What if it said “Bill Clinton” instead of Don Jr.? What if names were changed but everything else about the Mueller Report were the same?
Would Republicans be acting the same way, saying exactly the same things? What would the right-wing media be saying? If the only thing changed were the names….
Would they be adamant that Hillary had been exonerated? Like with her emails?
Hell no. Anyone with memories of Whitewater and Watergate know that it is not that Republicans are hypocrites, it is that they are liars.
From the Mueller Report:
Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about President Hillary Clinton’s conduct. The evidence we obtained about President Hillary Clinton’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that President Hillary Clinton clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that President Hillary Clinton committed a crime, it also does not exonerate her.
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President Hillary Clinton's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out her orders or accede to her requests."
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"[T]he investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Hillary Clinton presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Hillary campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts..."
Further, the Office learned that some of the individuals we interviewed or whose conduct we investigated — including some associated with the Hillary Campaign — deleted relevant communications or communicated during the relevant period using applications that feature encryption or that do not provide for long-term retention of data or communications records. In such cases, the Office was not able to corroborate witness statements through comparison to contemporaneous communications or fully question witnesses about statements that appeared inconsistent with other known facts.
Accordingly, while this report embodies factual and legal determinations that the Office believes to be accurate and complete to the greatest extent possible, given these identified gaps, the Office cannot rule out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional light on (or cast in a new light) the events described in the report.
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In connection with that analysis, we addressed the factual question whether members of the Hillary Campaign "coordinat[ed]"—a term that appears in the appointment order—with Russian election interference activities. Like collusion, "coordination" does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law. We understood coordination to require an agreement—tacit or express—between the Hillary Campaign and the Russian government on election interference. That requires more than the two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other's actions or interests.
The investigation also identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Hillary campaign. Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Hillary Clinton presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Hillary campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
By no later than April 12, 2016, the GRU had gained access to the RNC computer network using the credentials stolen from an RNC employee who had been successfully spearphished the week before. Over the ensuing weeks, the GRU traversed the network, identifying different computers connected to the RNC network. By stealing network access credentials along the way (including those of IT administrators with unrestricted access to the system), the GRU compromised approximately 29 different computers on the RNC network.
By the end of the 2016 U.S. election, the IRA had the ability to reach millions of U.S. persons through their social media accounts. Multiple IRA-controlled Facebook groups and Instagram accounts had hundreds of thousands of U.S. participants. IRA-controlled Twitter accounts separately had tens of thousands of followers, including multiple U.S. political figures who retweeted IRA-created content.
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In June 2016, Bill Clinton agreed to take the meeting (with Russian representatives) despite it being described in emails as part of a Russian government effort to help his wife. Bill Clinton was looking for dirt that could be used against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
On several occasions, President Hillary Clinton directed aides not to publicly disclose the emails setting up the June 9 [2016] meeting, suggesting that the emails would not leak and that the number of lawyers with access to them should be limited. Before the emails became public, President Hillary Clinton edited a press statement for Bill Clinton by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was with ‘an individual who [Bill Clinton] was told might have information helpful to the campaign’ and instead said only the meeting was about adoptions of Russian children. When the press asked questions about President Hillary Clinton’s involvement in Bill Clinton’s statement, President Hillary Clinton’s personal lawyer repeatedly denied President Hillary Clinton had played any role.
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[REDACTED] Neera Tanden also [REDACTED] wanted to be kept apprised of any developments with WikiLeaks and separately told Donna Brazille to keep in touch [REDACTED] about future WikiLeaks releases. According to Donna Brazille, by the late summer of2016, the Hillary Campaign was planning a press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on the possible release of Trump emails by WikiLeaks. [REDACTED] while Hillary and Donna Brazille were driving to LaGuardia Airport. [REDACTED], shortly after the call candidate Hillary told Donna Brazille that more releases of damaging information would be coming. [REDACTED]
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George Stephanopolus admitted telling at least one individual outside of the Clinton Campaign — specifically, the then-Greek foreign minister — about Russia's obtaining Trump-related emails.
Stephanopolus suggested to a representative of a foreign government that the Hillary Clinton Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Hillary campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Donald Trump.
In addition, a different foreign government informed the FBI that, 10 days after meeting with Mifsud in late April 2016, Stephanopolus suggested that the Hillary Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Hillary Campaign through the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Donald Trump. (This conversation occurred after the GRU spearphished Donald Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort and stole his emails, and the GRU hacked into the RNC and RCC, see Volume l, Sections III.A & III.B, supra.) Such disclosures raised questions about whether Stephanopolus informed any Hillary Campaign official about the emails.
When interviewed, Stephanopolus and the Hillary Campaign officials who interacted with him told the Office that they could not recall Stephanopolus 's sharing the information that Russia had obtained "dirt" on candidate Trump in the form of emails or that Russia could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information about Trump.
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Hillary Clinton (in written response to the Special Council): I have no recollection of being told during the campaign that any foreign government or foreign leader had provided, wished to provide, or offered to provide tangible support to my campaign.
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President Hillary Clinton and White House aides initially advanced a pretextual reason to the press and the public for Comey’s termination … The initial reliance on a pretextual justification could support an inference that President Hillary Clinton had concerns about providing the real reason for the firing, although the evidence does not resolve whether those concerns were personal, political, or both.
Comey’s briefing included the Steele reporting’s unverified allegation that the Russians had compromising tapes of former President Bill Clinton involving conduct when he was a private citizen during a 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe Pageant. During the 2016 presidential campaign, a similar claim may have reached candidate Hillary Clinton. On October 30, 2016, Lanny Davis received a text from Russian businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze that said, “Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there’s anything else. Just so you know ….” 10/30/16 Text Message, Rtskhiladze to Davis. Rtskhiladze said “tapes” referred to compromising tapes of Bill Clinton rumored to be held by persons associated with the Russian real estate conglomerate Crocus Group, which had helped host the 2013 Miss Universe contest in Russia… Rtskhiladze said he was told the tapes were fake, but he did not communicate that to Davis.
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President Hillary Clinton learned of the Special Counsel's appointment from Eric Holder, who was with President Hillary Clinton, Donna Brazille, and Lanny Davis conducting interviews for anew FBI Director. Holder stepped out of the Oval Office to take a call from Rosenstein, who told him about the Special Counsel appointment, and Holder then returned to inform President Hillary Clinton of the news. According to notes written by Brazille, when Holder told President Hillary Clinton that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in her chair and said, "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked." President Hillary Clinton became angry and lambasted Attorney General Holder for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, "How could you let this happen, Eric?" President Hillary Clinton said the position of Attorney General was her most important appointment and that Holder had "let [her] down," contrasting him to Alberto Gonzales and Robert Kennedy. Holder recalled that President Hillary Clinton said to him, "you were supposed to protect me," or words to that effect. President Hillary Clinton returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, "Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me." President Hillary Clinton then told Holder he should resign as Attorney General.
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While the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Hillary Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges. Among other things, the evidence was not sufficient to charge any Campaign official as an unregistered agent of the Russian government or other Russian principal. And our evidence about the June 9, 2016 meeting and WikiLeak’s release of hacked materials was not sufficient to charge a criminal campaign-finance violation.
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Would that be good enough for the Republicans? Of course not.
Even before the 2016 election, several Congressional Republicans were on record saying that there was already more than sufficient grounds to impeach Hillary as soon as she was sworn in.
