obstructive act, whether there was a nexus to a criminal investigation and whether or not there was intent to obstruct on Trump's part.
It doesn't stop there. It also provides legal citings for each criminal statute that was violated with a full explanation of each citing and a full response to any objections to it raised by Trump's lawyers. For example:
"Finally, 18 U.S.C. § l 512(b)(3) criminalizes tampering with witnesses to prevent the communication of information about a crime to law enforcement. The nexus inquiry articulated in Aguilar-that an individual has "knowledge that his actions are likely to affect the judicial proceeding," 515 U.S. at 599-does not apply to Section 1512(6)(3). See United States v. Byrne, 435 F .3d I 6, 24-25 (1st Cir. 2006). The nexus inquiry turns instead on the actor's intent to prevent communications to a federal law enforcement official. See Fowler v. United States, 563 U.S. 668, 673-678 (2011 )."
"The Mueller Report" is a thorough and comprehensive examination of some, not all, of Trumps's criminal behavior. It's just a slice of the pie.
Page 157 of Volume II pretty much says it all:
"In this investigation, the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. But the evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the President's conduct. These include concerns that continued investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his election and potential uncertainty about whether certain events-such as advance notice of WikiLeaks' s release of hacked information or the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians could be seen as criminal activity by the President, his campaign, or his family.
Third, many of the President's acts directed at witnesses, including discouragement of cooperation with the government and suggestions of possible future pardons, occurred in public view. While it may be more difficult to establish that public-facing acts were motivated by a corrupt intent, the President's power to influence actions, persons, and events is enhanced by his unique ability to attract attention through use of mass communications. And no principle of law excludes public acts from the scope of obstruction statutes. If the likely effect of the acts is to intimidate witnesses or alter their testimony, the justice system's integrity is equally threatened.
2. Although the events we investigated involved discrete acts-e.g., the President's statement to Corney about the Flynn investigation, his termination of Corney, and his efforts to remove the Special Counsel-it is important to view the President's pattern of conduct as a whole. That pattern sheds light on the nature of the President' s acts and the inferences that can be drawn about his intent."
So why did I find this so emotionally upsetting? Part of that has to do with Barr's attempt to completely cover up Trump's crimes and misdoings.
The fact that the Attorney General of the United States is engaging in a further Obstruction of Justice is both scary and infuriating.
And then there's the fact that I didn't learn anything new. Yeah, I've know about this for months. This has all been reported and written about and rehashed over and over again.
So why hasn't anything been done about this? Why wasn't anything done about this months ago?
It's not just a question of corrupt leadership. It's the whole fucking Congress. It's spineless, corrupt politicians who have put their partisan and personal concerns over our national security.
It's also a question of stupidity on a galactic scale.
"The Mueller Report" is not just an indictment of Trump based upon his criminal activity, it's an indictment of us for our indifference and ignorance.
We've let this happen. Baa, baa, baa!
Donald Trump needs to be Impeached. He was never competent to be president. He should have been Impeached months/years ago. He is a career criminal who has colluded and conspired with our country's enemies. He is an abomination. He needs to be removed from office.
As for the rest of the pie that has not been covered in "The Mueller Report", Trump has to be held accountable for that too. That can be done after he has been removed from office.
Holy Moly!
Decades ago we moved to Colebrook, NH. Colebrook is the last stop on the bus line - the place you go to walk to the edge of the world and look off.
Main Street was 2 blocks long. If you were driving to Colebrook for the first time and stopped at a gas station outside of town and asked for directions how to get there, those directions would conclude with, "don't blink or you'll miss it."
After Mueller testified on Wednesday, Pelosi appeared for a press conference with Nadler, Schiff and Cummings in check. Pelosi, who had no role in the day's dramas, was ready to take a bow and share her vision for where we go from here.
"My position has always been, whatever decision we made in that regard
would have to be with our strongest possible hand, and we still have
some matters outstanding in the courts," Pelosi said, arguing that
Democrats needed more information before considering impeachment.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/24/pelosi-nadler-rebuff-impeachment-mueller-hearing-1432925
"House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler pushed to launch impeachment
proceedings against President Donald Trump during a closed-door meeting
Wednesday, only to be rebuffed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to
four sources familiar with the discussions."
Two days later, Nadler held a press conference attended by Judiciary Committee members. Several members said the Committee has begun an Impeachment inquiry. When asked if he agrees that the committee is in an impeachment investigation, Nadler replied, “In effect.” Read the story it's all there.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-impeachment-house-judiciary-committee_n_5d3b3952e4b0a6d6373f162a
That wasn't the only strange thing that happened after the hearings. A lot of news reports initially criticized Mueller's performance and said that the hearings had not moved the needle toward Impeachment.
Here are some of the early stories:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/454640-mueller-testimony-fails-to-move-needle-on-impeachment
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/454720-muellers-blockbuster-appearance-turned-into-bomb-of-performance
https://news.yahoo.com/muellers-testimony-didnt-move-us-213013129.html
So what happened? Did we blink? Did we miss something?
I thought Mueller did a powerful job.
Mueller was truckin'.
Apparently I was not alone. After the hearings 5 more House Democrats, Including Katherine Clark, came out calling for Impeachment hearings.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/highest-ranking-house-democrat-yet-calls-impeachment-trump-n1034826
The phones in the House began ringing. People started going on social media calling for demonstrations. The news reports changed. Huh?
What happened? Mueller did not say anything that wasn't in his original report. We had all this info the day Barr released the redacted version to the public on April 18th and that was 3 whole months ago.
Justin Amash said all this on May 18th.
There wasn't a majority of House members calling for Impeachment hearings yesterday, but Pelosi said that would be necessary before any Impeachment hearings could start. There were only 100 Democrats and 1 Republican in favor of Impeachment hearings yesterday.
The Senate Republicans are still as apt to vote to acquit Trump in a trial as they have been all along.
According to Politico, only 37% of voters support Impeachment hearings.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/26/poll-impeachment-mueller-1437596
Pelosi had said there would be no Impeachment hearings until all that changed.
Wait, there's more. Pelosi did a photo op with AOC yesterday. Yep, now they're best buds.
AOC has been calling for Impeachment hearings all along.
So here's what I think happened. A lot of us kept daily pressure on Pelosi and the House Democrats to start Impeachment hearings. We humiliated Pelosi for blocking them. We humiliated House Democrats for not standing up to her. We threatened marches and sit-ins. We made our voices heard.
Pelosi wielded power in the House. House members acquiesced to her. The MSM agreed with her. Her trolls came after those of us who dared to question her - she knows more than we do - she's smarter than us - she's got more experience - she plays three dimensional chess - she knows what's she's doing.
So did we blink, no! We persevered! And, we need to keep persevering. The real power in this country rests in the hands of the people and we must never, ever allow anyone to tell us different. We must never surrender it or let someone take it from us.
I think Pelosi was told to get on board or get left behind by the Democratic Caucus in the House. That was the message we sent them. That was the message they gave her.
It's a whole new day! Today we begin in earnest.
Holy Moly!
Robert Mueller went to Washington, D.C. today and proved himself to be the most non-partisan man in the country. He also proved himself to be professional, honest, trustworthy, intelligent, competent and patriotic.
Mueller was calm and laid back as he testified for hours before 2 House Committees. He began at the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Jerry Nadler.
For over 3 hours Mueller answered all questions. In that time he managed, by virtue of his demeanor and character, to enable the Republicans attacking him to demonstrate to anyone watching just how corrupt and despicable they truly are.
Without breaking a sweat, Mueller broke them. They were left with nothing. Their willingness to betray their country was fully exposed.
Mueller refused to be the straight man for the Democrats. He was his own impeccable man.
Mueller made several things perfectly clear - his report did not exonerate Trump; it did not clear Trump of any wrongdoings in regard to Russia; and it showed that Trump had obstructed justice many, many times.
Mueller also made it clear that Russia was engaged in sweeping, systematic cyber warfare against our government - a war that started years before the 2016 elections and continues on to this day - a war that will only get worse come 2020.
In the end, Mueller laid the responsibility for holding Trump accountable where it belonged - in Congress. Holding a criminal President responsible is the duty of Congress. Mueller never said the word "Impeachment", he didn't have to. Impeachment was looming large and apparent to everyone.
The Democrats on the Committee embraced this and repeatedly implied that they were ready to deal with Trump's high crimes and misdemeanors. Almost every Democrat on the Committee ended her/his questioning by saying "no one is above the law".
In the afternoon, Mueller testified before the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Adam Schiff.
Adam made an opening statement that was a blistering indictment of Trump. It did not equivocate. Schiff made it clear that Trump had betrayed our country and that he would be held accountable for his actions.
The Republicans spent their time attacking Mueller and advocating for Barr to investigate the basis for Mueller's investigation. Yep, they are advancing a whole new conspiracy theory - Russia was working for Hillary.
Mueller stressed that Russia is a dangerous enemy of the United States and that we must take action to protect ourselves from further harm. Putin is not our friend - those who befriend him betray us.
Democrats on the Committee reaffirmed that Congress is responsible for protecting us from a criminal President. They seemed to know where their duties lie.
After the hearings commentators and pundits engaged in banal, fatuous chatter. Mueller was basically criticized for being a straightforward man who did exactly what he said he would do all along - his testimony was his report.
Apparently Mueller wasn't entertaining enough for most of those who covered the hearings. That's what their analysis amounted to.
Never mind that everybody who watched him knew he was telling the God's honest truth and that Trump was a man who betrayed his country. Yeah, Mueller was too much like Walter Cronkite.
After all was said and done, Pelosi appeared for a press conference with Nadler, Schiff and Cummings in check. Pelosi, who had no role in today's dramas, was ready to take a bow and share her vision for where we go from here.
Buckle up, we're not going home to the House to begin Impeachment hearings. We're going to Oz.
Holy Moly!
