US Politics April 2019 Thread: 'I find that pretty hard to believe'

DOJ have had interns scouring yard sales and Goodwills for weeks in search of serviceable zip drives in order to maximize the inconvenience.

I'll bet Trump winds up punching the Easter Bunny this year, just you wait.

this day is going to be mad stupid and infuriating

"At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the President’s personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion."

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 18, 2019

cool

uhh isn't Barr pretty much saying he overruled Mueller on the "no obstruction" angle

in other words he did exactly what he was installed to do, great job all around folks

holy shit gtfo with this "unprecedented situation" shit, do you remember a woman by the name of Monica Lewinsky

Barr notes again it's at his "discretion" whether the report is public. Then he gets asked if he's prespinning the report before the public can see it. "No," Barr says. And with that, we are done with questions.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 18, 2019

thanks bill, very cool!

so let me get this straight it's okay to obstruct justice if the media's mean to you

holy shit every single cable news channel is falling for this

they are so fucking stupid

sweet baby jesus

pic.twitter.com/222atp7wuB

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019

does anyone else remember last month when Trump's personal attorney directly implicated him in a felony

like we've had 10 or 11 legit impeachment-worthy scandals since Mueller was appointed but by all means lets all group together on national TV and talk about how innocent our darling sweet prez is

That tweet is...um...I think I'm dying. Yes, I'm dead now.

if you want to maintain your sanity i recommend not putting any emotional investment into what is said on TV

Nixon must be furious he wasn't born 40 years later

Chris Wallace on Fox News: "The Attorney General seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, the counselor for the president, rather than the Attorney General, talking about his motives, his emotions... Really, as I say, making a case for the president."

— Ken Fitzpatrick (@krf7) April 18, 2019

holy shit every single cable news channel is falling for this
― frogbs, Thursday, April 18, 2019 10:05 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ive got msnbc on and no they are not (obv but still)

barr getting eviscerated

yep

ah ok just speaking for CBS and CNN and FOX (of course), though Chris Wallace at least somewhat acknowledges how obviously corrupt this all is

obv I'm not ombudsmen but here's the NYT lede:

In his news conference on Thursday morning, Mr. Barr at times sounded like a defense lawyer, making no criticism of the president and instead offering an understanding interpretation of actions that Mr. Trump’s critics have said amounted to obstruction of justice.

Barr pretty much admitting that Trump committed obstruction (but it's ok because he was mad) and that there was collusion by the campaign (if not involved in the direct hacking) and that Russia very much wanted Trump to win but lmao nothing matters

Just based on what I've read about Barr's press conference it's reminiscent of a kid arguing with great passion that a D- is actually closer to a C than it is to an F- before throwing his abysmal report card at his parents and running away to hide in the neighbor's shed.

that's a good take away imo

https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

448 pages.

Breaking: Mueller in his report says he lacked confidence to clear Trump of obstruction of justice but suggested Congress could take action.@cstrohm https://t.co/f9O1zJeBoV

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 18, 2019

Renato: "We now know the first part of the sentence Barr cut off: 'Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.'"

So yes, Russia interfered, and yes, Trump Inc approved, they just ... didn't help?

a lot of blacked out shit of course

so everything the media was reporting on for the last 2 years was...basically correct?

pretty sure Barr is full of fucking shit and even this redacted mess will prove that at least

Already.

Barr totally lied about why Mueller didn't decide whether Trump obstructed. https://t.co/WIQlH8tRCw pic.twitter.com/c9FSDt8PSu

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) April 18, 2019

Just flipped to a random page:

“Evidence concerning the President’s conduct towards Manafort indicates that the President intended to encourage Manafort to not cooperate with the government.”

Totally legal, totally cool

Yeah, just looking at random pages has already evinced evidence of random criminality, or criminal intent.

fucking unsearchable file

I've already seen Stephen Miller's name pop up perhaps more than I expected.

never use "Stephen Miller" and "pop up" in the same sentence

page 18 is my favorite so far pic.twitter.com/XMhsTx51xT

— maura quint (@behindyourback) April 18, 2019

When Trump was told about the Mueller investigation: the president slumped back in his chair and said, oh, my god, this is terrible, this is the end of my presidency, I am -- then he used a form of a word that begins with F. I am f-ed.@PeteWilliamsNBC

— Chris Jansing (@ChrisJansing) April 18, 2019

The long goodbye.

god, just say fucked

Maybe he actually said "f-ed," because so religious.

Trump upon learning of Mueller's appointment: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."

page 290 pic.twitter.com/U3pDPgY56U

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 18, 2019

PETER SMITH was contacted by Michael Flynn to find the deleted Clinton emails, at Trump's request, per Mueller. pic.twitter.com/jKhZZAOcrp

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 18, 2019

so this has been out for half an hour and there's already like three dozen crimes uncovered

It doesn't take much looking! Like, throw a dart or something.

it's almost like the facts never mattered and he was never going to be prosecuted because he's the president

this has to be hannity, right? (what even is the point of redacting if you're going to keep alphabetical order? the redacting also preserves the lengths of the names, some bars are shorter)

https://imgur.com/a/9XZuM5y

'I'm fucked' = a phrase I often use when I know I'm innocent and have absolutely nothing to hide.

I'm pretty sure he said "I'm fullyexonerated"

(also someone points out the redacted name between "Katsyv" and "Kaveladze" is probably Kavanaugh