Archives for 2019

“Attorney General Bill Barr is preparing to announce as early as next week the completion of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, with plans for Barr to submit to Congress soon after a summary of Mueller’s confidential report,” CNN reports.

“The preparations are the clearest indication yet that Mueller is nearly done with his almost two-year investigation.”

“The scope and contours of what Barr will send to Congress remain unclear. Also unclear is how long it will take Justice officials to prepare what will be submitted to lawmakers.”

Washington Post: “The special counsel’s investigation has consumed Washington since it began in May 2017, and it increasingly appears to be nearing its end, which would send fresh shock waves through the political system.”

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN that President Trump’s claim on Twitter that reporters don’t reach out to the White House for comment was “a lie.”

Said Haberman: “We went through a detailed list of what we were planning on reporting. They chose not to engage.”

First Read notes it’s hard to keep up with all of the alleged scandals hitting the Trump administration, including three just yesterday:

• Trump asked his acting attorney general to put a Trump ally, the U.S. attorney in New York, in charge of the Michael Cohen investigation, according to the New York Times.
• Whistleblowers “have told a congressional committee that efforts by former national security adviser Michael Flynn to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia may have violated the law, and investigators fear Trump is still considering it,” NBC News reports.
• “House and Senate Democrats say they have obtained evidence that a senior official at the Department of Education tried to oust the department’s independent watchdog after she pushed back on an attempt to interfere in an active investigation of Secretary Betsy DeVos,” per NBC News.

“Any one of these stories would have dominated the news — for days and weeks — in any other administration. But in our current era, it was just Tuesday.”

“President Trump has publicly criticized dozens of people and groups related to federal inquiries into contacts between his campaign and Russia,” according to a New York Times analysis..

“The attacks, which number nearly 1,200, are part of a strategy to beat back the investigations. They have also opened him to possible obstruction of justice charges. They include statements made on Twitter, in official speeches, at rallies and during news media interviews and other press events.”

“While it is highly unusual for anyone — let alone the president of the United States — to comment on continuing criminal investigations, Mr. Trump has done so at least once on 330 days, or more than 43 percent of his time in office as of Feb. 14.”