There are few people I know who have written more about the Mueller investigation than I have, and in all that time, I don’t think I’ve talked much about who might be indicted other than the people who actually were indicted or decided to cooperate to avoid being indicted. Late in the game, Jerome Corsi popped up on the radar, but that was a surprise to me. I suspected that Erik Prince and Steve Bannon were being very cooperative in a quiet kind of way. Really, the only person who I thought might get indicted but who didn’t is Donald Trump Jr., and that was mainly for lying to Congress.
I’ve been trying to impress on people that this has been a counterintelligence investigation aimed first at preventing future interference in our elections and only second on punishing Americans who may have played an active role in assisting foreign powers who messed with our 2016 election. Since the prime directive is to get the information on what happened, it was better to get people to talk than to try to throw them in jail. Only a handful of morons decided it was better to lie, and even most of them got a second chance.
What we want to know is what happened, how to stop it in the future, and whether the president or any key advisers are hopelessly compromised. Anyone who thought they could keep score on that by counting indictments did not understand this investigation.
So, we want to see the full counterintelligence report, not just some list of people who were indicted or not indicted. The report is “comprehensive,” as you might expect. It takes a long time to read. We might get to learn the key conclusions as soon as today.
Attorney General William P. Barr is expected to make public as early as today the principal conclusions of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election, giving the public its first glimpse into the findings of the 22-month probe.
Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein were at the Justice Department Saturday morning, where they were reviewing Mueller’s report and working on a summary of conclusions to provide to lawmakers.
Barr announced Friday that Mueller’s work had come to an end and spent the afternoon and early evening in his fifth-floor office reading the special counsel’s final report — which one Justice Department official described as a “comprehensive” document.
Barr told lawmakers in a letter that he “may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsel’s principal conclusions” as early as this weekend. A Justice Department spokeswoman said those conclusions would be made public, and officials said it was possible — though not certain — they would be revealed on Saturday. The spokeswoman declined to otherwise describe what was in the report.
Anyone who is crowing or despairing about the lack of indictments is reacting without enough information. Be patient. You’ll know soon whether or not this investigation will deliver the goods.
.
Martin,
You said you were coming down with a cold. Stay in bed if that is at all possible. One morning I awoke with a sore throat, shrugged it off, departed for the gym for my usual workout, worked all day, and followed the same routine the next day. The cold became severe. Eventually, I had a cough that lasted NINE months. Each time I coughed it lasted more than a minute that left me gasping for breath.
Whoopi Goldberg is just now recovering from hospitalization that started with a “minor” cold/cough.
There is no such thing as a minor cold! Take care of yourself. Ask your significant others to baby you and you’ll do the same when next they have a cold. By the way, it is easy to give everyone else the same cold. Wash your hands often. Use a tissue, avoid others.
All of the above is probably known to you. I offer it as encouragement, not news. I don’t want to lose you.
Now that I’m done preaching about colds. . . .
It does not exactly inspire confidence to remember that the Attorney General who now holds the Mueller report was instrumental in obtaining pardons for Iran-Contra criminals.
Hearing between 3 and 5 pm for some news on the content of the report.
Alternatively, not today.
Trump, and his cohort, have already seen the report, and had a verbal summary.
If it cleared him he would have a press conference and crow about it on Twitter. I read that last night at his Mar Lago grift festival he only spoke for 3 minutes, with not one word about Mueller or the report.
I think it’s bad.
.
I want to meet your seer. I sure hope you are right. Helsinki was all I could bear from this guy. But I sure would have liked the three jewels to sit in jail for awhile, no such luck.
It’s not over until it’s over. Hoping some NY jurisdiction or 2 or 3 will hold them to account.
I found this report helpful on what is likely to happen next.
“It’s possible, for example, that Mueller is not proceeding against certain defendants other than the president because he has referred them to other prosecutorial offices; some of these referrals are already public, and it’s reasonable to expect there may be other referrals too. In this iteration, what is ending here is not the investigation, merely the portion of the investigation Mueller chose to retain for himself. It’s possible also that Mueller is finished because he has determined that while the evidence would support a prosecution of the president, he is bound by the Justice Department’s long-standing position that the president is not amenable to criminal process.”
This from an informative Lawfare analysis cited by Don Durito in the previous thread.
I’m remembering the comments before sentencing of Paul Manafort; that the New York AG was holding off on charging Manafort until after sentencing because his office didn’t want to get in the way of Mueller’s investigation.
And then Manafort was sentenced and hours/minutes later came the NY charges.
So while I still don’t know what I don’t now yet, I won’t be surprised if the coming weeks see prosecutors from other districts rain down indictments, charges and even new investigations on all things Trump.
Speaker Nancy has stated she will not accept a classified briefing from the DOJ as that is a way to hid the results of the investigation.
“What we want to know is what happened, how to stop it in the future, and whether the president or any key advisers are hopelessly compromised. Anyone who thought they could keep score on that by counting indictments did not understand this investigation.”
I agree, and I think the best way to stop it in the future is to put these people liable for their actions. The case for impeachment grows stronger (IMO) every day. The number of loyal goons who freely get a free parketing (TM monopoly) ticket for this encourages more ratfucking.
We went through this circus in 2008/9 with Bush and Cheney. IMO we are here now because we did not press charges then.
Yes Ian Fromme!!!
Precisely.
The Booman Trib logo?
That trussed up little frog?
I always though/hoped/supposed that it was supposed to be KarlRove, with more Rats to follow..
Now?
A different tune.
The Dems haven’t fought as if their backs are against the wall for as long as I have been watching U.S. politics…50+ years.
Time to go whole hog plus postage.
But…the old Dems are in bed with the establishment. Fat and happy, they sit in their congressional offices and play careful little games.
Meanwhile, back at the RatPub Ranch?
They are going for the jugular!!!
Maybe the New Dems will be different…if of course they survive the adept machinations of the Old Dems/DNC.
However…I am not at all sure that we can afford the time to waste waiting for them.
So it goes.
Later…
AG
Interesting point about 11-12 years ago and feelings of déjà vu. And of course what was happening back then was much worse. In day-to-day terms, so far, with Trump, we’re doing about as well as we did under Obama: not getting much worse, but not much better either. The damage Bush/Cheney did will never be undone.
It’s kind of unbelievable to look at the terrific corruption and intense immorality of the Trump Administration and the last Congress and label it comparable to the Obama Administration in any way, or label it highly preferable to the Bush Administration. Both Trump and Bush and their Administrations are horrible in precedent-setting ways.
For many, many people in the United States, the Trump Administration is much worse than the Bush Administration, and the current President makes a point of attacking people whose needs got attended to during Obama’s Presidency.
…but you know I’m right. Bush II started basically with 911, peaked briefly thereafter in a period of national dysphoria and hysteria, went downhill, hard, from there. So hard, that many of us will never recover. Almost all of us. The past two+ years of Trump have been awful, in so many ways that it’s hard to count them. But he’s no worse than Bush II. Quantitatively, he’s better. If I weren’t a white guy, I’d be terrified, I suppose, but still, we’ve all got jobs now at least. That was utterly not true during Obama, and of course Bush II is the reason why. It’s arguable like you say, but I think Bush II is provably worse. (Please don’t dare me; I’ve got other things to do.)
If it’s not about indictments…and as Nancy Pelosi has so interestingly posited, also not about wasting time and energy trying to indict Trump…then what the fuck is it about?
Here we have a sitting president who…and forget about “Russian” interferences and influences, they are just one of many…has been allied with RICO-level criminal organizations since he first hit the streets of NYC as a…”developer.” So was his father, I am sure. I grew up here, Booman. Everybody and his brother was aware that at the street level, gangsters controlled the big-time building action post-WWII.
Why waste time “indicting” Russian plutocrats who are totally out of our reach? Accusing Putin of trying to influence U.S, politics? You’ve written exhaustively about Trump’s criminal connections. You know exactly what I’m talking about.
So? Where’s the beef?
He’s a lifelong felon. So far unconvicted, but what the fuck? You mean to say that an investigation of the breadth and depth of Mueller’s thing didn’t uncover the goods on him? Please!!!
So why don’t they just put the facts out there…loud and clear…and wait for the U.S. citizenry to blow a gasket at the depth of his criminality.
But NOOOOoooo…
Pitty pat, pitty pat, when all that’s needed is a good left cross!!!
Sigh…
AG
P.S. Yes.
I know.
“It’s complicated!!!”
Is it?
Really?
Or is it simple, especially if you ignore the so-called “complexities?”
Paint him guilty…effectively paint him a Roy Cohn acolyte…and let the disgust flow.
The media’s Mighty Wurlitzer successfully could do that inside of a month.
The real question is:
Why has it not done so?
Also known as:
A question for the ages.
Fiest sentence above:
…as Nancy Pelosi has so interestingly posited, also not about wasting time and energy trying to impeach Trump.