2079 The Mueller Report

With apologies to James Joyce, stately plump Bill Barr -- he’s the short one in the center -- strode to the microphone to make his first speech as Press Secretary. He was surrounded by body doubles for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (r.) and Principal Associate Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan in case anyone carrying full gasoline cans and butane lighters entered the room. None did.

So stand-in O’Callaghan fidgeted and tried not to fiddle with his beard and stand-in Rosenstein allowed himself to stare unblinkingly at a peculiar circular drawing on the back wall until he was hypnotized.

If this were a legal case, the defense would have had the first opening and the prosecutors would have been in the basement cafeteria having an early lunch.

If you gave him a polygraph, Barr would have failed in denying that executive privilege came up in so many words. When the Peoples’ Lawyer is really the President’s Press Secretary privilege is understood.

The part the defense left out: The report doesn’t clear trump, it’s just that because of that sticky and outdated policy discourages prosecution of a sitting president, even if he’s sitting in a golf cart fudging numbers on his scorecard.

Wait, wait! Do you mean to say our president fakes numbers?  You’ll have to ask Sarah Huckabee or Sean Spicer about that.  But both are MIA at the moment. Leave a message after the tone.

Also mentioned:

--All the redactions were made to protect ongoing investigations, grand jury testimony, national security or mudding up the reputations of “peripheral players.”  No word on who those minor characters might be.

--All the redactions were perfectly innocent, perfectly legal and none were requested by anyone in the White House.  Yeah, right.

Also not mentioned:

--Top presidential aides were found to be trying to end or at least hobble the Special Counsel’s investigation.

--Whether the report would have recommended obstruction of justice charges had the perp been an ordinary citizen, not the president.

Aftermaths:

--MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace called Barr “trump’s human shield.”

--Fox News is talking more about Hillary Clinton’s emails than about the Mueller report.

--Fourteen subsidiary investigations continue, most of them by prosecutors in New York.

A key quote from the report according to Reuters:

“When (former Attorney General Jeff) Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.’”

Possible instances of possible obstruction according to the Associated Press:

--Pressures on Comey and his firing.

--Directions to Sessions to not recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

--Efforts to suppress publication of evidence.

And six other actions or failures to act.

While much in the report was well known by anyone interested enough to read about it in real time, the impact of putting it all in time-release time bomb makes its impact(s) all the more important.

The only conclusion we can reach is where there’s smoke, there’s fire.  So fire the guy already.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Comments?  Send them to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2019