by Daveda Gruber:
Attorney General William Barr had an ally in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when Rosenstein told the Wall Street Journal that he believed it was strange to say the attorney general was misleading the public.
Rosenstein’s comment came as he defended Barr’s handling of the Robert Mueller report. Barr testified before a House appropriations subcommittee.
The highly anticipated Mueller report has caused a rather big stir in Washington D.C. among lawmakers since it was wrapped up.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller to serve as special counsel for the United States Department of Justice.
Rosenstein who is 54 years old, told the Wall Street Journal that he believed it was strange to say the attorney general was misleading the public.
Rosenstein said, “He’s being as forthcoming as he can, and so this notion that he’s trying to mislead people, I think is just completely bizarre.”
Rosenstein also said, “It would be one thing if you put out a letter and said, ‘I’m not going to give you the report. What he said is, ‘Look, it’s going to take a while to process the report. In the meantime, people really want to know what’s in it. I’m going to give you the top-line conclusions.’ That’s all he was trying to do.”
Rosenstein was not about to give up too much information but he did call on the public to have “tremendous confidence” in Barr.
Barr has defended his decision to send a letter to Congress detailing Mueller’s principal conclusions. This was done because the public would not have tolerated waiting weeks for information that took Mueller and his team nearly two years to put together.
Mueller’s investigation concluded in late March and since then Barr has received the nearly 400-page confidential report. Barr, in turn, sent his four-page summary letter to Congress two days later.
In that letter, Barr wrote that Mueller found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion despite efforts by “Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.”
Also noted was that Mueller had not exonerated President Trump on the issue of obstruction of justice.
The Mueller report will be made public in a week but that version will be redacted.
Rosenstein stayed in his position at the Department of Justice “at Barr’s request” saying, “For me, it’s a real privilege.” He hopes to begin a new job toward the end of the summer.
In Capital Hill testimony, Barr said that “spying did occur” against the 2016 Trump campaign.
It’s very clear that Democrats on the Hill were notably disturbed by that claim. In fact, even former FBI Director James Comey made a claim that he had no idea what Barr was talking about when he said that “spying did occur” against the 2016 Trump campaign.
Comey said, “I have no idea what he’s talking about so it’s hard for me to comment. When I hear that kind of language used, it’s concerning because the FBI and the Department of Justice conduct court-ordered electronic surveillance. I have never thought of that as spying.”
So, if spying does not include electronic devices, why have people who were being spied on always thought that their phone was tapped? What are listening devices? When someone goes to a meeting with a wire to record the events or to have agents listening in real time, is it surveillance or spying? Or are the two, if not similar, the same thing?
The covering up has just begun. Not only do I want to see the Mueller report but I want to find out what or who Barr is investigating next.
