Mueller: the breakdown and (hopefully) the payback

I'm sick of hearing about the Mueller report and its (non) findings.  The whole affair was a nothingburger from start to finish, as many commentators have pointed out ad nauseam since this imbroglio kicked off three years ago.  I daresay the President is getting no small satisfaction out of the discomfiture of his enemies in the mainstream media.  For example, if I were in his shoes, I'd be laughing my ass off over this video collage:

The report's findings of no collusion proved the mainstream media wrong.  Its (carefully weaselly-worded) implication that it couldn't say whether or not the President had obstructed justice was an obvious attempt to find at least something to justify the enormous cost of the investigation - not just in money, but in damage done to our political system.

Alan M. Dershowitz, the attorney and Harvard Law professor emeritus, slammed Robert Mueller on Sunday, saying the special counsel engaged in a “cop out” by stating that his report neither exonerated President Trump nor concluded he'd committed a crime related to obstruction of justice.

Dershowitz said Mueller seemed to try having it both ways. “It sounds like a law-school exam,” he said, adding that the report sounded wishy-washy. “Shame on Mueller.”

. . .

Dershowitz said the job of the prosecutor is to make a binary decision, yes or no: yes means indictment and no means “shut up.”

He also said Mueller failed to have the "guts" to say yes or no, despite all the time and money spent on the probe.

There's more at the link.  I think Prof. Dershowitz has stated the reality of the matter very succinctly.

The Last Refuge (a.k.a. the Conservative Treehouse) has for several years done an outstanding job of investigating the behind-the-scenes reality of the Mueller investigation.  I found its conclusions yesterday to be very apposite.

The same career staff unit that originated the unlawful activity to weaponize the DOJ and FBI is the same team that transferred into the Mueller probe ... Yes, new additional lawyers were added, but the investigators who conducted the Mueller probe were the same investigators who were carrying out the 2016 unlawful and illegal surveillance activity.

. . .

The Russian Interference narrative was constructed ex post-facto to cover for a political surveillance operation that was targeting candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election ... The investigation into something that didn’t exist was predicated as a cover for something the DOJ and FBI were trying to hide.

. . .

After we accept the Russian narrative was entirely false, when we move to the Obstruction narrative we find out why they spent so much time on it.  Without any actual Russian interference to collude or conspire with, the possible obstruction case was the only case that could have ever existed.

And it is within the obstruction nonsense where anger over this fiasco really starts to settle in and there’s absolutely NO ROOM to consider Robert Mueller and/or Rod Rosenstein anything except complicit with the sedition team.

. . .

Team Mueller intentionally tells AG Barr they cannot make a determination of obstruction, and thereby force Barr to make the decision; and make it look political.

The obstruction angle was always what Team Mueller were working to deliver, in collaboration with their democrat political allies.

In my opinion it’s almost certain AG Barr saw this coming, which is why he forced DAG Rod Weaselstein to stick around, share in the decision and deflect the politics.

In summary it is almost certain that Team Mueller knew from the outset there was no Russian collusion/conspiracy because: 1) it’s the same team from 2016 through 2019; and 2) they knew from the outset there was no “there” there.

So, a reasonable question would be: How long did Mueller investigate conspiracy with Russia before jumping to Obstruction of Justice?

Again, more at the link.  I agree:  it's long gone time for the FBI's internal coverup of illegal and unethical activities by its own personnel to be investigated, and for the guilty parties to be punished.  Only a few heads have rolled so far.  There need to be many more.

Judicial Watch calls it:

Let’s be clear, neither Mueller, the Obama FBI, DOJ, CIA, State Department, nor the Deep State ever had a good-faith basis to pursue President Trump on Russia collusion. Russia collusion wasn’t just a hoax, it is a criminal abuse, which is why Judicial Watch has fought and will continue to fight for Russiagate documents in federal court.

The targeting of President Trump served to protect Hillary Clinton and her enablers/co-conspirators in Obama administration from prosecution. Attorney General Barr can begin restoring the credibility of the Justice Department by finally initiating a thorough investigation of the Clinton emails and related pay-to-play scandals and the abuses behind the targeting of President Trump.

More at the link.  We owe Judicial Watch a debt of gratitude for refusing to accept the blanket of "official" silence over what was going on, and for taking the matter to court again and again to force the release of important documents and other evidence.  Without their dogged persistence, we would not know as much today about the machinations in the background of the Mueller investigation as we do now.

I don't always agree with President Trump, but I think his response yesterday was entirely appropriate.

Trump himself slammed the probe as an “illegal takedown,” as he called Mueller’s report a “complete exoneration” and said it was a “shame” his presidency had to deal with the investigation for two years.

“Hopefully somebody is going to look at the other side,” Trump said. “This was an illegal takedown that failed and hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side.”

In case it wasn't clear what he meant, Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told Fox News an investigation should be launched into how the investigation began.

“He was being investigated for a crime that never happened,” Giuliani said. “There was never any collusion.”

Giuliani added: "There has to be a full and complete investigation, with at least as much enthusiasm as this one, to figure out where did this charge emanate, who started it, who paid for it.”

More at the link.

Given that the Steele dossier began as opposition research prior to the 2016 election, bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign, that investigation should certainly include that candidate, the Clinton Foundation, and anything and everything concerning its involvement in the operations of the US government, including the Uranium One scandal, pay-to-play at the State Department, and other machinations.  It's long overdue . . . as are jail sentences for all involved.

Peter