Former Special Counsel Mueller is angry at Attorney Toady General Barr:
New questions hang over the integrity and motives of William Barr after it emerged Tuesday night that Robert Mueller expressed concerns about the attorney general’s initial letter to Congress summarizing his special counsel report.
The bombshell revelations detonated hours before Barr was due to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill, an appearance that was already likely to be a political cauldron with suspicion intense among Democrats over his framing and interpretation of the Mueller investigation.
In a letter to Barr last month, Mueller expressed concerns that the attorney general’s four page letter to Congress summarizing his principal conclusions did not fully capture their context. He believed his report was more nuanced on the issue of whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice and he wanted more of his findings to be released, officials told CNN.
Mueller did not believe the summary was inaccurate but was frustrated with media coverage based on Barr’s letter, officials said. The Washington Post first reported on the letter. [CNN]
And you have to love this:
Phil Mudd, a former FBI agent who once worked with Mueller at the bureau and is now a CNN commentator, said Tuesday on “Cuomo Prime Time” that it was “stunning” that someone as dutiful and restrained as his former boss had written to Barr to question his summary of the special counsel’s principal findings.
“This is a baseball bat wake-up call. … You cannot underestimate what he is saying,” Mudd said.
This has the flavor of an event that’ll pop up in history and political textbooks as an important event on the timeline of the Trump Presidency.
It’ll also be used to illustrate the importance of an Attorney General who is independent of the President, and a President who has at least a clue as to how to run the circus. Indeed, it may provide fodder for debates during the upcoming campaign.
I wonder if there’s ever been a movement to make the Attorney General an elective position.
Watching the Republicans stutter over this should be entertaining.
