The Mueller letter
by digby
House Judiciary has just received a copy of the letter Special Counsel Mueller sent to AG Barr pic.twitter.com/VTeSmiHOuL— Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) May 1, 2019
As Josh Marshall says, it’s worse than we thought. Here’s his breakdown of the timeline:
Mueller lays out a timeline of contacts between his office and Barr around March 24, when the attorney general wrote a letter to Congress that purported to outline top-line conclusions about the special counsel’s report.
The contacts show that the special counsel was in close contact with Barr as he released the letter and in the days after.
Below is a timeline of the contacts revealed in Mueller’s letter:
March 5: The Special Counsel meets with Barr and informs him that “the introductions and executive summaries of our two-volume report accurately summarize this Office’s work and conclusions.”
March 24, early afternoon: The Special Counsel reiterates the purpose of the Mueller report’s executive summaries and introductions.
March 24, late afternoon: Barr sends his now-notorious letter to Congress, which was made public immediately, purporting to outline the Mueller report’s top-line conclusions.
March 25, morning: The Special Counsel’s office informs the Justice Department that his letter to Congress “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions.” It’s not clear who communicated with whom in this instance, or in what form.
March 27: Mueller sends a letter to Barr complaining about the March 24 letter and urging him to release the executive summaries.
Mueller was pretty frantic about the PR spin Barr was offering up. He understood that his findings were being mischaracterized and that this could end up shackling congressional efforts to hold Trump accountable. He may also have been a little frantic about the fact that the spin was likely making the nation more vulnerable to further election sabotage. Indeed, he may have seen the specter of the DOJ shackling the ongoing counter-intelligence investigation in order to prop up Trump.
Barr said this morning that he had no problem with Mueller testifying. But Democrats say the DOJ has not responded to their request to set up a date.
Barr is a piece of work. He is arrogant and blatant in his defiant defense of the president’s unethical behavior. And he seems to be going out of his way to throw his weight around, coming close to saying Mueller is his underling who didn’t do his job and so the boss had to step in and do it for him.
He is operating as the president’s lawyer. Openly using the word “we” in defending him:
Barr says, while speaking about McGahn's possible testimony: "We haven't waived executive privilege" pic.twitter.com/8Fx0az0kx0— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 1, 2019
The Democrats are going to have to step up their game and do it quickly.
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