The William Barr Letter to Congress

This article first appeared in New English Review.



Having read Attorney General William Barr's letter to Congress regarding the completion of the Mueller investigation, I am amused by today's screams from leading Democrats questioning Barr's impartiality. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am also struck by the stark  difference between this letter and James Comey's July 5, 2016 statement to the public, in which he basically laid out a prosecutable case against Hillary Clinton then concluded that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case". This is when, "grossly negligent" was changed to "extremely careless" because the former phrase was contained in the language of 18 USC 973f, which did not require intent.

There were two issues that the Mueller investigation was supposed to address (not whether Paul Manafort was involved in crooked business deals years ago). Was President Trump or anyone in his campaign involved with the Russians in their attempts to meddle in the 2016 election, and did the President engage in obstruction of justice? In the first, Mueller found no collusion. In the second, he came to no conclusion one way or the other. As Barr pointed out in his letter, since there was no crime in the first instance, finding intent to engage in obstruction would be very hard to prove.

Barr also stressed that the decision not to recommend further indictments was not based on considerations of whether a sitting president could be charged. It was based on the lack of sufficient evidence. I would characterize it as lack of sufficient evidence as to the obstruction and lack of any evidence as to the collusion.

But that isn't enough for the same people who pooh-poohed the case against Hillary Clinton- a much stronger one, indeed. In the House, we can expect the Adam Schiffs and the Elijah Cummings' to hold more hearings, call more witnesses including Mueller and Barr themselves. They want every scrap of paper written by the Mueller team over the past two years, rumors, false leads, discredited statements, "golden showers", and all. There is no legitimate reason for all that to be made public, nor are they entitled to grand jury records, which are protected.

But let them proceed, I say. Let them continue to howl for Trump's impeachment. Most of the public will see right through it. They will pay the price in 2020.

The Democrats and the media stand today embarrassed. They had convicted Trump of everything but shooting Lincoln. All they have left from Mueller's report is that there was no conclusion that Trump didn't shoot Lincoln.