Michael Cohen is furiously shoveling dirt on what he hopes will be Donald Trump’s grave. The question is, will newly confirmed attorney general William Barr put a stop to all the federal inquiries into the president’s business practices? So much seems now to depend on the integrity of one man.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Woke up this morning expecting to see the redacted version of the sentencing memo for Manafort online. No document. And my first thought was not that the Court was waiting for the judge to approve of redactions but that Barr had stepped in.
I hope I’m wrong because if he did that just might not bode well for the premise of your question and just how much obstruction Barr will add to the various cases.
But haven’t we heard this story before? FIrst it was Sessions that would obstruct, then maybe Rosenstein, then McCabe would break (yes, those two less of a worry), the “OMG, the toilet salesman will kill it!”.
Then they are shown some testimony/evidence by Mueller. Then some DoJ ethics lawyers starts explaining `legal liability’. And suddenly they don’t want anything to do with it all, at least anything that can go public (which in the case is everything).
Barr, whatever his political orientation, is an experienced AG. He is almost certainly NOT Trump’s #1 preference. He will probably try to prevent the report from being public (and succeed), and prevent any POTUS indictments. But he’s not going to `kill’ any of the many investigations. For just one thing, Booman’s link leads to an inference of insurance fraud. That’s a state crime in NY. Plus the insurance companies will want their money back.
As far as I can tell, everyone is boxed in. It’s too late. Probably the `deal’ with Barr is just a hope and a semi, unenforceable promise that the report will not be made public. That is probably the best `deal’ Trump could make….it gets him through the nomination.
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He’s also loyal to DOJ. If Trump attempts to interject, it’ll only backfire. He might limit collateral damage to the Republican Party in any reasonable way he thinks he can and Republicans are oft to do, but he will not destroy DOJ at Trump’s behest to do it.
Yep!
There is just a basic rule of life. It’s not a top 3 rule, but it’s pretty high up.
“It’s always worse than what you hear.”
We are `hearing’ about some pretty bad stuff. But in my opinion….it’s way way worse. So bad that when these people are briefed they want out. So bad that if they interfere they would be accomplices.
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Yep, they are in a box and it’s too late to cover or clean every thing up. There is too much evidence of the donald’s dirt/lies/criminal activity for anyone one Atty General to contain.
Barr can’t do anything about the sentencing memo, it’s in the hands of the judge. Mueller undoubtedly proposed some redactions to protect his other investigations, and she’s considering them.
Also should note that as far as the business dealings, there is probably plenty for the New York Attorney General to prosecute, and Barr can’t do anything about that either.
Sentencing guidelines of 17-22 years
Manafort is toast
It struck me this morning over coffee that we really shouldn’t have to be going through all this stuff. We’re depending on conservatives who really have no moral compass to “do the right thing.” And for the most part they simply don’t. Even when the right thing is staring them straight in the face they knowingly do the wrong thing. We’re talking about Republicans, some of whom are career prosecutors, former DAs who’ve run for public office, became State Senators or Governors, and then wormed their way into Congress. The cream of the Ancien Regime. Old money, old values. And they sit there and watch Hannibal at the Gates of Rome and they do. . . .nothing.
The country could simply come together and take care of serious social and economic problems like poverty and global warming – except for one thing. “Angry White Men.”
The evangelicals Trump keeps doing everything for, and nothing for the rest of us. Their love for their Dear Leader prevents the GOP from doing the right thing ever.
But, to keep the beast enraged enough to vote at 80% rates like in 2016 they have to feed the beast a constant stream of hormone activating rage. Through talk radio and Fox News and right wing social media constantly inflating the bubble and filling full of hot air.
And now every Republican politician in America is chained ankle and wrist to the beast. They don’t dare do anything to anger the snarling beast of Angry White Men, they have fueled and built into such a monster it’s literally threatening to devour the entire world and cause a collapse of human civilization. And that is maybe the most frightening thing of all, that that previous sentence isn’t hyperbole; which it very much ought to be. It shouldn’t be true and it is.
Adam Schiff wrote pretty bluntly about this in his recent WaPo op-ed.
`It shouldn’t be true and it is’.
Pretty much the motto of everything that has happened since Nov 7, 2016.
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Well, if the question is Barr’s integrity, I would say that the history of his actions renders an unequivocally negative verdict. On that basis, it seems clear he’ll do whatever it takes 1) to cover his own @$$, then 2) to cover for the Яepugnican Party. He will be constrained in this job chiefly to the extent that circumstances might limit him with regard to (1).
If our system is dependent on the integrity of this one man, we’re screwed. Hopefully our system is more resilient than that. Over time, all the details will come out. I’m sure Barr knows this. Does he really want to sign on with a despotic regime and are these guys willing to go full-Monty autocrat? That’s a big bet.
It was heroic when men signed the Declaration of Independence because they were literally putting their own necks on the line. But they were doing for something one could believe in. Is a shyster going to risk his life for a few extra dollars and an extra modicum of power? If the risk is low, I’m sure he would. But our system has built-in safeguards that, for now, have proved a bulwark. We still have a free press. Reporters don’t fear being sent to the gulag or worse. We have a civil service full of men and willing who will leak truth to power. We also have elections which, while vulnerable to shenanigans around the edges, remain susceptible to groundswells of popular outrage.
From what I heard there is nothing in the Manafort charging document about Trump collusion or Russia. Max from Mueller will be ten years. I don’t know it SDNY can add to that. I was expecting some mention of campaign collusion, but nothing. This would be the place to say so, if they found anything??
Here is the sentencing memo for DC.
Marcy Wheeler reads between the lines.
(Manafort has yet to be sentenced in EDVA.)
No, definitely not, because he hasn’t been charged with any of that. Mueller’s write is investigation, not prosecution. He has charged people only to try to get them to flip. It’s worked with everybody else, not so far with Manafort so he’s squeezing him as hard as he can. But the charges do show that Manafort is an agent of Russia, and he was the Campaign Chair, and all you have to do is add one and one and get two.