I have always liked mathematics, and I have always been pretty good at figuring out solutions to problems, so I took a number of math classes in high school and college. One of the most consistent things I noticed in my math classes was that every teacher insisted that every student show his or her work. The teachers did not want us to just put our final number down, They wanted to see every step in the process that we used to get our answers to make sure that we understood what we were doing. They did not just want us to just give them an answer. They wanted us to show them that we thoroughly understood every proper step of the process and they wanted us to show that we had used every proper step in the process to get our solution.
When I figured out my mathematical solutions, I always wrote down every tiny step in the process, because a lot of the time, even if I ended up with the wrong answer, I would end up get partial credit if the method that I used was correct. if a teacher saw that the only reason that I got a wrong answer was that I neglected to write down a minus sign, but that I otherwise understood what I was doing, I often got most of the points offered on a question.
I have used this method throughout my life. When I present an argument, I try to make sure I have every step necessary to show people exactly how I reached my conclusions. It makes things easier for everyone. Now, in the case of the Mueller Report, we have had Attorney General William Barr basically giving us two answers, a “no indictment” on both Conspiracy and Obstruction of Justice, and he apparently is doing everything he can to avoid showing us the underlying work that resulted in those conclusions.
He refused to go to a judge to ask permission for the underlying grand jury testimony be revealed. There is only one reason why he would do that. He does not want people to know what was in the grand jury testimony. In addition, he has already announced that the information in the roughly 400-page Mueller report that he intends to give to both Congress and the public will be redacted in four different ways, including redacting all instances of grand jury testimony, Everything so far indicates that he is doing everything in his power to show as little of the underlying thought process as possible in the Mueller Report. That is simply unacceptable.
When William Barr went before the U.S. Senate as part of the confirmation process to become Attorney General, he promised that he would be as transparent as possible with regard to the Mueller Report. Instead, he has been doing the complete opposite.
Not showing all of my work—not showing every step of the underlying process of how I got my answers—was unacceptable to my math teacher when I was a twelve-year-old seventh grader in a Pre-Algebra class. It is certainly is not acceptable when U.S. taxpayers spent over $30 million over the course of 22 months on a report to see if the President of the United States and his associates committed Conspiracy with the Russians or Obstruction of Justice.
William Barr has been doing everything that he can to make sure that as little as possible of the Mueller Report reaches either Congress or the public. From this, we can only draw one conclusion—that the entire sum of the Mueller investigation found evidence that was extremely damaging to the President and/or his associates, and that William Barr is violating the oath of office that he took when he became Attorney General. Here is the first part of the oath of office that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder signed:
I will support and defend the Consitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
The office of Attorney General is specifically charged with protecting American citizens from criminal activity. The Attorney General’s office has demonstrated in various Administrations, such as the Nixon and Clinton Administrations, that it has a duty to inform American citizens of any possible criminality or improper acts on the part of the members of its Presidential Administrations, even if that possible criminality did not rise to the level of an indictment. United States Attorney William Barr is in direct violation of his sworn responsibilities as Attorney General and is a disgrace to his office.