The Catastrophic Performance of Bill Barr
The attorney general misled the public in seven key ways.
Article by Benjamin Wittes
Editor in chief of Lawfare and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ic/588574/
Details exactly how Barr is misrepresenting the Mueller report - convincingly. (both he is doing a convincingly good job for some of the populace, and that Wittes is convincing about the misrepresentations.
1. Not finding enough evidence (but definitely finding some) to prosecute for conspiracy gets conflated to Mueller did not find anything.
2. Absence of conspiracy charge becomes no collusion.
Together these two lead to picture of Trump is just an innocent man falsely accused.
3. "Spying" narrative transformation of "FBI's scrutiny of campaign figures who had bizarre contacts with Russian-government officials or intermediaries."
4. President fully cooperated with the investigation (ignoring the obstruction attempts, the refusal to answer some questions, the refusal for an interview, etc.)
5. Pushing the idea that since the President was an innocent man falsely accused and spied upon you can understand his "anger" at the investigation - so therefore there can be no obstruction of justice motive.
6. Unlike Mueller who actually viewed the 10 potential acts of obstruction listed in the whole, Barr looks at each in isolation rather than as a whole and is able to diminish each one...
Look at any one in isolation, and—particularly if you have Barr’s hard-line views of presidential power—you might see a facially legitimate exercise of that power for which there is a plausible noncorrupt motive to which Mueller has indeed scrupulously nodded. If you miss the forest for the trees, you will miss the deforestation as well.
7. Mueller decides he does not have "jurisdiction" to charge the President with obstruction - so won't - not because there is no evidence (which Mueller does list) but cannot due to the jurisdiction issue (lacks the authority to charge). Barr says that since I (Barr) think the President is innocent and wrongly charged, Mueller must think like me, and therefore the lack of finding means the President is in the clear.
Really good article - if you think Barr is not wildly spinning the Mueller report, you really need to read this.