Previous post
Next post
Federal Judge Reggie B. Walton has ordered Attorney General William Barr to turn over the entire UNREDACTED Mueller Report to him by March 30. Not only that, he questioned Barr’s credibility.
“”The inconsistencies between Attorney General Barr’s statements, made at a time when the public did not have access to the redacted version of the Mueller Report to assess the veracity of his statements, and portions of the redacted version of the Mueller Report that conflict with those statements cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary,” Walton wrote in his decision.”
Walton also called out Barr’s lack of candor and speed with which he issued his April 18, 2019 letter caused problems for the judge.
““It would be disingenuous for the court to conclude that the redactions of the Mueller Report pursuant to the FOIA are not tainted by Attorney General Barr’s actions and representations,” wrote Judge Walton, a 2001 appointee of President George W. Bush.”
The 23-page ruling can be found here.
Notice who one of the plaintiff’s is? Jason Leopold of Buzzfeed News. If Buzzfeed seems familiar to our readers, try the fact that Jason has been banging the Steele Dossier Russia! conspiracy since 2017.
Secondly, Michael Cohen.
“BuzzFeed’s story on Thursday, written by Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier, was of a different nature and magnitude: It reported that prosecutors had detailed evidence that Trump had directed Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump’s proposed office tower project in Moscow in 2016 — a direct accusation of presidential criminality. Democrats argued that would be an impeachable offense, if proved.”
But guess what? That story landed with a big fat THUD when Robert Mueller himself said NOPE! Fake News!
Needless to say, some folks are quite gleeful at the prospect that with Barr submitting a report with zero redactions to the judge, then ALL of it will get leaked to the public.
This is remarkable. A federal judge (appointed by GW Bush) says it flat-out: "AG Barr's lack of candor specifically call[s] into question Barr's credibility."
Every prosecutor is taught early and often: Without your credibility, you've got nothing.
Barr is unfit to serve. https://t.co/bG2Wnqbi6g
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) March 5, 2020
Nop, no bias at all from a CNN legal analyst. None. The rest of the liberal media is equally gleeful at the prospect of Barr being called on the carpet, and they have NO problem with a judge calling Barr’s credibility into question. Why? Because Mueller and Trump Orange Man Bad!
Keep in mind, the Mueller Report was supposed to determine that Trump did collude with Russia and bought himself a Presidency. When the report was released, nothing of the sort happened. As Marta pointed out here, the report showed no collusion and did cover Russia’s active attempts to sway the election. The election that folks like Jason still insist was bought by Trump with the help of their favorite tome – the Steele Dossier. The problem is, Russia only dropped around $200,00o or so into trying to influence the election. Bloomberg just dropped about $700 million and still couldn’t get on the board.
Yet here is good ole Buzzfeed Jason, pounding the Trump!Russia!Collusion! drum with all his night. People who worked with and for President Trump are in jail or are going to jail because Steele Dossier was right!
Except it wasn’t. Manafort is in jail because of bank and tax fraud. NOT Russia Collusion.
Michael Cohen was convicted of lying to Congress. HOWEVER, the assertion peddled by many that he went to Prague? Never happened.
Roger Stone? I think his sentence was too harsh and there are problems with the jury. But collusion and Russia? Not the case here.
Carter Page. FISA abuse NOT Trump Russia is what he’s been dealing with for years now.
Just two weeks ago Democrats were calling for Barr’s resignation…again because he dared to order a review into the Michael Flynn case.
Now that an activist judge has decided that Barr’s credibility is in question, you can bet the Democrats will ramp up their calls for his resignation to one thousand degrees.
Shouldn't Judge Walton wait at least until he's seen the unredacted Mueller report before saying Barr has been "misleading"?
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) March 6, 2020
That’s a fair question. Here’s another question. The judge wants the entire report, zero redactions. What steps will Judge Walton take to ensure that NONE of it is leaked from his office?
This ruling from Judge Walton is about politics, not law.
Feature Photo Credit: Office of Public Affairs Candelight Vigil May 2019, cropped and modified
Skillyboo says: I, for one, have grown weary of all this. Now a Bush appointed judge is claiming that AG Barr may have been biased and the media makes the grand leap that this judge is right. They, the media, always believe anyone who gives even a whiff of appearing to be anti Trump is right and the man should be run out of office in the wee hours of the morning with CNN cameras rolling. Next week we’ll read that US attorney Durham will be concluding his investigation soon and it will be damaging, just like the Horowitz report was supposed to be. We’ll be waiting for US marshals to make arrests in the wee hours of the morning with FoxNews cameras rolling.
Unless actual indictments are eventually handed out the breadth and width of the stench, by those seemingly protecting their God given right (sarcasm) to lord over us, will prove that there are those in government who truly believe they are above the law.
Tony says: Jason “24 Business Hours” Leopold? His word is gospel.
Formerly known as Skeptic says: Obvious question, but does this judge have the necessary clearances to be able to view the full unredacted report? Just because a member of the Judicial Branch wants it doesn’t mean he gets it, the Executive is still a co-equal Branch and National Security is smack-dab in the Executive sphere. The FISA court exists specifically to bridge this issue with judges who DO have the required clearances.
Nina Bookout says: Excellent question! And if Barr/DOJ bring that up in their response, you can bet the plaintiffs – especially Buzzfeed will respond with the equivalent of ‘that’s different because!’
Johnny says: What this judge, and apparently most everyone else, forgets is that Mueller was an appointed Special Council for the Department of Justice by the then-acting Attorney General.
He was tasked with investigating, and his report was to be to the DOJ, specifically to the boss who appointed him, the Attorney General.
Barr didn’t (and doesn’t) have to share a single word from the report.
Enough already.
GWB says: The inconsistencies between…
OK, this judge could seriously use a subscription to grammerly.
It would be disingenuous…
*insert standard Inigo quote here*
Barr is unfit to serve.
Because of an assertion?!?
Russia only dropped around $200,00o or so into trying to influence the election
All that media coverage of Trump, though? Priceless. It is they who turned him into the Golden Scalpweasel.
Shouldn’t Judge Walton wait at least until he’s seen the unredacted Mueller report before saying Barr has been “misleading”?
What?!? You mean he’s not supposed to just judge based on his feelings or the phase of the moon or whether the scalpweasel saw his shadow? How so very unprogressive of you!
ensure that NONE of it is leaked from his office
Barr should give him a copy with one or two inserted bogus but juicy bits. Then when that leaks to the NYT, he can ask the judge to be impeached for judicial ethics. Mmmmmm, honey……
If there’s one thing the anti-Trump freakout has accomplished the last 3 years, is the near-tefloning of Trump. NO ONE believes these folks anymore. He’s the wolf among the sheep, now, as the media “shepherd” sits wailing in the street, “Why doesn’t anyone believe me?!”
6 Comments