The Constitutional crisis that isn't
Today, the unthinkable happened. The House Judiciary Committee voted 24-16 to hold the Attorney General in "contempt of Congress." What did the AG do to receive a Contempt charge? According to Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, the AG refused to provide the Committee with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted Russia report and underlying documents. Unmentioned is the fact that the law prevents the AG from doing just that. Specifically, the Grand Jury related information cannot be provided without a Judge's approval. One of the issues that also went unmentioned was Nadler's desire for Barr to appear and face questioning from partisan staff lawyers. Why would Nadler want to do such a thing? Most likely because the AG responded to a question last go around in a very lawyerly way, saying he was responding to a question regarding Mueller's team rather than Mueller himself. A very fine line that the crazed democrats would love to twist into perjury. At the heart of that discussion was the underhanded actions of Robert Mueller sending a letter to his superior (the AG), which questioned why Barr didn't release more negative minutia from the report, which would have kept the President under a cloud. Adding insult to injury the letter was leaked to the liberal media.
Let us not forget that it took Robert Mueller and his team of progressives over two years to determine that the President did not conspire with "Russia!" The Report was eventually turned in after Democrats won back the House of Representatives. Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy & "not enough evidence" of obstruction (breadcrumbs for the democratic House Committees).
Nader has now made good on his threat to hold a good man in Contempt and the President has responded in a very unique way. The president has now invoked executive privilege — refusing to comply with Congressional subpoenas. All of them! After giving the Mueller team millions of documents, the President has now said enough is enough. If the Democrats in the House (with the help of the partisan Mueller) want to keep the cloud over the administration and demonize the AG with endless hearings and subpoena's, they can take it up with the Courts. So now, after overplaying their hand, the House Democrats will have to go through the Courts, which could take many months, maybe right up to the 2020 election.
It's harvest time for the Democrats
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Another Home Run for Donald Trump!
Yep....the moronic left wing turds never seem to learn when to fold 'em and move along.
For only the 2nd time in US history a US Attorney General is In Contempt of Congress.
The other was the infamous Eric Holder. History will treat William Barr much better.
When children throw tantrums the adult in the room takes their toys away.
Imagine if Barr had followed DOJ regulations and kept the entire report private....
Shows what trying to act in good faith with Democrats will get you.
If investigative reports are to be kept private...…………..then...……….what?
Investigative reports that don’t result in charges are almost always kept private. How is that not a good thing?
Sure. Except that is not the case with this. Ask Manafort for one.
WTF you talking about? Manafort is irrelevant to the topic.
Yes it is in this case. The Democarps want the whole fully redacted report released, which would include the grand jury and other sensitive information. Barr is simply following the law while the Dems want to ignore it.
Still flummoxed by Trump's facial expressions, body language and answers at Helsinki. Something happened there.
Nadler is correct. There is much about this president that needs to be explained.
Some things are private about which you will never know.
Jerry "Torquemada" Nadler has gone full Inquisition mode. Barr is following the law, Nadler wants to break the law. That breaking of the law is the actual Constitutional crisis that we face. We have Nadler wanting to usurp the powers of the Article II branch of government so he can persecute the President, just as Torquemada did in the 15th Century. We, also, have Nadler trying to push a contempt charge on a man following the law because he refuses to break that law. Nowhere in Rule 6(e) is Congress or members of Congress mentioned as being exceptions to the secrecy of Grand Jury testimony and evidence. Considering how prejudicial and one-sided Grand Juries are, it is a good thing that Grand Jury testimony and evidence is kept secret. Plus, on top of that, Mueller should be held responsible for violating the standard of the Watergate and Starr reports by actually spending half of the report talking about actions of someone NOT INDICTED for ANYTHING. Neither the Watergate or Starr reports mentioned anyone that was not actually indicted as a result of the investigations. Trump was not indicted, Mueller even refused to indict Trump for Obstruction, yet tried to explain both sides of the investigation regarding Obstruction and Trump. That is simple not done in a real non-partisan investigative report.
Awesome, the continued expansion of executive privilege, if it's allowed to stand, will continue with Presidents of ALL parties. Presidents and staff will be able to commit any crime they want with extremely limited Congressional oversight. The Trumpers' are cheering now, but they were calling for all sorts of investigations (and continue to) of the last Admin and I see no willingness to stop when the next Democrat holds the White House.
It is my opinion (and only mine) that if Trump has nothing to hide - if he's completely vindicated by the Mueller Report as he says - then what does he have to lose? If he's correct he can make the House Dems look as horrible as he claims they are in front of everyone. If he's correct he'd have Pelosi by the balls. Why not let them hang themselves with their own rope?
I think he has embarrassing stuff he wants to hide and the Republicans (and Trump base) are helping him do it. It doesn't matter what I think, nor what the truth is, only the continued partisan power struggle.
Exactly. Don't the Trump supporters understand what this is doing to our entire system of government, and realizing that it will come back and bite them in the ass the next time we have a Democrat for a President? Bush and Obama both increased executive power, and that's partly to blame - but what Trump and his administration are doing is absolutely mocking Congress and the Constitution. Nobody who's a true patriot should be OK with this. Congress is supposed to provide checks and balances, and Trump is acting like a dictator. And he's getting away with it because the GOP refuses to stand up to him. Just wait until the shoe is on the other foot. No President, Democrat or Republican, should be trying to exert this much power and spitting on our Constitution.
Most partisans (on all sides) cherry pick everything that supports whatever position they have on any given topic. Consistency and long term thinking need not apply.
He's using the tools he has at his disposal though he's pushing the bounds of legality. I just think it's the wrong move and if he does win in the courts expands the boundaries on executive privilege.
Everything Trump is doing is legal under his powers as president, including executive privilege.
It's Nadler and his crew of clowns who are disregarding the law.
The question has to be, why are the doing it?
Why don't they just go ahead and impeach him?
Oh wait....they don't have evidence to impeach!
Actually, this is an exactly appropriate use of executive privilege. The report is an Executive branch report that by law and tradition is only for the Executive branch (DOJ) to peruse. Congress needs to get a court order to peruse the entire report and executive privilege reinforces that aspect.
EDIT: READ Rule 6(e):
Where in that rule does it add Congress to the exemption list to seeing and handling Grand Jury testimony and evidence?
Really?
Many knowledgeable people seem think that you can't claim privilege once it's been waived.
This is where, I think, the House will lose, but on other requests like the testimony of Magahn I think they will win.
EDIT - After thinking for a minute. (and I'm mostly just thinking out loud here.) I don't think the Administration should have used "Executive Privilege" argument on the redacted grand jury information. If it proper and legal to redact it then Barr should have just shown up and sited the appropriate law? hmmmm....
What you are ignoring is that executive privilege was not invoked regarding the redacted report. It is being invoked on the FULL UNREDACTED report and the underlying evidence.
No, I am not. I said the House committee will likely lose on that.
I know. They are also claiming Executive Privilege on Mcgahn and all of Mueller's underlying evidence. Since Mcgahn was allowed to testify AND his notes were essential to the that testimony - the Administration may not be able to now claim executive privilege here. Furthermore anything that hasn't been redacted already may now be fair game for review by various House committees including the Special Counsel's underlying evidence so they can understand the conclusions he made.
I'll be interested in what Mueller has to say next week when he testifies before the committee.
Except for a few required by law redactions, all of the report is available to the Democrats. Because of their ongoing disregard for the law, it's likely that someone would release grand jury information to the media and the public.
There really is nothing else to hide.
Why didn't Barr just show up and school them on the law? Why block a key witness and his notes from committee testimony? Why sue to block tax info which the law says they have legal access to? If there is nothing else to hide why are they hiding it?
They know the law already. If they don't, they don't belong in Congress or deserve the public's trust.
What legitimate information is the committee seeking? From all appearances, this just a fishing expedition.
Where does it say that Congress has a right to see a sitting presidents tax info?
Will you admit that all these ongoing investigations in the name of "oversight" are political witch hunts?
It's not about what they know or don't know. H.Clinton gave 11 hours of testimony in Congress and ended up schooling a hostile Republican committee. hmmm.... If Barr is in the right why can't he do it?
It really doesn't matter. Sometimes we catch fish, sometimes we have to move to a new fishing spot.
Not "Congress" but the appropriate oversight committee that requested it. It's been posted on other seeded articles you've been in so ignorance isn't going to fly.
I'm not an elected member of Congress. The 13 Benghazi investigations, the Whitewater investigation, the Fast & Furious investigation and more were all potentially political theater. The whole "investigate the investigators" is just another fishing expedition. Just the other side making the call. I have stock in popcorn and aluminum foil.
Interesting events for sure, but a Constitutional crisis .. or expansion of executive powers by asserting executive privilege, not so much.
.. Holder was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify regarding the fast and furious. I think individuals are forgetting that Obama's executive privilege claim was rejected by a judge [interesting reasons why the executive privilege was rejected] ….. later Holder resigning after a judge order the release of document in September 2012.
Why do so many run around like the sky is falling - acting as if executive privilege is something new … Obama criticized Bush for use of executive privilege .. then he found himself in a spot before the 2012 election and out came executive privilege and so on and so forth as the world turns...
Hate Trump, do everything anti Trump one can think of doing - but please quite pretending that Barr is hiding something in the redactions of the Mueller report .. or that Trump is doing anything that other presidents have not done, or attempted to do regarding executive privilege....
Peace
EVERYTHING …… is a Crises with Liberals.
We only have 12 years left anyway, so why is Nadler and the rest of his clowns STILL worried about this stupid shit stuff anyway.
AOC better RISE UP ! She's the boss after all, and her lemmings in the house are jumping over the cliff right now.
She is a little preoccupied with garbage disposals and pondering if the refrigerator light really does go off.
" Democrats have struggled to focus attention on the summary Barr wrote rather than on the actual report. While Democrats claim the summary misrepresented the report, the report tracks the conclusions referenced in the letter Barr sent. Barr said Mueller did not find evidence of a crime linked to collusion or conspiracy with the Russians. That is true. He said Mueller did not reach a conclusion on obstruction. That is also true."
"As someone who has represented the House of Representatives, my concern is that this one violates a legal version of the Hippocratic oath to “first do no harm.” This could do great harm, not to Barr, but to the House. It is the weakest possible case to bring against the administration, and likely to be an example of a bad case making bad law for the House."