Tag: ari melber
Barr Widely Condemned For Deception On Mueller Findings

Barr Widely Condemned For Deception On Mueller Findings

Attorney General William Barr repeatedly lied to America by attempting to spin the Mueller report in Trump’s favor before anyone could see the full text of the report.

But once a redacted version of that text was finally public, America finally saw just how damning the report really was for Trump — and just how shameless Barr had been when he pretended otherwise.

A wide range of policy experts, legal analysts, and media figures roundly condemned Barr on Thursday for his obvious deception.

“I quite frankly was shocked at the performance of Attorney General Barr this morning,” former CIA director John Brennan told MSNBC shortly after the report was released. “The political nature of his comments this morning were blatant, politically gratuitous.”

“He really did give a pass to this administration, to Donald Trump, in a manner I think was unbefitting,” Brennan added. “Like many others, I’m just disappointed that Attorney General Barr decided to go down this path.”

Barr made two major public statements about the Mueller report before the report itself was released. One was a four-page summary, released last month very shortly after the report’s completion, that only included a few direct quotes (none of which were complete sentences) from the report. The other was Barr’s press conference on Thursday morning, held an hour and a half before a redacted version of the full report was released.

Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin blasted Barr’s press conference as “an extraordinary political commercial for Trump” — not a serious briefing from a government official.

And as senior MSNBC legal analyst Ari Melber noted, Barr’s letter made at least one key claim that was completely “false”: that Mueller had reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice, and left the decision of whether Trump should be charged with a crime up to Barr and the Department of Justice.

“We know now that’s not the case,” Melber said, because the Mueller report “dramatically explodes Attorney General Barr’s claims.”

In reality, Melber said, “Mueller viewed the rules that governed him, whether he liked them or not, as prohibiting the DOJ — which means Mueller, it means Barr, it means anyone who works at the DOJ — from indicting the president.”

Instead, Mueller was using his report to gather evidence of Trump’s actions and crimes and submit it to Congress, so that lawmakers could make a decision on how to handle Trump’s misdeeds.

 

Vox explained how Barr “truncated quotes and omitted key context from his descriptions of Robert Mueller’s report.”

For instance, there was a lot more to Mueller’s report on Trump and Russia than Barr’s cherry-picked quote about how the investigation “did not establish” a direct conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign on election-meddling.

But we know now that the Mueller report did establish the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts,” and that “the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome.”

“The Attorney General was censoring Mueller’s judgment that Russia was trying to get Trump elected, and the campaign recognized that Russia’s help would benefit the campaign,” legal blogger Marcy Wheeler noted.

During his press conference, Barr repeatedly used the Trump talking point that there was “no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. But as Wheeler also pointed out, Mueller explicitly said he wasn’t looking at “collusion” — because “collusion” is not even a proper legal term.

Members of Congress also roundly condemned Barr for misleading them.

Barr’s misleading letter was released soon after the report was submitted nearly a month ago. Then the Department of Justice refused to release the actual report for nearly a month — which allowed Barr’s false claims to become the dominant media narrative about the report.

He tried to whitewash the Mueller report using first his letter and then his press conference.

But almost immediately after the public finally got to see the document, it became apparent that Barr was acting as an agent of Trump, not the truth.

Published with permission of The American Independent. 

Oversight Committee Probes Fox Coverup Of Stormy Daniels Story

Oversight Committee Probes Fox Coverup Of Stormy Daniels Story

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, wants to hear from the Fox News reporter whose bosses refused to let her run a story about Trump’s hush money payments to adult actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.

The reporter, Diana Falzone, uncovered the story — but was told it would not run because those in charge of Fox News wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 election.

MSNBC’s Ari Melber broke the story Thursday night that Congress wanted to hear from Falzone. Melber read on air parts of a letter Cummings sent to Falzone, requesting documents and information related to “women alleging extra marital affairs with President Trump, payments by the President or anyone on behalf of him to silence those people.” The request also seeks any documents about potential campaign finance violations. 

The letter is necessary because Falzone no longer works for Fox News and signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) forbidding her from discussing her work during her time there. But Falzone’s lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, told Melber that this letter from Cummings “is an exception to the NDA.”

“Nobody can enter an NDA that will interfere with a government investigation,” Smith explained.

Smith added that Falzone plans to cooperate with the investigation, provide testimony, and turn over the requested documents.

While the story of a presidential nominee paying hush money to his adult film actress mistress would be explosive on its own, Trump’s own Department of Justice concluded Trump’s conduct in this matter is likely criminal. That’s because Trump directed his personal attorney and longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, to make the hush money payments for the express purpose of influencing the 2016 campaign.

For his part in this crime and others, Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison. Congress, special counsel Robert Mueller, and the DOJ’s Southern District of New York (SDNY) office continue to investigate Trump’s role in this and other potential criminal activity.

In addition to Cohen, Trump’s former campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, a campaign aid, and Trump’s first national security adviser have all pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes ranging from financial fraud to lying to the FBI.

With this letter, Cummings now frees Falzone from her NDA — and her testimony may shed light on what Trump knew and when he knew it when his campaign staff and members of his inner circle broke the law.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

 

#EndorseThis: London Calling Anti-Trumpers With Gigantic Baby Blimp

#EndorseThis: London Calling Anti-Trumpers With Gigantic Baby Blimp

Opinions are mixed on how liberals should protest the presidency of Donald Trump. Massing in the streets is a double-edged sword, since one yahoo can smash a window and ruin everyone else’s message. Boycotting companies and products has proven effective, but Trump supporters can make up the difference in profit for a right-leaning enterprise.

How about taking to the air? A group of Trump protesters in England have gotten permission from London mayor Sadiq Khan to fly a giant “baby blimp” over The Old Smoke during 45’s upcoming visit to the United Kingdom. The building-sized dirigible hilariously depicts President Trump dressed in a diaper and clutching an iPhone.

Ari Melber of MSNBC points out that the fear of being called a “baby” is one of The Donald’s biggest insecurities, listing-off incidents of Trump using the word while dressing-down associates for supposed attacks on his character.

We don’t need two guesses as to what Democrats will think. “Trump doth protest too much.”

Click to see the gas bag.

#EndorseThis: Right-Wing Realist Ranks Trump Atop List Of All-Time Stupid Criminals

#EndorseThis: Right-Wing Realist Ranks Trump Atop List Of All-Time Stupid Criminals

We aren’t used to hearing conservative pundits say wise things about President Trump. And given the joyless, paranoid rantings of men like Sean Hannity and Alex Jones, America’s right wing isn’t exactly a wellspring of laugh-out-loud humor.

Enter Jennifer Rubin. In this clip courtesy of MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber, the neoconservative WaPo columnist spells out how Donald Trump has publicly incriminated himself in Robert Mueller’s obstruction-of-justice investigation. From asking several high-ranking officials for “loyalty,” to helping Don Jr. pen a shady denial of colluding with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya against Hillary Clinton, the POTUS (and his big mouth) is a gift that keeps giving to the Special Counsel.

And where does that leave Trump? Rubin has an idea for a new Most Wanted list, ranking crooks who can’t spell “dog” if you spot them the D and the O. Click and be amazed. Conservatives can be funny…and occasionally even right.