FOULMOUTHED DONALD TRUMP HURLS "BULLSH*T" AT DEMOCRATS AND THE INTEGRITY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL IS QUESTIONED BY SOME MUELLER INVESTIGATORS

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     Whether a Democrat or a Republican, the president of the United States is supposed to be a role model for every American - man, woman, boy and girl.  We can disagree with his political views, but giving him (or someday her) the respect of the office that the president represents is generally a matter of course.  But not anymore.

     When Donald Trump claimed victory to The White House, as a result of the 2016 electoral vote, less than half of the people in our country had any desire to give him one ounce of respect.  But not because Hillary Clinton didn't win.  Despite what Trump and his supporters want to think, the reasons Democrats and other liberal or progressive Americans are vehemently opposed to Trump, and why they won't respect him, has nothing to do with the former secretary of state not becoming president.  Simply put, Donald Trump doesn't deserve to be saluted with even an infinitesimal amount of honor because he doesn't respect any of us.  Oh Trump fakes it with his base, but it's plain as day that those devoted cheerleaders, who have lifted Trump on to his pedestal of profanity, are ignored behind their backs.  Trump isn't genuinely loyal to anyone.  So if you're an ardent follower, be careful, because Trump will shove you in front of a bus - or throw you under it - without it affecting him in the least.  In fact, Trump thrives on his insults and his cruel and crude behavior.

     At a raucous campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday, March 28th, 2019, an unhinged Trump ran a premature victory lap by giving his fanatics another one of his big, fat lies. And they're buying it...hook... line...and sinker.  "The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction. Total exoneration.  Complete vindication."  That, of course, is not what Robert Mueller wrote in the report he submitted to Attorney General William Barr on Friday, March 22nd.  The fact is that when Barr issued his 4-page letter to congressional leaders of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees on Sunday, March 24th, he quoted Mueller whose words are crystal clear.  "While this report does not conclude that (Donald Trump) committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."  Regarding collusion, however, Barr cited Mueller by saying his investigation "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."  But Mueller does not indicate that Trump is guilty...or not guilty...of obstruction of justice, and he leaves open the notion of criminal activity by Trump, including a felony charge for obstruction.  In Barr's summary letter, the attorney general interprets the Mueller Report by writing that "the special counsel did not draw a conclusion - one way or the other - as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction."  But those are Barr's words, in his letter, not quotes from Mueller himself.  Barr also includes in his interpreted summary that "Mueller leaves unresolved what the special counsel views as 'difficult issues' of law and fact concerning whether (Trump's) actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction."  I believe since Mueller did not address the obstruction allegations with a tone of certainty, it is unethical - and should be illegal - for the attorney general to make any decision on the subject, especially when Barr publicly opposed the Mueller investigation nearly a year ago.  That being said,  Barr writes in 

his letter that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein "concluded that the evidence developed during the special counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that (Donald Trump) committed an obstruction of justice offense." But the controversy swirling around the obstruction issue is also Mueller's fault.  The special counsel was wrong.  He should have made his recommendations on obstruction of justice and not ignored it.  It will now be up to Congress to act.

     A person can be guilty of obstruction of justice even if he didn't have anything to do with a crime.  According to PolitiFact and nearly a dozen legal experts they consulted with, "Obstruction can indeed be prosecuted without an underlying crime." Therefore, when Barr wrote the following in his letter, he would be wrong.  "In making this determination, we noted that the special counsel recognized that 'the evidence does not establish that the president was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference,' and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the president's intent with respect to obstruction."  So is Trump guilty of obstruction of justice beyond a reasonable doubt?  Some legal experts say yes, while others say no.  Congress will have to find out for sure.

     But Donald Trump continues to profess that he is innocent and that the Democrats are out to get him.  At that boisterous Grand Rapids rally, Trump conveyed to his base that "after three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead."  Well, Trump's declaration couldn't be farther from the truth.  He can claim that "the collusion delusion is over" but the Democrats in the House of Representatives are not satisfied, and neither are about half the people in the United States.  Despite the Mueller Report's apparent findings that Trump did not participate in a conspiracy to collude with Russia by interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll indicates that 48 percent of Americans remain convinced that Trump is indeed guilty of that crime.  And 53 percent of those polled believe Trump tried to stop investigations in to Russian influence on his administration.  The survey was conducted after Attorney General Barr's interpreted summary of the Mueller Report.  But there is no debating the fact that Mueller did not definitively clear Trump of criminal wrongdoing.

     You'll note I specifically use the words "apparent findings" and "interpreted summary" because we have not seen Robert Mueller's report.  A 4-page letter from the attorney general cannot summarize a 400-page report for an investigation that took 22 months to complete.  The entire unredacted report needs to be made public for all Americans to read, should they choose to do so.  We cannot accept an interpretation by the attorney general as gospel.  Barr has said that when the report is released - sometime in "mid-April, if not sooner" - it will not include certain sensitive information.  Furthermore, Barr wrote in his second letter on the subject - on Friday, March 29th - "Although (Donald Trump) would have the right to assert privilege over certain parts of the report, he has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me and, accordingly, there are no plans to submit the report to The White House for a privilege review."  Let's 

dissect and analyze Attorney General William Barr's statement. He has "no plans to submit the report to The White House."  That means - to my understanding - that the attorney general could change his mind, or be coaxed to do so by Trump. It also means that Barr hasn't ruled out providing Trump with bits and pieces of the document, which might put Trump in a bad light.  Trump claims he has "nothing to hide," but anyone with a sense of reality and logic knows that he has a whole hell of a lot to hide.

     Congressman Adam Schiff of California, the House Intelligence Committee chairman; Congressman Jerry Nadler of New York, the House Judiciary Committee chairman; and Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the House Oversight Committee chairman - all Democrats - are not throwing in the towel.  They are not giving up on investigating Donald Trump.  There is too much evidence already that shows Trump did indeed break the law...and probably more than one.  But one is all the House needs to impeach Trump, and then for the Senate to convict and remove him from office, or - as in the case of President Richard Nixon - force Trump to resign the presidency.

     Back at Grand Rapids, a defiant Trump slammed Democrats with an expletive.  "Democrats have to decide if they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullsh*t, partisan investigations, or whether they will apologize to the American people."

     It is Trump who should tell the country he's sorry.  He has degraded the presidency.  After all, nobody wants to hear the nation's president utter obscenities. But there is no need for any apology by the Democrats.  I believe - as I have written in columns for more than two years - that at some point, Republicans will come to their senses and agree with Democrats that there is irrefutable and indisputable evidence to prove, without any question whatsoever, that we have another "crook" sitting behind The Oval Office desk. 

     Trump continued at the Grand Rapids event to blast Democrats, along with the press and anyone else who opposes him. "These are sick people.  These people are sick.  All of the Democrat politicians, the media bosses, bad people.  The crooked journalists, the totally dishonest TV pundits. And all of the current and former officials who paid for, promoted, and perpetuated the single greatest hoax in the history of politics in our country.  They have to be, I'm sorry, they have to be accountable."  The clamorous crowd followed Trump with chants of "Lock them up;" reminiscent of Republicans' vicious shouts of "Lock her up" towards Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign. 

     But it will be Donald Trump whose freedom will eventually be in jeopardy.  Just because Attorney General Barr has given his interpretation that the Mueller Report doesn't illustrate a reason for Trump to be prosecuted, doesn't mean other entities won't find grounds to bring him before the House of Representatives, the Senate, or even a judge. Elements of the Mueller probe continue to be investigated by Congress and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.  Plus, New York State Attorney General Letitia James is conducting her own investigation in to 

allegations of criminal activity by Trump and his three oldest children - Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump - all of whom have been or currently are executives at The Trump Organization in New York City. James is on the warpath to prove allegations that Trump and his offspring committed crimes in "The Empire State" in connection with the Trump business.  For now, though, Trump has painted a portrait that he is a victim.  Instead, the Democrats, who Trump labels "major losers," are - when all is said and done - going to be on top as the winners.

     Meanwhile, Barr has offered to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on May 2nd.  But Congressman Nadler says, "It is critical for Attorney General Barr to come before Congress immediately."  Barr also volunteered to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1st.  The chairman of that panel - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina - said that date is acceptable to him.

     I want Barr, as well as Special Counsel Mueller, to appear under oath, in public, in separate live televised congressional hearings, so all Americans can hear what these two men have to say in sworn testimony.

     Let us remember that William Barr was handpicked by Donald Trump after Barr auditioned for the attorney general position by composing a 19-page memorandum in June 2018 that described the Mueller investigation as "fatally misconceived."  Barr wrote that it was within the powers of the president to fire James Comey as F.B.I. director in May 2017.  But legal scholars throughout the country disagree because Trump terminated Comey to put the brakes on the Russia investigation; an investigation where Trump was - and still is today - a subject.  In his memo last year, Barr also wrote, "If an investigation is going to take down a democratically-elected president, it is imperative that any claim of wrongdoing is solidly based on a real crime...not a debatable one."  And Barr stated in that memo that "the president can never obstruct justice."  But history has proven

that Barr is wrong because if President Nixon hadn't resigned in August 1974, one of the primary charges against him in the Articles of Impeachment was obstruction of justice.  And the conventional wisdom is that if Mr. Nixon hadn't moved out of The White House on his own terms, there were enough votes in both the House and the Senate to impeach, convict, and remove him from office.  Furthermore, in December 1998, a Republican-controlled House of 

Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton (all because of a consensual act of oral sex between Mr. Clinton and then White House intern Monica Lewinsky), which led to a Senate trial where President Clinton faced charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.  The Senate was, at the time, also Republican-controlled, but the Constitution requires 67 of the 100 senators to remove a president from office, and with 45 Democrats, President Clinton was thankfully and rightfully not going to lose his job. 

     In a joint statement by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, the two Democratic Party leaders, on March 24th, accurately accused Attorney General Barr of being impartial.  "The fact that Special Counsel Mueller's report does not exonerate (Donald Trump) on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay.  Given Mr. Barr's public record of bias against the special counsel's inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report."

     Despite Attorney General Barr's March 24th letter, not everyone within the Department of Justice is happy with Barr's summary of Robert Mueller's investigation. Some members of the special counsel's team have expressed "frustration" that Barr gave Trump a pass concerning obstruction of justice.  Three unidentified U.S. government officials told NBC News that some of Mueller's investigators were at each other's throats about the obstruction issue, and that it was one reason why Mueller didn't make a recommendation on whether or not Donald Trump obstructed justice. One official told NBC News that Trump should not be off the hook on obstruction, and that certain individuals of the Mueller team feel that - contrary to Barr's letter - there is evidence, which is much stronger than Barr noted, to show that Trump sought to thwart the Mueller probe.  The aforementioned official - who spoke with members of Mueller's team - told NBC News that the evidence on obstruction is "compelling."  And The Washington Post says that according to "one person with knowledge of their thinking," some investigators believe their findings on obstruction were "alarming and significant."  Both The Washington Post and The New York Times report that some members of the special counsel's team are more than a bit perturbed by how the attorney general portrayed the evidence.  When three prestigious news organizations - NBC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post - all report that some of Mueller's investigators believe that Barr misrepresented the team's findings as being more supportive to Donald Trump than is actually true, that equates to a lack of integrity by the attorney general.  There was no reason for Barr to create his own analysis regarding an obstruction of justice case against Trump when Special Counsel Mueller did not provide a legal conclusion or even give an opinion on the allegations of such a possible crime.   The words can be massaged in a number of ways, but to me, it comes down to the point that some of Mueller's investigators are indeed questioning the integrity of William Barr.  These are more reasons why it is critical for Democrats in the House of Representatives to insist that the entire unredacted Mueller Report be released to Congress, and unless specific national security issues are noted, every syllable of Mueller's report needs to be made public.

     Chairman Jerry Nadler and the House Judiciary Committee want their eyes to read the full, unredacted Mueller Report.  Therefore, on Wednesday, April 3rd, they voted to authorize a subpoena to get it.  Nadler is simply doing what our Founding Fathers would expect him to do.  In his opening remarks to his committee, Nadler was correct in articulating that "The Constitution charges Congress with holding the president accountable for alleged official misconduct."  And Nadler emphasized that it's unacceptable for Congress to receive "the attorney general's summary" or "a substantially redacted synopsis."  Nadler justly expects "the full report and the underlying evidence."  But so far, Nadler says Attorney General Barr has "refused" to play ball with him when, by law, the House Judiciary Committee is entitled to gain access to all materials.  As to a timetable for Nadler to issue the subpoena, he is willing to give Barr "time to change his mind."  But  Nadler also says that all this might end up being "up to a judge, not (Donald Trump) or his political appointee, to decide whether or not it is appropriate for the committee to review the complete record."

     It should be remembered that with the Watergate investigation, Judge John Sirica overruled grand jury secrecy and gave testimonies by witnesses to Congress.  The same should happen with the Mueller Report.  In addition, after the aforementioned investigation of President Clinton, all 445 unredacted pages of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report were given to Congress, along with - according to Congressman Nadler - "17 boxes of additional documents, including grand jury material.  We are owed that same opportunity today."  The Starr Report was released to the public, by the Republicans, on September 11th, 1998.  The complete text of the report was subsequently published in a book titled, The Starr Report: The Findings Of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr On President Clinton And The Lewinsky Affair.
  
     Regarding Donald Trump and the Mueller probe, Attorney General Barr says the special counsel's report notes that throughout the course of his investigation, Mueller issued "more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses."  Sorry Mr. Barr, but a 4-page summary - and one based on your personal interpretation - is not satisfactory for the American people.  And although "the special counsel obtained a number of indictments and convictions of individuals and entities in connection with his investigation," Barr writes in his initial letter that "the report does not recommend any further indictments, nor did the special counsel obtain any sealed indictments that have yet to be made public."  However, I'm banking on Congress.  Therefore, I predict that when lawmakers on Capitol Hill get through with their investigation, there will be more indictments and convictions. 

     Americans need to know - and we have to know - if the president of the United States participated with a foreign adversary to sabotage our democracy.  The future of our nation and the future of that democracy is at stake. Americans have the right to know if Donald Trump and his campaign were manipulated by Russia, and if Trump himself conspired in any way to collude with Vladimir Putin and The Kremlin.  We - the people of the United States - deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  As attorney general, William Barr works for us...for you...and for me.  And so does Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Barr's job is not to protect Donald Trump.  It's to protect the U.S. Constitution and the American people.  Congress must demand transparency and full disclosure from the Department of Justice.  After all, on March 14th a House resolution passed by a unanimous, bipartisan vote of 420 to 0 that called for "a full release" of all of Mueller's findings, and that means not only his report, but every file, every note, every shred of evidence.  Unless it affects the national security of our country, there can be no secrets.  Absolutely nothing should be concealed.  Otherwise...the stench of a cover-up will linger on for decades to come.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again." 

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits: Paul Sancya/The Associated Press (Donald Trump #1), Alexander Drago/Reuters (Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein), Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call (Special Counsel Robert Mueller), Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg and Getty Images (U.S. Attorney General William Barr), Reuters and Getty Images (Congressman Adam Schiff, Congressman Jerry Nadler and Congressman Elijah Cummings), Scott Olson and Getty Images (Donald Trump #2), The Washington Post and Getty Images (Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), Stephen Yang (New York State Attorney General Letitia James), Gary Cameron/Reuters (Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump), Chip Somodevilla and Getty Images (Senator Lindsey Graham), ABC News Screenshot (Former F.B.I. Director James Comey), Richard Nixon Foundation (Former President Richard Nixon), Ian Wagr/United Press International (Former President Bill Clinton), Reuters (Monica Lewinsky), New York Amsterdam News (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer), The Associated Press (Judge John Sirica), ABC News Screenshot (Former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr) and The Associated Press (Russia President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump)  

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