Attorney General Bill Barr said Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller laid out 10 instances where he used “legal theories” to examine if President Donald Trump’s actions met the threshold of an obstruction of justice offense.
As revealed in Barr’s summary, Mueller concluded that he did not have enough to charge Trump with obstruction, though he by no means exonerated him.
Barr said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein disagreed with Mueller’s legal theorizing and have concluded that Trump did not obstruct justice.
Barr says Mueller examined 10 situations to see if Trump committed obstruction of justice pic.twitter.com/xHPqvDGKob
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 18, 2019
A redacted public version of Mueller’s report is expected to be released publicly around 12 p.m. ET, when it may become clearer what held Mueller back from coming to a conclusion on the obstruction question. The Washington Post is reporting that his waffling is due to the ambiguity of Trump’s actions and motivations.
Words fail. Mueller must be the most forgiving grandmother ever.
If only there was some way he could of asked him what his actions and motivations were.
Well, that WaPo article was based on leaks from Poo-Barr’s team. I think they are a “lightly redacted” version of what Mueller thought.
I guess Rod Rosenstein was afraid that he would be the only Trump official to leave the administration with his reputation intact. I don’t think he needs to worry about that any more.
Barr’s statement seems to be saying Mueller was pointing to instances of obstruction, but Barr (as we know from his audition memo) basically doesn’t think a president can obstruct. So Mueller failed by leaving wiggle room for Barr, and Barr failed by being the personification of fail.