By MARSHALL WARD
On March 22 the Mueller Report was released to Attorney General William Barr after nearly 2 years investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.
News Flash: William Barr was the Attorney General during George H.W. Bush’s term who set the stage for the pardoning of the actors who were convicted in the Iran-Contra Affair during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
Will Barr do it again?
According to Barr’s 4-page summary, there will be no new indictments. There was no “collusion” by the Trump campaign, and no evidence that reaches the threshold of obstruction of justice by the president.
Mueller deliberately and expressly stated that President Trump is not exonerated of obstruction of justice. Yet immediately afterwards, the Trump administration began spinning, falsely claiming the report exonerated the president fully.
Barr’s memo itself says the Mueller report “does not exonerate him" for Trump’s possible obstruction of justice. And it doesn't clear him in congressional, federal, and state investigations into Trump and his businesses, his associates, and his abuse of power in office.
They say, “It ain’t over ‘til the Fat Lady Sings.”
Let’s review: 34 individuals and 3 companies have been indicted or pleaded guilty of a crime.
Six of the indicted individuals are former Trump advisers and have pleaded guilty, except Roger Stone.
Roger Stone was charged with lying to Congress and his relationship with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange in coordination with leaking Clinton emails.
These Advisers are not free unless pardoned:
1) George Papadopoulos – advisor who bragged about back channels to Vladimir Putin. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered to set up a campaign meeting with Putin for Trump;
2) Paul Manafort – Trump’s Campaign adviser who was as an unregistered foreign agent for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, tampered with witnesses for his case(s), and pleaded guilty to financial crimes/ money laundering. He lied to investigators about his ties to Russian Konstantin Kilimnik and shared data from the Trump campaign;
3) Rick Gates – Paul Manafort’s top assistant campaign adviser who conspired with Manafort on the above charges. He continues to cooperate.
4) Michael Flynn – former National Security adviser who has pleaded guilty to multiple lies to the FBI about his Russian contacts with Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
These Russian indictments will probably not be adjudicated because Putin will not release them:
1) The 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian companies were indicted for hacking, bank rolled the Russian “troll farms”, and created the Internet Research Agency used for cyber war.
2) The 12 Russian GRU officials, Russian Military Intelligence, were indicted in July 2018 before the Trump/Putin meeting in Helsinki. The “GRU had multiple units engaged in Cyber operations that staged releases of documents (through WikiLeaks) stolen through hacking to interfere, and promote Trump’s candidacy, and harm Clinton’s candidacy.”
3) Konstantine Kilimnik, called “the Russian Brain” by Manafort, was indicted on witness tampering in the Manafort case.
What the Republican party does not want YOU to know or remember:
1) US Attorney for the Southern District (New York City) is looking into possible tax evasion, Deutschbank’s suspicious loans to Trump after many defaults, Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer (fixer), arranged payments to Trump’s mistresses, and National EnquirerDavid Pecker’s involvement;
2) Trump’s Inauguration funding from foreign sources like Russian oligarchs, Ukraine, China, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Qatar;
3) Trump SuperPAC funding, Rebuilding America, was used to funnel foreign monies outside the campaign laws;
4) Maria Butina, an admitted Russian agent, and the NRA coordinated a prayer breakfast visit by Russian oligarchs and infiltration of Russians into the conservative evangelical movement;
5) Beyond Russia, Michael Flynn tried to get a Turkish cleric out of the U.S. illegally falsely accusing him of instigating a coup.
6) The Trump Foundation is being investigated by the New York Attorney General for allegedly breaking campaign finance laws and illegal coordination with a presidential campaign.
7) A US Constitution Emolument Clause lawsuit by Maryland and the DC circuits alleges that Trump is “accepting payments from foreign powers while in office” from his DC properties;
8) Summer Zervos is suing Trump for defamation after he called her a liar when she accused him of sexually assaulting her.
La, La, La, La, La….