The Robert Mueller Fiasco

Office of the Special Counsel head Robert Mueller testified before the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee yesterday. People on both sides of the aisle agreed that Mr. Mueller’s testimony  did nothing to forward the impeachment of Donald Trump.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Democrats-second-guess-calling-Mueller-divided-14152728.php

Mueller seemed to bumble and stumble his way through. He couldn’t even identify Fusion GPS, the opposition research outfit that provided input into the famous Steele Dossier, which was used  to obtain FISA warrants on minor Trump campaign operatives George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, which was then used to get info on higher-ups in the Trump Administration.

People in DC were very confused by Mueller’s performance. Apparently, this guy is regarded as a razor-sharp pit bull who knows everything about his cases. So why did Mueller appear so befuddled during his testimony yesterday?

Here’s a theory.

Recall that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, recused himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which was to probe the connection between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Sessions didn’t want to be seen as biased because he is a Trump supporter. Here’s how the New York Times tells it:

Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller to take over the F.B.I.’s investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and what part any members of the Trump campaign may have played in those efforts, as well as whether the president tried to obstruct the investigation. He then oversaw Mr. Mueller’s work because Jeff Sessions, a former Trump campaign adviser and the attorney general at the time, had recused himself from all campaign-related inquiries.”

Source: “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to Step Down in May,” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/us/politics/rod-rosenstein-resigns.html)

So who was responsible for the oversight of the Mueller probe after Jeff Sessions stepped away? Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein.

Rosenstein was seen by Democrats in the House and Senate as sympathetic to Mueller, and not sympathetic to Trump. To see this, just look at the confirmation votes in the Senate for Rosenstein and Sessions. Rosenstein’s nomination was overwhelmingly supported by both Republicans and Democrats. Sessions’ nomination barely squeaked through because Democrats knew he was sympathetic to Trump. So when the Mueller probe began, from the first day, Sessions was gone and Rosenstein was in charge.

As we all know, Mueller hired people who didn’t like Trump. All of Trump’s 18 prosecutors/lawyers identified as Democrats. This is easily seen because Trump, during the two-year investigation, constantly railed (and still does) against the “18 Angry Democrats” and “the Witch Hunt.” Democrats basically gave Trump the finger, telling him to stop whining and live with it.  

What happened next is the interesting part.

In 2018 we found out about a “plot” (so the Republicans say) to wire people in the White House to secretly record Trump’s conversations. This plot was to collect info that would show that Trump is mentally incompetent, and to use the 25th amendment to remove him from office.[1]

 Rod Rosenstein, if you recall, called it “a joke.” But I’m not so sure it was a joke. Remember Omarossa, the former Trump aide? She was let go back in December 2017. Omarossa claimed this was because Trump is a racist. She even wrote an anti-Trump book about her time in the White House, titled Unhinged, which got a lot of media play. But what if the real reason for her firing was that she was wearing a wire? Here’s what Wikipedia says about this:

Omarosa Onee Manigault Newman (born February 5, 1974), often mononymously known as Omarosa, is an American reality television show participant, writer, and former political aide to President Donald Trump. She became widely known as a contestant on the first season of NBC's reality television series The Apprentice. After becoming assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison during the Trump administration in January 2017, Newman resigned the White House on December 13, 2017. Subsequently, she competed on the first season of Celebrity Big Brother, making it to the final five of the season.

In August 2018, Newman published Unhinged, detailing her tenure at the White House and criticizing Trump and his administration. Two days before the book was released, she released the first of as many as 200 secret tapes she recorded during her White House tenure. As of 26 July 2019, she has released four tapes. The first tape she released, which was secretly recorded inside the Situation Room, was described as ‘one of the worst White House security breaches ever,’ though the tape is thought not to violate the Espionage Act.”

Wikipedia, " Omarosa Manigault Newman "

This makes a nice conspiracy theory doesn’t it? But it gets better.

Recall that Jeff Sessions resigned as AG in November 2018.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned on Wednesday at President Trump’s request, ending the tenure of a beleaguered loyalist whose relationship with the president was ruined when Sessions recused himself from control of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.”

(Source: Washington Post, 20 November 2018, “JeffSessions forced out as attorney general,” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-resigns-at-trumps-request/2018/11/07/d1b7a214-e144-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html?utm_term=.d818c033a356)

Rod  Rosenstein retired from the Justice Department in May of 2019, just after  the Mueller investigation ended in April and the report was issued.  Trump then appointed William Barr to be Attorney General.

Apparently Bill Barr has a lot of respect in DC as an able lawyer, with both parties.

Here’s where the conspiracy theory comes in. What would have happened if Jeff Sessions had never resigned?

Well, the Mueller investigation would have continued. Leaks to the press would have continued, showing Trump and his alleged involvement with the Russians. But why? So that Trump, known for his gigantic ego and his impulsiveness, would have had to eventually fire Mueller and his team. This would have led to another Saturday Night Massacre. It would have been Watergate all over again. Trump could then, legitimately, be accused of obstruction of justice. This would have led to impeachment proceedings, just as it did with Richard Nixon back in 1972. Another Republican president would have bitten the dust, yay!

But, strangely, Trump did nothing except rant on Twitter for two years as Mueller and the media pounded him. He let the investigation continue, he provided documents, he did not cite Executive Privilege (as Nixon did) and allowed witnesses in the Executive Branch to testify before the OSC. (Trump has asserted executive privilege when it comes to his taxes, but that is an entirely different matter.)

But once Barr was appointed, Mueller and the OSC had to face the fact that they were now being overseen by a highly respected lawyer with high credentials, and someone they had respect for and had worked with in the past. The OSC knew they couldn’t mess around with Bill Barr.

Mueller, before he testified to Congress yesterday, realized he was trapped. During the previous two years he had the support of the Deputy AG and all Democrats in Congress. But after the 2018 mid-term elections, progressives like AOC, Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar began attacking moderates in the Democratic party, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Democrats began to splinter. Moreover, the release of the Mueller Report itself was basically a dud politically. Mueller didn’t charge Trump with any crimes, although he did say Trump wasn’t exonerated. Nevertheless, Democrats (all of the people in the OSC identified as Dems) weren’t happy.

When the Mueller team disbanded, another attempt was made to breathe life into Russiagate. Mueller was asked to  testify before Congress about the report. But Mueller was in a bad spot. Although he didn’t like Trump, he knew that there was really nothing behind Russiagate. Christopher Steele, Mifsud, Stefan Halper, George Nader (who was accused recently of sex crimes) and the other actors in the Russigate play couldn’t connect Trump to Russian spying. Mueller knew his report was lame, he knew that his new boss, AG Barr, knew it was lame, and his Democratic backers were now in disarray.

Media observers were confused by Mueller’s performance. But Mueller knew he had a flimsy case with Russiagate. He could have given the Dems their sound bites but if he did, it would be a liability for himself and his teammates. He knew Barr already had an ongoing investigation about the origins of Russiagate, and that the actions of his team were being scrutinized. If his testimony actually did lead to an impeachment investigation of Trump (this was clearly the purpose for the hearings) the actions of the OSC would have been exposed when the investigation uncovered that their flimsy case against Trump was largely manufactured (the Mueller report itself is long on accusations and short on evidence).

Mueller didn’t even know what Fusion GPS is? Beyond his purview? Nonsense. Sure he looked tired, but Mueller is a sharp cookie.

I think he reasoned like this: If he admitted he knew Fusion GPS was an opposition research group whose research was paid for by the Democratic National Committee, and that the Steele dossier was paid for by Perkins Coie, the Clinton’s law firm, the question from Republicans would be, “What have you been doing for the past two years?”

Moreover, Mueller knows his report is filled with inaccuracies. Here’s just one example: the Mueller Report mentions Joseph Mifsud, a European academic with ties to Link University in Rome, a training ground for Western intelligence agents. John Solomon, of The Hill, says this:

Mueller’s team alleges that Mifsud is the person who fed a story in spring 2016 to Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos about Moscow possessing purloined emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”

[Note: this is the collusion story promoted by Mueller, that the Russians hacked the DNC server to get Hillary’s emails, and that the Russians then gave these emails to Trump.].

It was the earliest known contact in the now-debunked collusion narrative and the seminal event that the FBI says prompted it on July 31, 2016, to open its probe into the Trump campaign. Mueller concluded that Mifsud was a person with extensive Russia ties who planted the story about the Clinton emails in Moscow and then lied about his dealings with Papadopoulos when interviewed by the FBI in 2017. Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Mifsud. But unlike others accused of misleading Mueller — including Papadopoulos, former Trump adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — Mifsud was not charged with a crime....”

Source: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/454409-robert-mueller-soon-may-be-exposed-as-the-magician-of-omission-on-russia

Why not? Could it be that Mifsud wasn’t really working with the Russians for Trump? Solomon continues:

A May 2019 letter from Devin Nunes [Republican House Intelligence Committee member whom the Democrats love to hate]­ to U.S. intelligence officials reveals photos showing that the FBI conducted training at Link in fall 2016 and that Mifsud and other Link officials met regularly with world leaders, including Boris Johnson, elected today as Britain’s new prime minister.... Mifsud received instructions from Link superiors to “put Papadopoulos in contact with Russians,” including a think tank figure named Ivan Timofeev and a woman he was instructed to identify to Papadopoulos as Vladimir Putin’s niece. Mifsud knew the woman was not the Russian president’s niece but, rather, a student who was involved with both the Link and LCILP campuses.... ”

Source: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/454409-robert-mueller-soon-may-be-exposed-as-the-magician-of-omission-on-russia

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we seek to deceive. Why didn’t Mueller even interview Mifsud, who was readily available? If the Russiagate narrative is correct, Mifsud could have provided direct evidence against Trump. Sounds like Mifsud is trying to entrap a Trump advisor, not collude with the Russians against Hillary. Moreover, if the FBI suspected that Mifsud had ties to Russia, why would it provide training to his academic group at Link University? These are the sorts of questions that would have been asked if Mueller didn’t present himself as dazed and confused.

Mueller did the only thing he could do: pretend to be an idiot. But he isn’t an idiot. It was a great acting job though. The special prosecutor was covering his ass. And he did a really good job of it.

What’s Next?

The Mueller Report will be swept aside by the investigations into child trafficking. Jeffrey Epstein is just the tip of the iceberg. Flight logs of those who traveled to Little St. James (“Pedo Island”) are known. All those who used Epstein’s “services” are known. Some of these people – businessmen, entertainers, and politicians – are famous. They are going down. When that happens, the silly blip known as Russiagate will disappear into the dustbin of history.

When Russiagate is analyzed it will be seen as an op by a group of people that couldn’t accept the results of the 2016 election. The reasons for that are tied up with the dark networks, including (particularly) the sex trafficking and child trafficking networks, and the organizations and people running them. By the time November 2020 rolls around, a lot of this stuff will be revealed.

We live in troubled, but interesting, times.


[1] The relevant portion of the 25th amendment is in Section 4, which states the following (italics mine):

“SECTION 4

“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

   “Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.”