Tag: Muller report

What Mueller Told The Country About Trump

Behind the straight shooting, ramrod demeanor always mentioned by his friends, Robert Mueller possesses a shrewd intelligence. He demonstrated that strategic acuity on Wednesday morning when, with a few carefully selected sentences, he wielded his own reticence to deliver a crushing blow to Donald Trump (and a hard shot to Attorney General William Barr, the White House henchman).

The more diffidence Mueller displayed in speaking publicly — after two years of principled silence as special counsel — the more powerful were the words he chose to utter. Standing before the seal of the Justice Department, he told us it is important that his 448-page report “speak for itself.” Yet with the nation listening, he briskly underlined the most salient aspects of the report, which the great majority of his fellow Americans will never read.

Mueller wants us to understand — contrary to whatever Trump, Jared Kushner, or assorted Republican patsies might claim — that the Russian plot to sway the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton was a historic assault on our democracy. This act by a hostile foreign power was a matter “of paramount importance” that “deserves the attention of every American.

View the complete May 29 article by Joe Conason on the National Memo website here.

What Mueller Really Knows About Trump (And Russia)

Robert S. Mueller knows a great deal more than he put in his richly detailed 448-page report.

He says so again and again right in the report.

Two crucial words he put into the report at least eight times are messages to our Congress and the rest of us about how his investigation was hamstrung by rules from telling all that he and his team learned.

View the complete April 24 article by David Cay Johnston of the DC Report website  on the National Memo website here.

The normal person’s guide to the Mueller report

Attorney General William P. Barr has submitted his summary of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report to Congress. Here’s what to expect next. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

On Thursday, the Justice Department is expected to release a redacted version of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s summary of his team’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible coordination with President Trump’s campaign.

That’s a version of a sentence that I’ve written probably 200 times in the past two years but which many Americans have likely come across far less frequently. The Mueller investigation, as it’s known in shorthand, has been the center of the political universe for months, but, because most Americans are wise enough to only visit that universe as tourists, the extent of its overlap with broader culture is certainly more limited.

With that in mind, we decided to step back and offer an overview of Thursday’s release, that covers the basic whos, whats, whens and whys. What follows is not “The Mueller Report for Idiots.” It is, instead, a framework for understanding a complex document and a complicated situation.

View the complete April 17 article by Philip Bump on The Washington Post website here.

House votes for Mueller report to be made public

The House passed a resolution Thursday calling on Justice Department (DOJ) officials to release special counsel Robert Mueller’s highly anticipated report about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Lawmakers unanimously passed the nonbinding resolution in a 420-0 vote.

Four Republicans — Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), and Justin Amash (Mich.) — voted present.

View the complete March 14 article by Juliegrace Brufke and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.