My anger runneth over with this massive Barr/Trump cover-up of collusion. This is going to be a pretty disjointed diary because of it.
So yesterday afternoon I’m watching Ari Melber interview Papadopoulos. During the interview, Papadopoulos casually says he was meeting with Russians, emailed several on the Trump campaign, and they encouraged him to keep it up. The Russian agent (the professor) that Papadopoulos was talking to, told him they had “dirt” on Clinton, Papadopoulos lied about it, and went to prison. In what universe is this NOT collusion?! And Mueller knew all about it.
Yesterday Adam Schiff said he’s seen evidence of collusion.
“Undoubtedly there is collusion,” Schiff said in an interview this week, after Attorney General William P. Barr submitted a four-page letter to Congress summarizing key aspects of Mueller’s report. “We will continue to investigate the counterintelligence issues. That is, is the president or people around him compromised in any way by a hostile foreign power? . . . It doesn’t appear that was any part of Mueller’s report.”
And then there are all the damn weird events that we all know about.
Flynn, Cohen, Gates, all got leniency recommendations from Mueller for cooperating, and he even tried to make a deal with Manafort. Why?! What did they offer that didn’t lead to higher up indictments and yet deserved a good deal? What kind of a prosecutor gives a deal for nothing?
Remember the judge that went ballistic at Flynn’s sentencing, and even asked why he wasn’t charged with treason?! And yet Mueller gave Flynn a great deal that led to a black hole!
The June Trump tower meeting with all the Trump campaign people and RUSSIANS, the cover up on Air Force one with the public lie about the meeting, and Mueller doesn’t even bother to interview Trump or Jr.?! How the hell does that make any sense?
And then when Buzzfeed reported Trump directed Cohen to lie, Mueller jumped up and released a statement saying that wasn’t accurate. But now with Republicans running around the country screaming that Mueller exonerated Trump on everything, not a damn word from Mueller!
Mueller will be faced with a real challenge soon. Hopefully Democrats are not going to fall for the continuing Barr cover-up of delaying for weeks, which will turn into months, of releasing the Mueller report with huge sections missing and redacted. Someone will subpoena Mueller and Trump will declare executive privilege. Then Mueller will have to decide if he will abide by an executive privilege claim that is intended to cover-up crimes, or will he defend the constitution by abiding by the request of a co-equal branch of government to report the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. At that moment we will know if Mueller was in on it all along.
I will keep a ray of hope that Mueller explains all this in his report and he will make sure the public sees his report quickly.
Democrats have to stop dragging their feet and start fighting like our democracy depends on it. If you think we’re going to have free and fair elections under a Russian asset, you’re not paying attention. We need public hearings with public testimony from members of the Trump crime syndicate, and we it NOW.