Thursday, May 9, 2019

Bill Barr takes a Sharpie to history: It won't be enough to cover up Trump's crimes

https://www.salon.com/2019/04/20/bill-barr-takes-a-sharpie-to-history-it-wont-be-enough-to-cover-up-trumps-crimes/?fbclid=IwAR2F2CNI-vDG_L_bTW-4pHCV-FdIYGs1QrGC1o9gJHXxcGZl141dtXmZRY4
"If the Mueller report does nothing else, it puts to rest the “Russia hoax,” and Trump’s insistence that he accepts Vladimir Putin’s denials that Russia had anything to do with the election of 2016. The Russians helped Trump get elected, and he accepted their help. In the very next paragraph, Mueller cites the reason for the investigation of the Trump campaign, going straight to the man who was first informed by the Russian government that they sought to assist the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. “[George] Papadopoulos had suggested to a representative of that foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. That information prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities.” The FBI investigation that began in July of 2016 led directly to Mueller’s investigation and the heavily redacted report released on Thursday. If there is one conclusion you can draw from Mueller’s report it is this: it was all about Russia. It was a “wildly successful Russian influence operation from start to finish,” former FBI counterintelligence agent Clint Watts told NBC on Thursday morning. If Trump campaign officials did not seek out the help of the Russians in 2016, they certainly accepted it, according to the Mueller report, which cites dozens of contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russians during the campaign. At no point did anyone connected with the campaign contact law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and report these contacts."