Mueller reveals Barr lied about why Trump wasn't charged
Mueller once again exposed Barr’s lies, this time about why Trump wasn’t charged with a crime.
Attorney General William Barr lied to Congress when testifying about Trump’s obstructing justice and why Trump hasn’t been charged with a crime. Barr’s lie was exposed in the public statement offered by special counsel Robert Mueller in a briefing on Wednesday.
“Charging the president with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider,” Mueller explained. Mueller cited “longstanding” policy within the Department of Justice that “a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office.”
In his May 1 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barr claimed that if Mueller had a charge-worthy case of obstruction that it would be detailed in his report.
“If the special counsel found facts sufficient to constitute obstruction of justice, would he have stated that finding?” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked.
“If he had found that, then I think he would state it, yes,” Barr replied.
During his testimony, Barr also claimed that in private conversations Mueller told him that, even without the department policy against charging a president, he still would not have chosen to charge Trump with a crime.
But Mueller’s statement makes it clear that he never considered whether to charge Trump or not. He did not view making that determination as part of his duties as special counsel.
Mueller’s investigation looked into and found evidence of obstruction, which was included in its final report. Saying that Trump’s crimes were worthy of a criminal charge was never an option, so it cannot be cited credibly as a defense of Trump as it has been by Barr and others.
Barr has repeatedly been caught lying and mischaracterizing his interactions with Mueller and the content of the report.
Barr claimed before the report was released that there was insufficient evidence of obstruction, a falsehood quickly obliterated by the report itself.
Mueller also had to call Barr out in a letter for releasing his summary that helped to create “public confusion about critical aspects of the results.” The faulty summary “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the investigation.
The lies in Barr’s summary were circulated for three weeks while his office refused to release the redacted report.
Barr lies in service of Trump and Mueller continues to call him on it through numerous public statements and the report itself.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
Recommended
Rosenblum, other Democratic AGs ask SCOTUS to block red state bans on emergency abortions
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and nearly two dozen other Democratic-led states urged the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve the ability of emergency room doctors to provide abortions, arguing that failing to do so would have devastating effects for their health care systems and women across the country.
By Gloria Rebecca Gomez, Arizona Mirror - April 01, 2024Ken Paxton paid $2.3 million to defense lawyers for impeachment trial
The lawyers were paid from his campaign, according to a report filed this week.
By Patrick Svitek, The Texas Tribune - January 18, 2024Texas governor and attorney general do little to curb state’s chemical plant crisis
Republicans Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton have taken thousands of dollars in donations from chemical companies and their affiliated PACs.
By Jesse Valentine - December 08, 2023