Editorial

Show Mueller’s Work

William Barr did what he was hired to do. The new attorney general shut down Robert Mueller’s investigation into the relationship of Donald Trump and the Russians, and Barr declared that the president cannot be indicted for conspiracy or his efforts to obstruct justice.

Trump claimed Barr’s letter summarizing Mueller’s findings amounted to “total exoneration,” when it did no such thing. Barr specifically quoted Mueller saying that one of his principal findings was that the report “does not exonerate him.”

Mueller apparently did not find enough evidence of conspiracy to warrant an indictment (Barr didn’t use the word “collusion” in his four-page letter summing up Mueller’s 22-month investigation) but Mueller found some of the obvious signs that Trump tried to obstruct the investigation. Indeed, Mueller reportedly created a substantial record of the president’s troubling interactions with law enforcement. Barr’s letter only contains the top-line findings. It does not include any of the evidence or legal analysis that underlies those findings, which the full Mueller report would contain.

It is widely believed that Barr got the job of attorney general because he had ruled out charging a president with obstruction. In a June 2018 memo, shared with Trump’s lawyer before his nomination, Barr argued that the theory of obstruction he believed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to be adopting was “fatally misconceived.”

Barr has a history of undermining investigations of Republican presidents. In 1992, when he was then-President George H.W. Bush’s attorney general, Barr advised Bush to pardon all those who had been involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, which threatened to implicate Bush and former President Ronald Reagan in arranging secret sales of arms to Iran in exchange for American hostages in the early 1980s. After the Christmas Eve 1992 pardons, Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who headed the investigation of Reagan Administration officials’ criminal conduct in the Iran-Conra scandal from 1986 to 1992, stated that “the Iran-Contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed.” Walsh noted that in issuing the pardons Bush appeared to have preempted being implicated by evidence that was to come to light during the pending trial of former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger.

With the new Barr letter apparently putting Trump in the clear, at least temporaarily, Trump was intent on vengeance, and said “the other side” might be made to pay. “Hopefully, somebody is going to look at the other side. This was an illegal takedown that failed. And hopefully, somebody is going to be looking at the other side.”

It’s hard to see how Mueller avoided finding conspiracy and/or obstruction in a probe that already has taken down Trump’s former campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, personal attorney, national-security adviser, and longtime political adviser. We know Russians offered to help the Trump campaign, and Don Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort met in the Trump Tower in June 2016 with Russian government associates offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. We know Trump invited Russians to find Hillary’s missing emails. We know Paul Manafort shared Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian linked to Moscow’s intelligence agencies. We know Jared Kushner sought to use secure Russian diplomatic lines to communicate with the Kremlin. And Trump has a long history of lying, filing false reports and business dealings with Russian mobsters and oligarchs. Also, Trump resisted answering questions from Mueller, and Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, suggested Trump might use the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself. Of course, that is his right. But we have the right to know if the president did plead the Fifth, which Trump has said in other cases would be an admission of guilt.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York continue their investigation of campaign finance violations, including hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep the women quiet about their sexual affairs with Trump. His former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, already pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance violations related to the $130,000 payoff to Daniels and Cohen told investigators and Congress that he made the payment on Trump’s orders. The Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, has also been cooperating with the SDNY since last August, leading to speculation that he could implicate Trump in future indictments.

Federal investigators also are probing Trump’s inauguration committee for potentially committing illegal acts such as fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and a host other crimes. The inauguration raised an unprecedented $107 million dollars with little to show for it and spent exorbitant amounts on expenses such as makeup and rooms in the Trump International Hotel. Prosecutors subpoenaed the inaugural committee in February for documents on how it spent the money, seeking a wide range of materials, including records of payments to the Trump International Hotel or Trump Organization.

The subpoena indicates investigators are looking for a wide range of possible crimes. It’s likely that the SDNY, which issued the subpoena, will take the lead in the probe. Much like the other inquiries into Trump’s operations and inner circle, there’s no immediate end in sight for the investigation.

The House Judiciary Committee should continue its wide-ranging corruption probe into Trump’s involvement in any campaign finance violations, obstructions of justice or abuses of power such as misuse of pardons. It should also demand that the Justice Department account for evidence of criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia, as well as efforts to cover up any potential conspiracy.

Leading the investigation is House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, an attorney and congressman from New York. The White House and many Trump allies appear to be stonewalling Nadler’s document requests, however, and only eight of 81 requests for documents were returned by the deadline. Nadler expects that more individuals will eventually comply, but the White House has already rejected requests for certain materials, such as those related to Trump’s meetings and phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and they can expect the White House to try to stonewall any more scrutiny, crying that it is a partisan inquiry.

New York’s state attorney general is looking into Trump’s dealings with Deutsche Bank, including whether he inflated the value of his property during his failed 2014 attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills football team. The attorney general’s office reportedly has subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records related to the Bills deal, as well as other Trump Organization plans. Deutsche Bank loaned Trump at least $2 billion over recent decades despite other banks cutting him off because of his financial instability.

At the very least, Barr must release the full Mueller report, including underlying documents, and agree to testify before the House Judiciary Committee to explain his decision not to prosecute.

Mueller’s punt on the Russia probe removes the pressure on House Democrats to pursue impeachment, since the prospects of getting 20 Senate Republicans to join Democrats in removing the Great Misleader are remote to the point of invisibility.

While we might be stuck with Trump for another two years, that should enhance Democrats’ chances for an electoral sweep in 2020. Make Republicans defend Trump’s pursuit of Moscow Gold as well as the GOP’s tax breaks for the billionaires, their plans to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, budget cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and placing fossil fuel industrialists in charge of the nation’s environment and national parks. — JMC

From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2019

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