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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. 

Fox News Audience Believes Network’s ‘Deep State’ Fantasies

Fox News Audience Believes Network’s ‘Deep State’ Fantasies

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Fox News host Sean Hannity opened his show last Friday by accusing the FBI under former Director James Comey of engaging in a criminal conspiracy aimed at preventing President Donald Trump’s 2016 election through a purportedly illegal investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia. “And according to my sources, tonight, good news is in the horizon,” Hannity concluded. “James Comey, I warned you, you have the right to remain silent.”

These sorts of conspiracy theories have taken hold with Hannity’s audience, according to new poll from Navigator Research. The group’s memo reports that “the Fox News echo-chamber” has created “an alternative reality in American politics,” with Republicans who watch Fox News a few times a month or more showing significantly more radical views than others on a host of issues.

Notably, the poll shows a staggering divide between Republicans who watch Fox and the rest of the public on the question of whether Trump is the victim of a conspiracy at the hands of what Fox personalities call the “deep state.” Among GOP Fox viewers, 79 percent say that “people within the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are trying to sabotage President Trump.” That’s compared to 49 percent of Republicans who don’t watch Fox, 24 percent of non-Republicans who watch Fox, and 8 percent of non-Republicans who don’t watch Fox.

It’s possible that the network simply attracts viewers predisposed to believe that the president is being assailed by forces within the federal investigative and intelligence agencies rather than convincing them that is the case. But whichever way the causality arrow points, Fox has been serving up this kind of conspiracy theory to its audience on a nightly basis for years.

While this sort of coverage has permeated Fox’s programming, Hannity — perhaps the most fervent Trump supporter at the network — has led the way. In May 2017, as special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to oversee the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Hannity began identifying the “deep state” as a key part of what he called the “Destroy Trump Alliance,” a shadowy cabal of Trump foes. The Fox host argued that the “deep state must be purged” because its members “are now the biggest threat to this republic, and of course, the free election of Donald Trump.”

Hannity’s program began revolving around a single, terrifying idea: The Mueller probe is a sprawling conspiracy that justifies Trump using any means to stop it — including the prosecutions of the “deep state” officials who started it. Nearly 200 Hannity segments over the first year of Mueller’s investigation alone included claims that top federal law enforcement officials involved in the creation of the probe had broken the law.

And Hannity has begun claiming that he’s going to get his way. After the Senate confirmed William Barr as attorney general, Hannity declared that according to his sources, “things are happening as we speak.” He went on to identify dozens of crimes he said had been committed by 10 “deep state actors,” including Comey, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

While Hannity has been the ringleader, he’s been joined by a large cast of fellow travelers at Fox who have adopted the same storyline. From Jeanine Pirro’s calls for a “cleansing” of the FBI and Justice Department, to Lou Dobbs’ calls to imprison Mueller, to Gregg Jarrett’s declaration that the FBI’s pursuit of Trump’s associates made it akin to “the old KGB,” Fox’s airwaves have been filled with over-the-top denunciations of the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies.

That effort has extended to Fox’s so-called “news side,” where the network’s reporters have played their typical role. Congressional Republicans put sensational spin on documents they released to undermine the special counsel’s probe by suggesting that the DOJ was out to get the president. The story doesn’t really add up, but the network’s “news side” journalists run with it, and soon the opinion side’s talkers have something new to freak out about. From an anti-Trump “secret society” at the FBI to a memo that was supposedly going to bring the Mueller investigation to its knees, Fox keeps falling in line.

Fox’s spin on the Mueller probe has largely been quarantined to its own airwaves, and as the Navigator Research poll shows, contained to its own audience. But the overwhelming support among Fox viewers for the notion that the president is being sabotaged by the FBI and intelligence agencies is nonetheless quite concerning. Fox is inculcating Trump’s base with the notion that the results of the Mueller probe are invalid. That could have a drastic effect as the investigation moves toward its conclusion.

Former CIA Chief ‘Shocked’ By Trump’s ‘Treasonous’ Conduct In Helsinki

Former CIA Chief ‘Shocked’ By Trump’s ‘Treasonous’ Conduct In Helsinki

Minutes after Trump shocked the world by slamming America’s investigation into Russia’s election crimes while standing right next to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, former CIA chief John Brennan blasted Trump’s performance as “treasonous” and called out Republicans who stand by and do nothing.

“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous,” Brennan wrote on Twitter almost immediately following Trump’s remarks. “Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”

Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???

Minutes later, Brennan called in to MSNBC to elaborate on his comments and express his “shock” at Trump’s remarks.

“I thought that there was nothing that Donald Trump could say that would shock me, but I was wrong,” Brennan said. “I was just totally shocked … even when the press gave him an opportunity to hold Russia accountable, for anything, he chose to talk about Hillary Clinton, about the election, about servers.”

According to Brennan, Trump’s performance proves that “Putin, now, is the master puppeteer of Donald Trump, the person who is in our Oval Office.”

Brennan also argued that Trump’s national security team — including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton, and White House chief of staff John Kelly — should resign in objection.

“I just — I cannot understand how the national security team can continue to abide by this, and how Pompeo, and Bolton and Kelly can continue in their jobs,” Brennan said. “This, I think, rises to the point of good American patriots resigning in objection to that performance by Donald Trump.”

Trump officials often look visibly uncomfortable when Trump embarrasses America on the world stage — but so far, none have resigned over it.

Similarly, elected Republicans have stood by Trump through every humiliation and outrage imaginable. At best, they remain silent; at worst, they actively encourage Trump’s reckless disregard for American values.

Only time will tell if Trump’s wholesale capitulation to Vladimir Putin, in full view of the entire world, is finally enough to push Republicans into action.

Published with permission of The American Independent. 

Former CIA Director To White House Officials: Defy Any Trump Order To Fire Mueller

Former CIA Director To White House Officials: Defy Any Trump Order To Fire Mueller

Reprinted with permission fromAlterNet.

Former CIA Director John Brennan, in a vocal and unapologetic rebuke to Trump, said White House officials should refuse orders to fire special counsel Robert Mueller if ordered to do so by President Donald Trump.

During an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer at the Aspen Security Forum, Brennan said:

“I think it’s the obligation of some executive branch officials to refuse to carry that out. I would just hope that this is not going to be a partisan issue. That Republicans, Democrats are going to see that the future of this government is at stake and something needs to be done for the good of the future.”

Rumors have been floating around about Trump’s  considerations to fire Mueller and derail his investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged collaboration with Russia during the presidential election. On July 21, The Washington Post reported that some of Trump’s lawyers are attempting to build a case against Mueller by highlighting his conflicts of interest. And in addition to floating the idea of firing Mueller, Trump has also reportedly asked about the power to pardon aides and family members.

Both Brennan and James Clapper, former director of national intelligence who also attended the Aspen Security Forum, had worked with Mueller when he was head of the FBI. Brennan and Clapper praised Mueller, calling him a “straight shooter.” Brennan said he hopes politicians and lawmakers stand up to Trump if he fires Mueller.

“I really hope that members of Congress and elected representatives are going to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough,’ and stop making apologies and excuses for things that are happening that I think flout our system of government.”

Watch the video below via CNN:

Celisa Calacal is a junior writing fellow for AlterNet. She is a senior journalism major and legal studies minor at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. Previously she worked at ThinkProgress and served as an editor for Ithaca College’s student newspaper. Follow her at @celisa_mia.