Octopus Overlords

LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Mar 29, 2019 4:20 pm https://www.npr.org/2019/03/29/70812877 ... -barr-says

https://apps.npr.org/documents/document ... r-March-29

Barr does a pretty good job of defending himself against the malice and shade thrown his way unlike Trump and his SS mouthpiece. I reserve the right to reserve... Or something...

A White House whistleblower told lawmakers that more than two dozen denials for security clearances have been overturned during the Trump administration, calling Congress her “last hope” for addressing what she considers improper conduct that has left the nation’s secrets exposed.

Tricia Newbold, a longtime White House security adviser, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that she and her colleagues issued “dozens” of denials for security clearance applications that were later approved despite their concerns about blackmail, foreign influence or other red flags, according to panel documents released Monday.

Newbold, an 18-year veteran of the security clearance process who has served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, said she warned her superiors that clearances “were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security” — and was retaliated against for doing so.

Holman wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 4:47 pm Yeah, I think their spin on the report has been a tremendous blunder.

They would have been smarter to just let it come out and do the spin afterward, but now they're committed to a narrative that screams "Coverup" if Mueller found details that will resonate as unethical.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 4:50 pm

Holman wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 4:47 pm Yeah, I think their spin on the report has been a tremendous blunder.

They would have been smarter to just let it come out and do the spin afterward, but now they're committed to a narrative that screams "Coverup" if Mueller found details that will resonate as unethical.

I dunno.

Sepiche wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 4:58 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 4:50 pm

Holman wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 4:47 pm Yeah, I think their spin on the report has been a tremendous blunder.

They would have been smarter to just let it come out and do the spin afterward, but now they're committed to a narrative that screams "Coverup" if Mueller found details that will resonate as unethical.

I dunno.

I think part of the blunder that that Drumpf's defenders are going to be increasingly unable to deal with in the coming days is why the WH doesn't want to publicly release a report that supposedly completely vindicates the President. It's a simple argument they don't seem to have any sort of answer for.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 5:12 pm And if you don't think Trump's supporters will eat that up without question, you haven't been paying attention.

Overall, three-quarters said the full Mueller report should be made public. That included a majority of Republicans (54 percent). Just 18 percent overall said Barr's summary is enough.

Sepiche wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 5:39 pm

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2019 5:12 pm And if you don't think Trump's supporters will eat that up without question, you haven't been paying attention.

Maybe, but as arguments go "you're too dumb to understand the Mueller report" is pretty weak, while "if it completely vindicates him, why not release the report?" has the advantage of being logical and straight forward.

And so far Barr and Drumpf's shell games aren't working, even among some of his faithful...
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/29/70771399 ... t-released

Overall, three-quarters said the full Mueller report should be made public. That included a majority of Republicans (54 percent). Just 18 percent overall said Barr's summary is enough.

Holman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:21 pm Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal has sent a letter to the IRS demanding Trump's tax returns from 2013 to 2018.

EDIT:

Holman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 9:22 pm

Is this the first actual leak from Mueller's team?

(Seen on Twitter:) If they're leaking this after two years of rock-solid discipline, it's got to be serious.

It does seem clear, though, that Barr has not been dealing from the top of the deck. More evidence of his bad faith can be found in his putative reason for abridging Mueller’s conclusions. The special counsel’s report provided summaries of its work. The Times, apparently relying on Justice Department sources, reports that Mueller’s summaries could not be published, because they “contain sensitive information, like classified material, secret grand-jury testimony and information related to current federal investigations that must remain confidential, according to two government officials.”

But the special counsel flatly contradicts this in its leak to the Post. The summaries, says a special counsel source, were deliberately written “so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately — or very quickly … It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.”

(Fordham law professor Jed Shugerman spotted this contradiction.) It’s possible, of course, the Justice Department is right and the special counsel is wrong. But it seems far more likely that Barr has, at minimum, spun the report in the most favorable way, in order to create the impression that it has cleared Trump. This has enabled the president and his defenders to spike the football, and present any efforts to examine the actual report as sore losers demanding to play overtime after the game has been decided.

NBC: Mueller report includes “detailed accounts of Trump campaign contacts with Russia” and depicts a “campaign whose members were manipulated by a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation.”

Holman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 9:22 pm

Is this the first actual leak from Mueller's team?

(Seen on Twitter:) If they're leaking this after two years of rock-solid discipline, it's got to be serious.

The Department of Justice on Thursday defended Attorney General William Barr's summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's confidential report after two newspapers said Mueller's investigators felt Barr didn't properly convey how damaging their findings were for President Donald Trump.


A Justice Department spokeswoman said "every page" of Mueller's nearly 400-page report provided to Barr on March 22 was flagged as potentially containing material covered under a law that protects confidential grand jury information and "therefore could not be publicly released."

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:20 pmI try and give Barr the benefit of the doubt.

$iljanus wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:57 pm I wonder if there's going to be a Wikileaks style release of the report? One can only hope for a mislaid data stick that happens to make it's way into the public domain via files being bounced among a bunch of overseas servers to make it hard to track down their origin...

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 5:23 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:20 pmI try and give Barr the benefit of the doubt.

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt after being skeptical. However, this piece reminded me about his background. I'm no longer as willing to give him the benefit of the doubt even understanding he has a balancing game to play. The main problem IMO is he has been a blocker protecting transparency vis a vis bad behavior in the past and it is hard to overlook that.

Holman wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 5:30 pm

$iljanus wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:57 pm I wonder if there's going to be a Wikileaks style release of the report? One can only hope for a mislaid data stick that happens to make it's way into the public domain via files being bounced among a bunch of overseas servers to make it hard to track down their origin...

Wikileaks style is to run it past Putin first.

But right now I'd put it at about 50-50 that very significant and troubling details from the report will be leaked (probably to the Washington Post) before Barr hands over whatever version he attempts to hand over.

The administration seemed to believe that winning one news cycle was all it would take to bury this thing. Half the media was willing to go along, but I kind of suspect that this story is just now reaching the form that history will remember.

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 5:23 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:20 pmI try and give Barr the benefit of the doubt.

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt after being skeptical. However, this piece reminded me about his background. I'm no longer as willing to give him the benefit of the doubt even understanding he has a balancing game to play. The main problem IMO is he has been a blocker protecting transparency vis a vis bad behavior in the past and it is hard to overlook that.

Barr covered up Iran-Contra. That was his whole resume.

He had one job this time, and he seems to be botching it.

Alefroth wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:19 pm Let's call it his cover letter.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 5:31 pm I'm not suggesting that someone in the DOJ should release the report. But some people are saying that. And that would be quite interesting. Are you listening, Deep State?

em2nought wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:09 pm

Zarathud wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 5:31 pm I'm not suggesting that someone in the DOJ should release the report. But some people are saying that. And that would be quite interesting. Are you listening, Deep State?

Glad to see you come round to the idea that the deep state exists.

Michael Cohen's legal team has released a 12-page memo it provided to House Democrats Thursday. The memo outlines evidence of what his team describes as "Trump's involvement in a conspiracy to collude with Russian government intervention in his favor during the 2016 presidential campaign" and "other felony crimes committed by Trump before and after he became president."