Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/07/justice-department-asks-white.html
DOJ to House Judiciary: Cancel contempt vote, or AG Barr tells Trump to assert executive privilege over Mueller report.
Justice Department asks White House to invoke executive privilege over Mueller report
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ofc they did. OF FUCKING COURSE THEY DID.
I have had a fucking spectacularly shitty day. I will update this later when I am less drunk and more rational.
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“President Clinton, acting on the advice of Attorney General Janet Reno, made such a protective assertion of privilege in similar circumstances.”
I want to hear Trump say out loud that he is just like Bill Clinton.
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Time for the House Dems to impeach Barr, even if Turtle Man will block it in the Senate.
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I don’t think Clinton was ever accused of paying anyone…
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trump and the GOP are out of control and outside the law - time to end them.
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Although the supreme court gets to sign off on claims of executive privilege, we can take solace in the fact that it did not ultimately help Clinton or Nixon.
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Someone should just sneak a pin camera on a shirt into that classified room and then have a team review and crop screenshots to get the full report leaked. Where’s a Daniel Ellsberg when you need one?
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Hard to believe we’re comparing Richard Nixon with Billy Clinton’s sex life that the Republicans just had to know about.
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Does the Congressional Master-At-Arms get to arrest cabinet officials held in contempt? Will we see any perp-walks? Or will Secret Service (those not too drunk) stage a shoot-out with federal marshals?
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As if he isn’t going to eventually declare executive privilege anyway.
Do it–find Barr in contempt. Force a fight. Get things moving toward their conclusion as fast as possible. The longer Trump stalls, the better for him. Make him show his hand and then impeach the son of a bitch.
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I kind of agree. A wager on delaying an impeachment attempt is a wager on his base (or the Republican establishment) turning on him.
We have lost every one of those wagers so far. All of them. And there have been many!
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I’m not sold on impeachment but I’m sold on fighting him as hard as it takes. It might lead to impeachment, it might lead to him being so damaged (yes it can happen) that impeachment isn’t necessary. But either way move forward fast. 18 months is a short amount of time.
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I’m not sure why it even matters, as far as contempt charges go*. Did he turn over the report by the deadline they set? No. Had executive privilege been asserted but the deadline? No. He had no valid reason to not turn it over, so he’s guilty. Lock. Him. Up.
*Yes, it matters for other reasons, but not for contempt charges for Barr. Also, I have contempt for Barr.
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Though in those cases, someone was willing to impeach. The more Trump responds to this situation, the closer he gets to what Nixon did. But it doesn’t matter if there’s no will to impeach. (Hopefully, though, the more he looks like Nixon, the more that will change.)
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Impeachment by the House is indictment, that’s all. If indicted, the Senate holds a political trial conducted by the Chief Justice. Tromp will not be convicted and removed unless something scares GOP senators shitless, and there’s no sign of that. Yet.
I say again: Trump will not be removed. His DOJ won’t indict him on federal charges. (Recall that he has BRAGGED of obstruction.) But can he be tried on state charges? Can he preside over the Executive Dept from Sing-Sing?
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It is very possible that someone will, at some point, leak the full report. I don’t think there is a way to keep it secret for too long.
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McConnell’s been doing his level best to wreck our democracy for over a decade now - kinda surprised there’s no way to hold him accountable for that.
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The motivation to release the “less redacted” version of Mueller’s report to all intelligence and judiciary members may very well be to dim the inevitable spotlight that will be beamed at every Democratic congressperson (and their staffers) when the report inevitably leaks.
A shrewd play. It will be interesting to see what comes of the contempt vote.
