Here’s How Everyone Is Reacting To Mueller’s Letter To Barr

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 25: U.S. Attorney General William Barr leaves his home March 25, 2019 in McLean, Virginia. Stopping short of exonerating President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice, Barr released a summa... WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 25: U.S. Attorney General William Barr leaves his home March 25, 2019 in McLean, Virginia. Stopping short of exonerating President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice, Barr released a summary report of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, saying there was no collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russian intelligence. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

On Tuesday night, a letter from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to Attorney General William Barr leaked, in which Mueller expresses his concern that Barr’s March 24 letter to Congress “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions.”

Here’s how the political world is reacting so far:

Top Democrats

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA):

House Intel Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA):

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY):

“The Special Counsel’s concerns reflect our own,” he wrote in a Medium post. “The Attorney General should not have taken it upon himself to describe the Special Counsel’s findings in a light more favorable to the President. It was only a matter of time before the facts caught up to him.”

Ex-Government Officials

Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general:

“I used to walk down the Justice Department on the fifth floor and see all those portraits of legendary attorneys general, Griffin Bell and Robert Jackson and people like that. Bill Barr will not be like that,” he said on MSNBC. “There is no chance anymore. He has fundamentally sullied his reputation and his legacy with the way he’s acted, and, you know, in the history books these folks will go down for what they are.”

Jon Brennan, former CIA director:

“I thought he’d protect the rule of law and institution of the Department of Justice,” Brennan said on MSNBC. “But these reports reinforce the notion that he is acting as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and not as the Attorney General of the United States.”

Trumpworld

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani:

He called Mueller’s letter “very odd” in an interview with NBC, adding that “if he didn’t want confusion, he should have made a decision. He was made special counsel to make decisions, and the fact he didn’t says to me (that Trump) was innocent.”

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. What Giuliani said was totally contrary to Barr’s words. Didn’t they need to at least have some consensus?

  2. Naw. They are fine with just muddying up the waters, then will point to the resulting confusion as evidence of innocence.

  3. You know, there seems to be the problem with lying and covering up important information. It ultimately does not stay covered up, then they keep trying to explain themselves and digging an ever deeper pit.
    I’ll bet Barr will be regretting he ever came to offer his fine services to the POS in the WH.

  4. Avatar for dont dont says:

    Fine services? Barr is the Cover-up General according to William Safire during his last stint as AG. These are the services he is again providing.

  5. Chuck Schumer is Joe Biden 2.0.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

38 more replies

Participants

Avatar for drbb Avatar for UnfadingGreen Avatar for cervantes Avatar for mwb1 Avatar for dont Avatar for drriddle Avatar for go2goal Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for rocklaverve Avatar for edhedh Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for michaelryerson Avatar for coimmigrant Avatar for centralasiaexpat Avatar for erandall1307 Avatar for curtminin Avatar for euglena4056 Avatar for 10c Avatar for loss_mentality Avatar for neinast Avatar for zlj2011 Avatar for zillacop Avatar for rascal_crone

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: