FRIDAY DUMP... Mueller Report Released

[SHOOTER13]

Mueller sends report on Trump investigation to AG Barr...
MSNBC 32 minutes ago

{ I'll betcha the Dems got a copy too... }



Special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday wrapped up his nearly two-year investigation into Donald Trump and Russia and sent his report to Attorney General William Barr.


No details of Mueller's findings have been released, but Barr said he may be able to brief congressional leaders on the report as soon as this weekend.

"I am reviewing this report and anticipate that I may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsel's principal conclusions as soon as this weekend," Barr wrote in a letter on Friday to a group of lawmakers on the House and Senate judiciary committees.

Barr also concluded in his letter that Mueller's investigation — relentlessly attacked as improper and a "witch hunt" by Trump — was conducted properly. Barr noted that he was required to inform congressional leader if Mueller had done anything "inappropriate or unwarranted."

"There were no such instances during the Special Counsel's investigation," the attorney general said, adding that he would determine how much of the report could eventually be released to Congress and the public.

Trump's outside lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, issued a statement saying, "We're pleased that the Office of Special Counsel has delivered its report to the Attorney General pursuant to the regulations. Attorney General Barr will determine the appropriate next steps."

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, "We're pleased that the Office of Special Counsel has delivered its report to the Attorney General pursuant to the regulations. Attorney General Barr will determine the appropriate next steps." In a tweet, she said that the White House had not seen the report.

The transmission of the report to Barr concludes an investigation that has resulted in the indictments of 34 people, infuriated the president and thrown the administration into turmoil.

The long-awaited end to the probe comes almost two years after Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump" and "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

To date, almost three dozen people and three companies have been criminally charged in the sprawling probe, including Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn; former campaign chairman Paul Manafort; former political adviser Roger Stone; former personal lawyer Michael Cohen; and numerous Russian nationals. There have been a number of guilty pleas and convictions — but none of the charges have directly accused anyone in Trump's orbit of conspiring with the Russian intelligence operation to help Trump get elected in 2016.

It's unclear how detailed Mueller's report is, or when his conclusions may become public. According to Justice Department guidelines, his confidential report to the attorney general is supposed to explain "the prosecution or declination decisions reached by the special counsel."


The attorney general is required to report Mueller's findings to Congress "with an outline of the actions and the reasons for them," the guidelines say, but it's unclear how long that may take.

As the Mueller investigation picked up steam and various Trump associates were charged, the president increasingly went on the offensive, blasting it as a "witch hunt" and "a hoax," calling Mueller's investigators "angry Democrats" and singling out some who'd worked on the case. He labeled Cohen "a rat" for cooperating with investigators.

Trump refused to sit for an interview with Mueller — his lawyers said they were concerned about a "perjury trap" — but he did submit written responses to Mueller's questions in November.

Mueller was appointed special counsel on May 17, 2017 — eight days after Trump fired James Comey as FBI director. Comey had been leading the investigation into Russian meddling and any possible Trump campaign involvement. The president initially said he'd canned Comey at the urging of Rosenstein and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but later told NBC "Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt it was his decision, and cited his frustration with the Russia probe.

"And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won," Trump told Holt.

That fueled law-enforcement concerns that Trump was trying to obstruct the investigation — worries that were heightened a day after the firing, when he hosted two Russian diplomats in the Oval Office.

"I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump told them, according to The New York Times. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."

Those and other actions taken by the president since the probe began led Mueller to investigate whether Trump was trying to obstruct justice in the case, sources have told NBC News.

The FBI probe into the campaign's alleged Russia ties started in July 2016 after a little-known Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, told an Australian diplomat that the Russians had obtained thousands of emails that would embarrass Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The Australian government passed that information on to the FBI after hacked Democratic National Committee emails were posted online.

That wouldn't be the only hack. Russian cybercriminals targeted Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails, U.S. intelligence officials found. They were released online just hours after the "Access Hollywood" scandal threatened to sink Trump's campaign.

Adding to investigators' suspicions was Trump's often-abrasive deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he repeatedly praised as "tough" and "strong." He was also dismissive of U.S. findings that Russia was behind the cybercrimes, noting, "It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?"

Trump initially denied that he and his campaign had anything to do with any Russians — claims that have since fallen apart.

Flynn had sat with Putin at a dinner in Moscow in 2015, and would be fired from his job as national security adviser for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the content of his conversations with a Russian diplomat. Cohen and Trump associate Felix Sater were in talks during the campaign to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow, which would reportedly come complete with a multimillion-dollar apartment for Putin. The president's son Donald Trump Jr. set up a meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian entourage after they offered unspecified "dirt" on Clinton's campaign courtesy of the Kremlin.

"If it's what you say I love it," Trump Jr. said in accepting the meeting, which would include Manafort and Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.

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{ Note the liberal bend to the above report...not straight news...but an "opinion piece" disguised as news }

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[SHOOTER13]

From the Washington Post:

Mueller report sent to attorney general, signaling his Russia investigation has ended


Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has submitted a confidential report to Attorney General William P. Barr, marking the end of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

The Justice Department notified Congress late Friday that it had received Mueller’s report but did not describe its contents. Barr is expected to summarize the findings for lawmakers in coming days.

In less than two years, Mueller’s investigation has led to criminal charges against more than 30 individuals. A senior Justice Department official said the special counsel has not recommended any further indictments.

In a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, Barr wrote that Mueller “has concluded his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters.”

The submission of Mueller’s report marks the culmination of his closely held inquiry, a case that has engulfed the Trump administration since its inception and led to multiple guilty pleas from former advisers to the president. With the closing of his investigation, Congress and the newly empowered Democratic House majority will soon assess his findings — and determine what steps to take next.

Immediately after the news of Mueller’s report broke, Democrats demanded that its contents be made public.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a joint statement, saying “it is imperative for Mr. Barr to make the full report public and provide its underlying documentation and findings to Congress. . . . The American people have a right to the truth.”

Barr wrote that Mueller submitted a report to him explaining his prosecution decisions. The attorney general told lawmakers he was “reviewing the report and anticipate that I may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsel’s principal conclusions as soon as this weekend.”

The attorney general wrote he would consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and Mueller “to determine what other information from the report can be released to Congress and the public consistent with the law, including the Special Counsel regulations, and the Department’s long-standing practices and policies.”

Barr said there were no instances in the course of the investigation in which any of Mueller’s decisions were vetoed by his superiors at the Justice Department.

“I remain committed to as much transparency as possible, and I will keep you informed as to the status of my review,” Barr wrote.

After a week of growing expectation that Mueller’s long-awaited report would soon arrive, a security officer from Mueller’s office delivered it Friday afternoon to Rosenstein’s office at Justice Department headquarters, according to spokeswoman Kerri Kupec. Within minutes of that delivery, the report was transmitted upstairs to Barr.

Around 4:35, White House lawyer Emmet Flood was notified that the Justice Department had received the report. About a half-hour after that notification, a senior department official delivered Barr’s letter to the relevant House and Senate committees and senior congressional leaders, officials said.

One official described the report as “comprehensive,” but added that very few people have seen it.

Even with the report’s filing, Mueller is expected to retain his role as special counsel for a wind-down period, though it is unclear how long that may last, officials said. A small number of his staff will remain in the office to help shut down the operations.

“The investigation is complete,” said Kupec.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the next steps “are up to Attorney General Barr, and we look forward to the process taking its course. The White House has not received or been briefed on the Special Counsel’s report.”

Two of the president’s lawyers, Rudolph Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, said in a joint statement: “We’re pleased that the Office of Special Counsel has delivered its report to the Attorney General pursuant to the regulations. Attorney General Barr will determine the appropriate next steps.”

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[SHOOTER13]

{ continued... }

Well before its completion, Mueller’s report was a hotly debated issue. Lawmakers sought to wrest guarantees from the Justice Department that the special counsel would give a complete public accounting of what he found in the two-year inquiry.

According to Justice Department regulations, the special counsel’s report should explain Mueller’s decisions — who was charged, who was investigated but not charged, and why.

Mueller’s work has consumed Washington and at times the country, as the special counsel and his team investigated whether any Trump associates conspired with Russian officials to interfere in the election.

It is unclear how much of what Mueller found will be disclosed in Barr’s summary for Congress. Congressional Democrats, anticipating an incomplete accounting, have already sent extensive requests to the Justice Department for documents that would spell out what Mueller discovered.

Mueller’s work has led to criminal charges against 34 people, including six former Trump associates and advisers.

Five people close to the president have pleaded guilty: Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates; former national security adviser Michael Flynn; former personal attorney Michael Cohen; and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos.

A sixth, Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone, was indicted in January and accused of lying to Congress. He has pleaded not guilty.

More than two dozen of the people charged by Mueller are Russians, and because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, they are unlikely ever to see the inside of a U.S. courtroom.

None of the Americans charged by Mueller is accused of conspiring with Russia to interfere in the election — the central question of Mueller’s work. Instead, they pleaded guilty to various crimes including lying to the FBI.

The special counsel’s investigation was launched May 17, 2017, in a moment of crisis for the FBI, the Justice Department and the country.

Days earlier, President Trump had fired FBI Director James B. Comey. The purported reason was Comey’s handling of the 2016 investigation of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, but Trump said in an interview with NBC News shortly after the firing that he was thinking about the Russia inquiry when he decided to remove Comey.

Because FBI directors are appointed to 10-year terms to ensure their political independence, the Comey firing rattled Washington. It set off alarms in the Justice Department and in Congress, where lawmakers feared the president was determined to end the Russia investigation before it was completed.

After then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein chose Mueller as special counsel in part to quell the burgeoning political crisis.

Mueller, a Vietnam War veteran, prosecutor and former FBI director, was highly regarded. Politicians on both sides of the aisle — as well as federal law enforcement and intelligence veterans — had long admired and trusted Mueller, a Republican.

The special counsel’s takeover of the Russia investigation left many of the president’s biggest critics more confident that Trump would not be able to stop the inquiry before Mueller obtained answers.

While it had been publicly known since the summer of 2016 that the FBI was investigating Russian attempts to interfere with the presidential campaign, officials had largely kept quiet that there was also an investigation, starting that July, to see if Trump campaign advisers might be conspiring with the Russians.

After Trump won the election, that investigation exploded into public view.

By late 2016 and early 2017, the FBI was investigating whether anyone close to Trump had helped Russia in those efforts, even as Trump was sworn into office and began filling senior government positions.

Just days into the new administration, FBI agents interviewed Flynn at the White House, questioning him about his conversations during the transition with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Flynn would be forced out of the job a month later amid accusations he had misled senior administration officials about those conversations.

The Mueller investigation pursued a number of investigative tracks, including whether the president’s behavior leading up to and after the firing of Comey amounted to an attempt to obstruct justice.

Throughout 2017, Mueller’s team, working out of an office building in Washington, pursued Manafort over his finances. That case also was inherited from work done previously by the Justice Department and the FBI, but under Mueller it gained new life. In October 2017, Manafort and Gates, his right-hand man, were charged with a host of financial crimes.

Two months later, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Republican political opposition to his work also grew, encouraged in part by the president’s repeated declarations that the investigation was a “witch hunt.”

Within a day of Flynn’s plea, The Washington Post reported that the former lead FBI agent on Mueller’s team, Peter Strzok, had been removed from that position over anti-Trump text messages he had exchanged with a senior FBI lawyer, Lisa Page. Both had worked on the Clinton investigation, and their texts to each other during the campaign revealed disdain for Trump.

The texts, Justice Department officials insisted, had not compromised the Russia investigation, but they fueled a political counterattack by Republicans loyal to the president who charged the FBI’s handling of the Clinton and Trump matters showed the agency’s leadership was letting a political agenda influence the inquiry.

While those fights raged on, Mueller said virtually nothing. In part because of this silence, political factions tended to say almost anything they wanted about his work. Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus called it a money-wasting farce; Democrats touted every new investigative step as further evidence that the probe was so serious that Trump’s days as president could be numbered.

As the investigation pushed into its second year, it took direct aim at Moscow. In February 2018, 13 Russians were charged as part of an online “troll farm” accused of sowing political division and distrust among Americans via social media. Five months later, Mueller’s office indicted a dozen Russian military intelligence officials, saying they conspired to hack into Democrats’ computer accounts and publicize the stolen files.

Last year saw Mueller’s time and energy focused on the question of obstruction. Whether Trump or his senior advisers had sought to stop or cripple the Russia inquiry was a key reason that Mueller’s job as special counsel existed in the first place. Mueller questioned those closest to Trump about the president’s private statements concerning the inquiry, about his tweets attacking law enforcement officials, and about internal White House documents that might shed light on his behavior.

Proving a suspect’s intent is an important element of any obstruction case, and there was one witness Mueller was never able to get in a room: Trump. After negotiating for months, the president’s lawyers agreed to submit written answers to questions from the special counsel. Ultimately, Mueller and the Justice Department did not serve the president with a subpoena, which could have led to a fight at the Supreme Court.

In August, Mueller’s team won a conviction of Manafort in a Virginia courthouse at the same time Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and self-described fixer, was pleading guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors in New York. Cohen would ultimately plead guilty twice, and at his sentencing, he angrily blamed Trump for his downfall.

In January, Mueller’s team accused Stone of obstructing the special counsel’s efforts and lying to Congress about his efforts in 2016 to learn when potentially damaging emails from Clinton’s presidential campaign would be released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

Mueller’s final public indictment was emblematic of much of his investigation — a person close to the president had been arrested and charged with crimes, but not for conspiring with the Kremlin.

[email protected]

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[SHOOTER13]

From the report above:

"As the investigation pushed into its second year, it took direct aim at Moscow. In February 2018, 13 Russians were charged as part of an online “troll farm” accused of sowing political division and distrust among Americans via social media."


Yea...and the Russians succeeded...

Thanks to the friggin' Democrats thirst for revenge for losing the 2016 election.



Idiots !!!

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[havasu]

The democratic socialists should be forced to reimburse the American citizens for this wasted witch hunt.

 

[SHOOTER13]

Better yet...Investigate the investigators !!

Who not only wasted 40+ million dollars of taxpayer money on a witch hunt...weaponized the FBI & DOJ against American citizens by ruining countless lives with heavy handed tactics and costly defense lawyer bills... and who still think they don't have to answer for the attempted coup on a duly elected President...as well as not investigate that Russian colluding criminal Hillary Clinton and her minions...

Just for starters...

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[Curmudgeon]

There is a bright side...............liberals heads are exploding everywhere.

Rachel Madcow was crying on air last night........lmao!

 

[Supervisor42]

There is a bright side...............liberals heads are exploding everywhere.

Rachel Madcow was crying on air last night........lmao!

It just can't be over!

It can't be over because Trump hasn't been impeached yet!

The liberal media are all staring at each other saying: "what will we have for an hour of news now?"

 

[SHOOTER13]

Don't worry...those *******s ain't done yet.

They got till 2020 to make more **** up...



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[Curmudgeon]

Don't worry...those *******s ain't done yet.

Yup, that's why they started priming everyone a month/six weeks or so ago about looking into his business finances and dealings, tax returns and any other proverbial rock they can turn over.

They sent out 81 requests for documents and what got 7/8 back.................LMAO!


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[SHOOTER13]

Most people forget that Congress can subpoena you...and that you can turn right around and tell them NO...

They have no real teeth...and the Congressional Sgt @ Arms will NOT be knocking on your door to haul you in...

My local courthouse sheriff has more power...



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[Curmudgeon]

Barr letter is out, real big nothing burger that only cost us 2 years and 40 million.


https://www.scribd.com/document/402975676/Mueller-report-summary#from_embed

 

[Supervisor42]

Barr letter is out, real big nothing burger that only cost us 2 years and 40 million.
https://www.scribd.com/document/402975676/Mueller-report-summary#from_embed

"In the report, the Special Counsel noted that, in completing his investigation, he employed 19 lawyers who were
assisted by a team of approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence forensic accountants, and
other professional staff. The Special Counsel issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly
500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50
orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and
interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.

Zero, Zip, Nada.
Other than us taxpayers watching in painful slow-motion what mass-mutual-masterbation looks like:bang Head:.

We all need to take up a collection to help out the embattled CNN Network survive the coming drought of lack of content to air.
....God forbid that they now actually have to leave their offices to find news:bigeyes:.

 

[SHOOTER13]

Yea...Nothing of consequence !!

Good Summary...the Liberals heads must be exploding as we speak !!

If I was Barr...I'd take a two week vacation while DC burned itself down.



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[Supervisor42]

Yea...Nothing of consequence !!

Good Summary...the Liberals heads must be exploding as we speak !!

If I was Barr...I'd take a two week vacation while DC burned itself down.



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The truth is settling in at MSNBC too:

 

[SHOOTER13]

Justice Department's Summary of Mueller Report : (PDF)


https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrats.judiciary.house.gov/files/documents/AG March 24 2019 Letter to House and Senate Judiciary Committees.pdf?ftag=MSF0951a18

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[Curmudgeon]

We all need to take up a collection to help out the embattled CNN Network survive the coming drought of lack of content to air

Oh no worries there, I turned CNN on for a bit. They ain't buying any of it, Barr is covering up for Trump, Southern District will still get him, there is obstruction of justice and blah....blah....blah!

Chuckie and Nancy made a statement, I'm sure others will chime in. They aren't going to let this go at all.

I predict...........BURN:assspank:..........in 2020.

 

[SHOOTER13]

Got that right...!!

:smilie flag:

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[Supervisor42]

Chuckie and Nancy made a statement, I'm sure others will chime in. They aren't going to let this go at all.

Yeah but it's going to get even harder to keep the flame alive.
I'm waiting for them to bring out the big guns....
Aliens.
Not 'undocumented aliens' , even though we've got an extra 100,000 of them to to play with this month alone.
Extraterrestrials aliens.

If you think about it, there's no way he could have won the election without them.
Need proof?

Trump, Russia, and Aliens! It's the perfect trifecta!

Try to defend against that!:Angie:

Why else would he be so adamant about forming a new military force called "The Space Force"?
So his friends won't get shot down coming in for a landing.

 

[SHOOTER13]

:ROLF:

You crack me up...

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[havasu]

Now the libtards want to investigate Muller for the Muller investigation.

Just quit, and get your baby bottle and cry in your safe corner for a few months.

 

[SHOOTER13]

They have nothing else in their miserable Trump hating lives but to pivot and attack...

Straight into 2020 when the President WILL be Re-Elected...

Wait till you hear that primal scream...

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!



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[Curmudgeon]

Wait till you hear that primal scream...

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!

 

[SHOOTER13]

That's the one...!!

I got it saved somewhere...

Thanks Curmudgeon !!



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