There is so much corruption that the Barr letter’s ruling, however flawed, is only a stopgap against the actual obstruction evidence that has not been made public and referenced in the letter. Nice try but no exoneration until the full report is available.
First, obviously, he still faces the New York investigations into campaign finance violations by the Trump team and the various investigations into the Trump organization. And Mr. Barr, in his letter, acknowledges that the Mueller report “does not exonerate” Mr. Trump on the issue of obstruction, even if it does not recommend an indictment.
But the critical part of the letter is that it now creates a whole new mess. After laying out the scope of the investigation and noting that Mr. Mueller’s report does not offer any legal recommendations, Mr. Barr declares that it therefore “leaves it to the attorney general to decide whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.” He then concludes the president did not obstruct justice when he fired the F.B.I. director, James Comey.
Such a conclusion would be momentous in any event. But to do so within 48 hours of receiving the report (which pointedly did not reach that conclusion) should be deeply concerning to every American.
www.nytimes.com/...
2/ Trump directed his attorney to commit criminal campaign finance violations for which the attorney has been sentenced to jail.
Likely as part of the apparent cover up of that criminality, Trump omitted his debt to Cohen for the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels from...
3/ his financial disclosure report. That’s a crime if done knowingly and willfully — and who really doubts that it was? His attorney asked that he be excused from signing the certification in that financial disclosure report in which he was required to attest that it was true.
4/ Trump’s inaugural committee is under investigation for possibly accepting money from foreign actors, possibly giving favors in exchange for money, possible false statements, and likely allowing the Trump Organization to overcharge for services, so Trump could pocket the money.
5/ The New York Times dropped a bombshell accusing Trump of participating in a tax fraud scheme.
Trump fired both the FBI Director and the Attorney General for allowing him to be investigated.
6/ Trump has called for yet another investigation of his vanquished political rival, expressly as a misdirected act of revenge for the special counsel investigation.
He pressured the Postmaster General to retaliate against Amazon as an act of revenge against Jeff Bezos.
7/ Trump called for DOJ to block the AT&T and Time Warner merger as an act of revenge against CNN. In fact, DOJ did try to block that merger without offering the public satisfactory evidence to show that Trump’s demand didn’t influence its action.
8/ Trump’s campaign manager was convicted, a top campaign aide, his National Security Advisor, and one of his foreign affairs advisors pled guilty to crimes.
9/ Trump called for Russia to obtain and release his rival’s emails shortly before they did. He dictated a false account of a meeting between his son and Russian operatives in his building.
10/ After years of working with a campaign that had featured “lock her up” as a recurring refrain, Jared Kushner is illegally using WhatsApp to communicate with foreign actors outside the view of U.S. authorities.
11/ Ivanka Trump also continues to violate federal records laws — not that this has stopped Trump from leading recent cheers of “lock her up.”
12/ Trump has committed nepotism in the White House and has put national security at risk by interceding in the denial of security clearances for his daughter and son-in-law.
13/ There is reason to suspect that the conflicts of interest of the Trump and Kushner families may be influencing government policies, ranging from the cover up and non-response to the Khashoggi murder, foot dragging on Russia sanctions, efforts to lift sanctions on...
14/ individuals connected to the Russian government, the blockade of Qatar, cancelling the move of FBI’s headquarter, etc.
15/ Trump has monetized the presidency, frequently touting his properties and engaging in pay to play with the members and clientele of his clubs and hotels. Access to government is indisputably for sale in this administration.
16/ There have been suspicions of money laundering activity before he came into the federal government, which warrant investigation. While some have said that business activity before coming into federal office is off limits, they seem to be conveniently forgetting...
17/ that the White Water investigation into the Clintons (which was bigger, costlier and noisier than the Special Counsel investigation into Trump) was about business activities before coming into federal office.
18/ He has told over 8,000 documented lies or misleading statements to the American people. He has put children in cages and made no effort to track their family affiliations so they could be returned safely, letting his administration speak instead of “deterrence.”
19/ This isn’t even everything, but it makes the point that the Mueller report is a drop in the bucket.