The Brian Mudd Show

The Brian Mudd Show

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Mueller Report Timeline Pt. 1

There are two key statements from AG William Barr in his four-page summary of the Mueller Report. First pertaining to Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election -The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Second, pertaining to Obstruction of Justice -The Special Counsel states that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."If a crime wasn’t committed it’s hard to obstruct an investigation of it.

At the onset, it’s important to remember how we got here. A fraudulently constructed dossier presented as evidence to the FISA court, leaks of the contents of this fraudulent dossier to news media and successfully using a low-level Trump campaign associate as a prop. That was the basis for a narrative of Trump-Russia collusion that was advanced in news media even prior to taking the oath of office. In my “30 Count Indictment”based on the House investigation, you find the names James Comey and Rod Rosenstein as prominent players in the deep-state conspiracy against Donald Trump during the 2016 cycle that continued into his presidency. With FBI Director James Comey, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein playing prominent roles in the conspiracy the stage was set for what came next. 

On May 9th of 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued a letter to President Trump recommending the termination of FBI Director James Comey. Here are excerpts:

The director was wrong to usurp the Attorney General's authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution.

Compounding the error, the Director ignored another longstanding principle: we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation.

But the goal of a federal criminal investigation is not to announce our thoughts at a press conference.

Concerning his letter to the Congress on October 28, 2016, the Director cast his decision as a choice between whether he would "speak" about the decision to investigate the newly-discovered email messages or "conceal" it."Conceal" is a loaded term that misstates the issue.

My perspective on these issues is shared by former Attorneys General and Deputy Attorneys General from different eras and both political parties.

We should reject the departure and return to the traditions.

As a result, the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.

Based on those findings and statements, any responsible person would feel compelled to follow-through on those recommendations, right? Yet, this reminder in the context of what we came to learn is key. Rosenstein and Comey were in on a grand conspiracy together. They not only conspired together, both signing off on the FISA warrant requests to illegally surveil the Trump team but still were conspiring together even on the day the memo was sent to President Trump. The FISA warrants were renewed multiple times and were still being used against President Trump’s administration literally the day this memo was issued, and the President fired James Comey.

On May 9th,2017, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein made the recommendation to President Trump to fire FBI Director James Comey. Both men co-conspirators against President Trump. A key detail he didn’t know at the time. Putting together the pieces it’s evident to see that the one grand-final plan would be for Rod to make the rec, Trump to take the bait and voila, a special prosecutor could be brought about who could keep President Trump and his cabinet on the defensive and potentially unaware of the origins and contents of the fraudulent Steel Dosier. President Trump, importantly, was unaware of those who’d been conspiring against him (given that many of those actors were still in high ranking government agencies) none the least of which was Rod himself.

The importance of this can’t be understated. Had Rod not made the recommendation to President Trump to fire James Comey, it likely doesn’t happen. If it doesn’t happen there wouldn’t have been a special prosecutor. Had there not been a special prosecutor what would happen to the deep-state actors starting in July of 2017 when the FISA wire-tap request would expire and more Trump administration officials had the potential to discover the conspiracy against them? That’s why the timing was so important. 

Just eight days after Rod Rosenstein penned a letter to President Trump making the case that FBI Director James Comey should be replaced, he signed off on the authorization for Special Council Robert Muller. It wouldn’t be for another eight-plus months with the release of the Nunes memo, based on the House investigation, that Rod Rosenstein was found to be a conspirator against President Trump in 2016. Hindsight made it awfully obvious. This, as Dinesh D’Souza might say, was critical to protecting The Big Lie.

To continue with the story here's a link to Mueller Report Timeline Part 2: https://ihr.fm/2Omh6Xy

Photo by: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images


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