«Breaking News» Obstruction is the new collusion: Nadler doesn't mention Russia but threatens to subpoena Barr

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Sunday that 'yes,' he is willing to subpoena Attorney General William Barr to explain why he didn't charge President Donald Trump with obstruction of justice after he read Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited final report.

Democrats have long claimed Trump obstructed justice by asking his then-FBI director, James Comey, to back off a counterintelligence investigation into Gen. Mike Flynn, who had briefly been his national security adviser before his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. put a harsh spotlight on him.

They also see obstruction in Trump's decision to fire Comey later on, and his public acknowledgment that the FBI's pre-Mueller Russia probe was a principal reason.

In a brief press conference, New York Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler demanded the release of Mueller's entire report and blasted Barr as a partisan who had his mind made up about obstruction before his Senate confirmation last month. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, blasted Attorney General William Barr for deciding, along with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, not to charge President Donald Trump with obstruction of justice after Special Counsel Robert Mueller finished his long-awaited report

Barr wrote last year in a memo, long before Trump considered him as a possible attorney general, that presidents can't obstruct justice because they are in charge of the Justice Department

Barr, he said, 'auditioned for his role with an open memorandum suggesting that the obstruction investigation was unconscionable and that it was almost impossible for any president to commit obstruction of justice since he's the head of the executive branch.'

Barr did draw that conclusion in an unsolicited memo to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last year, long before he was considered a potential replacement for then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

'Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the President submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction,' he wrote then.

Nadler's remarks, briefly interrupted by a heckler who called him 'a loser,' steered clear of Russia talk but suggested a new focus for Democrats now that Mueller's report has cleared Trump and his campaign of the never-substantiated allegation that they colluded with Russia to impact the 2016 election. 

Instead, obstruction is the new collusion.

Nadler said Barr's conclusions 'raise more questions than they answer, given the fact that Mueller uncovered evidence that in his own words 'does not exonerate the president.'

President Trump has been in good spirits since Friday's revelation that Mueller had finished his report and decided, after 22 months of investigating, not to charge him or anyone in his immediate orbit with any crimes

READ IN FULL: Attorney General Barr's letter to Congress summarizing the Mueller investigation findings

Barr wrote to Nadler and the three other leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary panels that he and Rosenstein jointly made the decision to end the probe without leveling an obstruction charge against the president. 

The pair, he wrote, 'concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.' 

Mueller investigation by the numbers 

Employed 19 lawyers 

Worked with team of 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff

Issued more than 2,800 subpoenas

Executed nearly 500 search warrants

Obtained more than 230 orders for communication records

Issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers

Made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence

Interviewed approximately 500 witnesses 

Mueller, he wrote, 'recognized that "the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference".'  

That's a crucial point of law: Proving Trump obstructed justice, Barr explained, must include proving that he was suspected of a crime whose investigation could be obstructed.

Nadler, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, focused on Barr's previous statements about the concept of presidential obstruction.  

'Given Mr. Barr’s public record of bias against the Special Counsel’s inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report,' they wrote.

Pelosi and Schumer made no mention of Rosenstein's participation in the decision-making.

Nadler hsa the power to call a vote on subpoenaing Barr if he declines an invitation to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Such a vote would likely pass along party lines.

Barr wrote to leaders of the two congressional judiciary committees that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein jointly made the decision not to charge the president with a crime

Robert Mueller attended church near the White House on Sunday after delivering his final report to Attorney General Barr

Defying a congressional subpoena could lead to the full House of Representatives finding him in contempt, a result that would come with a criminal referral – a request for prosecution – to the Justice Department, which Barr himself runs.

Former Attorney Genereal Eric Holder faced a similar situation in 2012, making him the first Cabinet member to ever face a criminal contempt citation from Congress.

Holder had refused to give the Republican-led House Oversight Committee documents related to the 'Operation Fast and Furious' gun-running scandal. Seventeen House Democrats voted to hold him in contempt.

The Justice Department took no action. 

MUELLER REPORT: Timeline of events in Mueller's investigation

Here is a timeline of significant developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether President Donald Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow.

2017

May 17 - U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Mueller as a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election and to look into any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and people associated with Republican Trump's campaign.

The appointment follows President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey on May 9 and days later Trump attributed the dismissal to 'this Russia thing.'

June 15 - Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reports.

October 30 - Veteran Republican political operative and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who worked for the campaign for five pivotal months in 2016, is indicted on charges of conspiracy against the United States and money laundering as is his business partner Rick Gates, who also worked for Trump's campaign.

- Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials.

December 1 - Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for less than a month who also had a prominent campaign role, pleads guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI about his discussions in 2016 with the Russian ambassador to Washington.

2018

February 16 - Federal grand jury indicts 13 Russians and three firms, including a Russian government propaganda arm called the Internet Research Agency, accusing them of tampering to support Trump and disparage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The accused 'had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election' according to the court document filed by Mueller.

- An American, Richard Pinedo, pleads guilty to identity fraud for selling bank account numbers after being accused by prosecutors of helping Russians launder money, buy Facebook ads and pay for campaign rally supplies. Pinedo was not associated with the Trump campaign.

February 22 - Manafort and Gates are charged with financial crimes, including bank fraud, in Virginia.

February 23 - Gates pleads guilty to conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators. He agrees to cooperate and testify against Manafort at trial.

April 3 - Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia's richest men, is sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to Mueller's investigators, becoming the first person sentenced in the probe.

April 9 - FBI agents raid home, hotel room and office of Trump's personal lawyer and self-described 'fixer' Michael Cohen.

April 12 - Rosenstein tells Trump that he is not a target in Mueller's probe.

April 19 - Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump supporter in the election campaign, joins Trump's personal legal team.

June 8 - Mueller charges a Russian-Ukrainian man, Konstantin Kilimnik, a Manafort business partner whom prosecutors say had ties to Russian intelligence, with witness tampering.

July 13 - Federal grand jury indicts 12 Russian military intelligence officers on charges of hacking Democratic Party computer networks in 2016 and staged releases of documents. Russia, which denies interfering in the election, says there is no evidence that the 12 are linked to spying or hacking.

July 16 - In Helsinki after the first summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump publicly contradicts U.S. intelligence agencies that concluded Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election with a campaign of hacking and propaganda. Trump touts Putin's 'extremely strong and powerful' denial of meddling. He calls the Mueller inquiry a 'rigged witch hunt' on Twitter.

August 21 - A trial jury in Virginia finds Manafort guilty of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account.

- Cohen, in a case brought by U.S. prosecutors in New York, pleads guilty to tax fraud and campaign finance law violations. Cohen is subsequently interviewed by Mueller's team.

August 31 - Samuel Patten, an American business partner of Kilimnik, pleads guilty to unregistered lobbying for pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine.

September 14 - Manafort pleads guilty to two conspiracy counts and signs a cooperation agreement with Mueller's prosecutors.

November 8 - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns at Trump's request. He had recused himself from overseeing the Mueller inquiry because of his contacts with the Russian ambassador as a Trump campaign official. Trump appoints Sessions' chief of staff Matthew Whitaker, a critic of the Mueller probe, as acting attorney general.

November 20 - Giuliani says Trump submitted written answers to questions from Mueller, as the president avoids a face-to-face interview with the special counsel.

November 27-28 - Prosecutors say Manafort breached his plea deal by lying to investigators, which Manafort denies. Trump says he has not ruled out granting Manafort a presidential pardon.

November 28 - Giuliani says Trump told investigators he was not aware ahead of time of a meeting in Trump Tower in New York between several campaign officials and Russians in June 2016.

November 29 - Cohen pleads guilty in the Mueller investigation to lying to Congress about the length of discussions in 2016 on plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. 'I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual 1's political messaging and out of loyalty to individual 1,' says Cohen, who previously identified 'individual 1' as Trump.

- The president criticizes Cohen as a liar and 'weak person.'

December 12 - Two developments highlight growing political and legal risks for Trump: Cohen sentenced to three years in prison for crimes including orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the election; American Media Inc, publisher of National Enquirer tabloid, strikes deal to avoid charges over its role in one of two hush payments. Publisher admits payment was aimed at influencing the 2016 election, contradicting Trump's statements.

2019

January 25 - Longtime Trump associate and self-proclaimed political 'dirty trickster' Roger Stone charged and arrested at his home in Florida. Stone is accused of lying to Congress about statements suggesting he may have had advance knowledge of plans by Wikileaks to release Democratic Party campaign emails that U.S. officials say were stolen by Russia.

February 21 - U.S. judge tightens gag order on Stone, whose Instagram account posted a photo of the judge and the image of crosshairs next to it.

February 22 - Manhattan district attorney's office is pursuing New York state criminal charges against Manafort whether or not he receives a pardon from Trump on federal crimes, a person familiar with the matter says. Trump cannot issue pardons for state convictions.

February 24 - Senior Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Schiff says Democrats will subpoena Mueller's final report on his investigation if it is not given to Congress by the Justice Department, and will sue the Trump administration and call on Mueller to testify to Congress if necessary.

February 27 - Cohen tells U.S. House Oversight Committee Trump is a 'racist,' a 'con man' and a 'cheat' who knew in advance about a release of emails by WikiLeaks in 2016 aimed at hurting rival Clinton. Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow during the campaign even as he publicly said he had no business interests in Russia, Cohen testifies.

March 7 - Manafort is sentenced in the Virginia case to almost four years in prison. The judge also ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.

March 13 - Manafort is sentenced to about 3-1/2 more years in prison in the Washington case, bringing his total prison sentence in the two special counsel cases to 7-1/2 years.

- On the same day, the Manhattan district attorney announces a separate indictment charging Manafort with residential mortgage fraud and other New York state crimes, which unlike the federal charges cannot be erased by a presidential pardon.

March 22 - Mueller submits his confidential report on the findings of his investigation to U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

March 24 - Barr releases a summary of Mueller's report, saying the investigation did not find evidence that Trump or his associates broke the law during the campaign. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders says the summary is a complete exoneration of Trump. 

Link hienalouca.com

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Main photo article The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Sunday that ‘yes,’ he is willing to subpoena Attorney General William Barr to explain why he didn’t charge President Donald Trump with obstruction of justice after he read Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited...

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Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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