Mueller time came with a whimper for many and devastation for others.
If you have read the Mueller Report or at least paid attention to legitimate news sources over the past few months, then Mueller’s testimony before the Congressional Judiciary Committee wasn’t revealing and didn’t present any new grounds to impeach Trump. You already knew this stuff.
However, if you’re a Trump cultist and everything you know about the Mueller Report came from Fox News or even worse, Breitbart, or even worse worse, 4Chan, InfoWars, and Facebook memes, then it was mind-blowing.
First off, the investigation wasn’t a witch hunt and Russia’s meddling into the 2016 presidential election, you’re going to want to sit down for this and hold onto something tight, is NOT a hoax. Devin Nunes, former chairman of the committee, still called it a hoax and a conspiracy theory despite being the one who ran the investigation during Trump’s first two years in the Oval Office. Nunes, is auditioning for the job of Director of National Intelligence while ignoring national intelligence.
In addition to Russia’s meddling not being a hoax, Donald Trump welcomed their meddling. Mueller confirmed that Russia meddled with the intention of helping Trump and hurting the Clinton campaign and Trump was thrilled about it. He also confirmed that Trump was involved in business dealings with Moscow, which Trump has lied about.
When asked about Trump’s tweets and statements praising WikiLeaks for releasing emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, Mueller said, “Problematic is an understatement, in terms of what it displays, in terms of giving some hope or some boost to what is and should be illegal activity.” Just recently, Trump sent more signals that he’d welcome Russian interference.
Here’s another shocker for you. The report did NOT exonerate Donald Trump. Trump has spent the entire time since the release of the report claiming it exonerated him. During the hearing, Republicans argued that it wasn’t Mueller’s job to convict or exonerate Trump which he later echoed, ignoring his previous lies.
Here’s another new one for you. Hillary Clinton and the Steele Dossier didn’t have anything to do with the Mueller Report. Funny enough, Mueller didn’t investigate someone for not breaking the law. Hiring an American firm to conduct opposition research on your opponent is not illegal, even if that firm hires a Brit to do the investigating. Who knew? Everybody. He also didn’t investigate the FISA warrant conspiracy because, again, nothing illegal happened there either. In fact, Devin Nunes’ committee issued a memo on the conspiracy and even wrote that no laws were broken. Despite knowing this, Republicans hammered Mueller on it yesterday hoping he’d help them with their agenda of deflection and whataboutism. Currently, the Justice Department is investigating the FISA warrant and Steele Dossier conspiracy theories because the department, being led by William Barr, is now a branch of the Trump legal defense team.
Mueller informed the committee that he couldn’t determine if Trump had committed a crime which is also an inability to determine if he did not. While Republicans accused Mueller of conducting a witch hunt, he decided against pursuing a sit-down interview with Trump. If Mueller had wanted to find something to nail Trump on, he would have fought for that interview. Mueller did confirm that Trump was less than truthful in his written answers, which for some reason he’s not being charged with perjury over.
By the way, can you imagine how Republicans would lose their shit if the FBI conducted an investigation into Hillary Clinton without interviewing her? In case you forgot, they did investigate her and did interview her without any of that written answers shit.
Ever since Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel, Trump had argued there was a conflict because Mueller had interviewed for the job of FBI director. It took two years, but we finally found out, surprise, that was another Trump lie. Republican Louis Gohmert was trying to nail Muller for conflict by bringing up the Trump lie, which Mueller contradicted. He said he met with Trump to advise him on the FBI job, not as a candidate. Mueller was under oath when he contradicted Trump. Thanks to Gohmert, it’s now on the Congressional record that Trump lied. It’s also on the Congressional record that Gohmert, Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, and Matt Gaetz are all complicit treasonists who put their cult leader before their country.
Over the past two years, Trump and Republicans have been fixated on members of Mueller’s team who had contributed to Democratic Party candidates in the past. When Republicans hit Mueller on this, he came to life defending his team. Mueller said that at no time in his 25 years of doing just this sort of thing had he “had occasion once to ask somebody about their political affiliation. It is not done.” The thing is, it’s against Justice Department policy to ask about political affiliations. A person can have a political affiliation and preferences and still be ethical and counted on to do his or her job. The fact Republicans keep questioning this, as if it’s impossible, just proves it’s impossible for them to do their job without being partisan and unethical. By the way, Mueller is a Republican.
The report gave the impression that Trump obstructed justice on many occasions and that Mueller wanted to leave that determination to others. Mueller stated in the hearing that Trump can be indicted once he leaves office. That answer, stupidly enough, was set up by a Republican. Once Donald Trump leaves the White House, he will be charged with a crime, and then another crime, and then another crime. Nobody knows the ultimate number he’ll be charged with. This is where Democrats should get a highlighter.
The argument needs to be made from now until election day, that the only reason a president isn’t being charged with a crime or in prison is because he’s president, shouldn’t be president.
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