Mueller’s Nuanced Language Allows Trump And Barr To Get Away With Murder

"Once again, I foolishly believed the administration had been checkmated."

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by Bob Cesca

After reading the letter Robert Mueller wrote to Bill Barr about his ridiculous non-summary summary letter, I was initially relieved that finally Mueller was stepping out of his self-imposed shell to nuke Trump’s attempt to mislead the public about the report. Once again, I foolishly believed the administration had been checkmated.

However, during Barr’s testimony in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, my sense of relief was blown to bits. When he was asked about the letter, Barr noted something in The Washington Post’s reporting that provided him with enough wiggle room to summarily worm his way out of legal jeopardy, at least for now.

The passage I’m talking about is somewhat buried about halfway through the text: “When Barr pressed Mueller on whether he thought Barr’s memo to Congress was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not but felt that the media coverage of it was misinterpreting the investigation, officials said.”

Dammit.

So, let’s review. The Mueller letter states clearly that Barr’s infamous March 24 memo “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions.” However, according to officials, Mueller “did not” believe Barr was inaccurate. In other words, it sounds like Mueller’s gripe here is that Barr’s non-summary summary was, I guess, too short and not detailed enough? Either that or the “officials” the Post’s Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky spoke with are misrepresenting Mueller’s telephone conversation with Barr. Either way, the leak from the Special Counsel’s office once again provided all kinds of latitude for the most deceptive and corrupt administration ever to neuter the impact of the letter.

Once again, an investigation into the Russian invasion and attack on our democratic process -- a matter of grave importance requiring clear language and swift condemnations has been muddied with imprecise and vague language. As a consequence, Trump World has been provided a convenient series of escape hatches, 1) to deny the charges, 2) to confuse casual voters who will very likely give up on the story, and 3) to launch counter-investigations into the investigators.

While it’s true Trump would’ve done and said all of this anyway, like the spastic chaos agent he is, there’s no justification whatsoever for voluntarily hurling more rocket-fuel onto Trump’s eternal bonfire. This isn’t the time, nor is this a crisis that permits normal everyday procedures or mind-numbingly ambiguous language better suited for a far less egregious series of crimes. We don’t say this enough any more, but we’re caught in the throes of an existential crisis, and both Congress and the American public are often deeply confused about the scope and severity of what’s going on with our elections. Most of us get our news from the internet, where nuance goes to die.

Knowing this, what did Mueller lean heavily upon in his report and his letter? Nuance. Infuriating ambiguity. Donald Trump, and Fox News Channel in particular, unblinkingly run clean over nuance like an indecisive squirrel in the middle of the eight-lane Beltway. To be clear, I’ve always been a strong believer in nuance -- life is a series of gray areas, hardly ever black and white. However, any decent investigator ought to be able to render unwavering conclusions, while elaborating upon the complicated details subsequent to that. For reasons we still don’t understand, Mueller hasn’t done that.

If Mueller believes Barr lied about his report, Mueller has to say so -- clearly and without any more infuriating equivocation. Frankly, as Sarah Kendzior from the Gaslit Nation podcast said on my show this week, Mueller should have released to the public his letter to Barr on the same day he delivered it to Barr. Better yet, he should’ve held his first ever press conference to clarify all the ways in which Barr misled the public -- if, in fact, Mueller believes Barr was misleading. Instead, Mueller allowed Trump and Barr to ride the lies at hyperspeed around the galaxy several times before the truth wheezed its way out of the asteroid belt. And in the face of this month-plus scam by the president, Mueller has said exactly two words to the press: “No comment.”

We’re under attack.

Mueller, of all people, knows we’re under attack.

It’s about time we all behaved as though we’re at war with Russia, irrespective of how painful and scary that might be. Reality is reality. “No comment” remarks and wishy-washy conclusions are as removed as can be from an urgent war footing -- especially one in which the president might be a witting or unwitting ally of the nation that’s doing the attacking.

What was originally some hope that Mueller would step up has been more or less crushed yet again. Granted, there’s still an opportunity for Mueller to pull-up and bank left before the entire thing nose-dives into the ground. I shouldn’t have any confidence that’ll happen right now because I haven’t been given any solid reason to feel confident, but I do. Congressional hearings and impeachment proceeding are still on the table, and Trump always makes things worse for Trump. There’s that, at least. But here’s to no more fuckups by the good guys.

(image via The Express)

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