Bill Barr was nominated by President Trump for Attorney General. Hearings are now going on in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Big in the news.
I, Jonesy, have had some serious misgivings about Bill Barr being nominated as Attorney General. I’ve been trying to figure out why Trump would nominate him, especially when I learned that Barr is very good friends with Mueller who is investigating Trump. Trump calls this a “witch hunt”. Many of us concur because after almost three years of FBI investigation, including 20 months by the Mueller team, there has been no solid concrete evidence proving that Trump colluded with the Russians to sway the election. No proof at all that there was even a crime committed; No votes changed nor violations of law to which Trump could be linked. Some minor “process crimes” by minor players in the Trump campaign of lying to FBI and other crimes found such as tax evasion which are not related to the election. Some Russians indicted for apparent campaign law violations. No connection to Trump, as Mueller pointed out in the indictments. No crimes by Trump have yet been found. So the continuing investigation is termed a “witch hunt” by Trump and by others.
Barr and Mueller are close friends. Bob Mueller attended the weddings of two of Prospective Attorney General Bill Barr’s daughters. Bob Mueller’s wife and Bill Barr’s wife attend Bible Study together. This seems like a glaring conflict of interest.
William Barr is in Senate hearings, to vet him as the new Attorney General. Barr spoke unequivocally about trusting Mueller to do the right thing and Barr expressed confidence that Mueller would not be involved in a “witch hunt”. Barr pledged to let Mueller complete his investigation. Trump is also letting Mueller proceed, even though he has the absolute right and authority to fire him. Why not fire Mueller? Why in the world would Trump nominate Barr if Barr is supporting Mueller in what seems to be a “witch hunt”?
Some very conservative people have complete faith in Bill Barr as being a true professional in law enforcement. Completely fair and unbiased. I scratch my head over this. In the last couple of days I’ve heard some very very good conservative people express complete faith in Bill Barr. Some have known Barr personally for 20+ years, such as Laura Ingraham. They claim he is honest and fair.
Mueller’s investigative team is comprised of more than a dozen Democrats who donated to the Hillary campaign, some of which literally hate Trump with a purple passion. It all seems apparent that Mueller is a Trump-hater who is out to get him. The Barr appointment doesn’t seem to jive with my perception of Mueller, Barr’s friend, as being very very biased and “out to get Trump”. Barr supports that???
So I needed to do some serious research and thinking about it. Here is what I’ve come up with. I’m piecing the facts together in my head to try and explain it.
How about the below as a possible explanation as to why Mueller is still on the job, trying to wrap up his report, after 20 months of digging. The below could explain why Mueller has not been fired and why Barr pledges to let him finish.
1. Bob Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel to investigate if there was any Trump-Russia collusion. The fired FBI Director, James Comey, testified to Congress under oath, “We can’t prove collusion. It’s unverified. It’s salacious. It’s not true.” This, after nine months of investigation by the FBI. The Mueller appointment appeared to be revenge against Trump for firing Comey.
2. Mueller was handed a very tough case. The media drumbeat was/is that “Trump colluded with the Russians.” Polls show that 60% of Democrats and 42% of all Americans honestly believe that drumbeat; believe that Trump and Russia colluded to hack the election to change votes and to change the results of the election of 2016. These Americans honestly believe that Trump is an illegitimate President, that he stole the election from Hillary, with Russia’s help. Some of them honestly believe Trump is an agent of Russia, to bring down the USA. They believe that. So how does Mueller deal with this? How does he conduct an honest investigation that will be accepted by the anti-Trump media and the Trump-hating Democrats IF, and that is a very big IF, at the conclusion of the investigation Mueller can find no crime to pin on Trump? In other words, if “there is no there, there”, as Peter Strzok texted, how do you get the anti-Trumpers to accept that result?
3. Mueller may be smarter and more fair than I have given him an ounce of credit for. Here is how I believe he handled the problem (if I’ve correctly assessed the situation).
4. Mueller is a token Republican, although he gives every indication of being a RINO. If he was a true Republican, he would appoint a team of Republicans to investigate Trump, or at least a balanced team of Republicans and Democrats. Right? Not so fast! Hear me out.
5. Mueller appointed a bevy of Democrat insiders from the FBI to investigate Trump, to be on Mueller’s team. Several of them have donated significant amounts to the Hillary campaign. They are in Hillary’s corner. Some have even proven to be rabid Trump-haters, to try in every way to bring him down. These are blatant conflicts of interest which should disqualify them. In spite of these apparent conflicts of interest, Mueller appoints Peter Strzok to be the lead investigator. Strzok was also the lead investigator in the Hillary inquiry, which whitewashed Hillary’s crimes. A HORRIBLE choice, in my opinion. But, again, not so fast!
6. Throughout the investigation, evidence surfaces of the extreme bias against Trump by several on Mueller’s team. Some are eventually either fired or demoted, including; Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Jeannie Rhee, Andrew Weissman, among others. This definitely establishes that this investigation is not being carried out by those friendly to Trump.
7. When Bob Mueller writes his report, if there is no crime in there that can be positively pinned on Trump, Mueller can honestly say, “I hired a team that is anti-Trump and yet they still couldn’t find anything.” This would put to bed any charges of pro-Trump bias in the report.
8. To soften the impact, Mueller may include in his report some statements to the effect that there are things which may point to Trump/Russia collusion but no evidence can be found that you can take to a Grand Jury for indictment or that can be used for impeachment proceedings.
So, my conclusion is that the Mueller report is going to be a big “nothing-burger”. Media and Democrats will be disappointed. Some will be furious.
The above may explain why Mueller has been allowed to go on for so long with a biased team and why President Trump would appoint a close friend of Bob Mueller, Bill Barr, as Attorney General.
I could be wrong, but this seems logical.
Jonesy
