Robert Mueller drops the hammer on William Barr
If you felt that Attorney General William Barr’s four page “summary” of the Mueller report was a sham, it turns out you’re in good company. Special Counsel Robert Mueller himself felt the same way, and it turns out Mueller sent Barr a formal letter accusing him of misrepresenting the “context, nature & substance” of the report. This bombshell, coming from the New York Times and echoed by NBC News, suddenly changes everything at a crucial time.
The Times merely lists its source for this bombshell as being someone in the Justice Department, but it’s not difficult to parse that this leak is happening either at Mueller’s behest, or with Mueller’s blessing. Moreover, this reveals that there’s a letter floating around in the DOJ which serves as a smoking gun when it comes to Barr’s attempt at covering up Mueller’s true findings. And it can’t be a coincidence that this is being leaked just half a day before Barr is scheduled to appear for the first of his two rounds of congressional testimony this week.
We can’t stress enough that this changes everything. Even though tomorrow’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will be run by Trump sycophant Lindsey Graham, the numerous Senate Democrats on the committee will each get their five minutes to grill Barr in front of the cameras. Now they’re armed with the knowledge that Mueller considered Barr’s summary to be dishonest, they can hit Barr hard with it – and they can demand that Barr turn over Mueller’s letter.
We’ll see if William Barr even shows up for tomorrow’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. This creates even more doubt about whether Barr will show up for Thursday’s Democratic Party-controlled House Judiciary Committee hearing, which he was already publicly wavering on. At this point, if Barr doesn’t show up Thursday, there’s no remaining doubt that Chairman Jerry Nadler will hold him in contempt in the most aggressive manner possible. Also, look for Nadler to swiftly subpoena Mueller’s letter to Barr, if Nadler doesn’t have it already. Read the New York Times bombshell here.
