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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Yeah, it's not that the investigation is incomplete, it's "here's all the evidence we collected, but I'm not going to say what it all means because passing judgement on a sitting president is not my job, it's the job of Congress during an impeachment trial. But if the evidence left me convinced that he was innocent, I'd definitely say so."
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Take also note of what is said in p.156 (368 of 448) and before, things like "Finally, the President's statements insinuating that members of Cohen's family committed crimes after Cohen began cooperating with the government could be viewed as an effort to retaliate against Cohen and chill further testimony adverse to the President by Cohen and others" followed by a rebuttal and by a rebuttal-rebuttal "The timing of the statements supports an inference that they were intended at least in part to discourage Cohen from further cooperation".
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanCan't wait to hear all the Republicans boasting about how they refuse to even read it.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Given that Muller is being called to testify in front of Congress, they really can't ignore him unless they pull of some really desperate stunt such as boycotting the hearings or some such.
Because really, I want to see the Republicans try and pull the same moves they tried to pull on Peter Strzok - i.e. the attempted character assassination in "is that the same look you gave your wife as you lied about your affair?" type questions.
I can't imagine that even the Republicans would be so stupid / desperate to try a character assassination attempt on Robert Muller, but I've been wrong before.
Edited by singularityshot on Apr 18th 2019 at 9:39:17 AM
They've been trying to assassinate his credibility for two years. He's a lifelong Republican who was appointed to lead the FBI during the Bush Administration. He only stayed on past his ten-year term because Obama was impressed with his work. However, that didn't stop Trump, FOX, and Congressional Republicans from painting him with the brush, "OBAMA stooge put in office by OBAMA to do OBAMA'S dirty work."
Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 18th 2019 at 10:51:52 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Most of them couldn't even bring themselves to speak up for Mc Cain when Trump attacked him a few weeks ago. They won't speak up for Muller if Trump tells them not to.
For something supposedly "lightly redacted", there sure are a lot of blank areas for anything surrounding Trump. Not to mention at least one page that is completely redacted out.
The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -FighteerSo far the comical thing is reading the live blog on the Guardian. Full credit to them, they didn't skip to the good bits and have only just hit on the appendix - that contains Trump's written answers to the questions that Muller sent him in lieu of a sit down interview.
The answers were the equivalent of a no comment interview from someone suffering from some sort of problem with their memory. Muller, it seems, took one look at those answers, threw them in the trash and asked again for a sit down interview, which the White House refused.
Although what gets me is the line from Trump - "I have no independent recollection..."
What does that even mean - does that mean there might be dependent recollections or what?
This is... not exactly the action of an innocent man.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"I'm at work and haven't had a chance to read it.
Is there anything condemning on the collusion front? Or is it all obstruction? Because we can't pin him on only obstruction; it's too easy for Republicans to make a defense that "You can't obstruct justice if you're innocent." It's been their go-to in regards to the obstruction of justice claims. That defense is f*ckstupid but centrist voters looking for an excuse to not take a side will eat it up if we can't also demonstrate that he was actually trying to hide something else.
But if we've got some damning stuff on the collusion front, that's a different story.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 18th 2019 at 12:31:39 PM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

In short: Mueller punted on making a prosecutorial decision because the target is the President of the United States, and he is subscribing to the view that only Congress can "prosecute" a sitting President.
Edited by Fighteer on Apr 18th 2019 at 11:59:07 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"