Barr’s remix was vastly different than the original, and the nature of the disparity made clear it was intentional. This was reinforced when Mueller’s report revealed that he gave serious consideration to charging Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort with campaign finance crimes for their proven efforts to obtain “dirt” on Hillary Clinton at a Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, with a Russian operative.
According to Mueller, the decision not to charge Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort was not due to “no evidence,” as has been widely reported in the news media. Mueller did not bring charges because, “most significantly,” he did not think he could prove that the three — even veteran operative Manafort — knew it was illegal to solicit political “dirt” from a foreign government.
That’s quite different than implying the event never happened. And while it may not have satisfied the legal requirements needed for a criminal prosecution, the words “unethical,” “corrupt” and “sleazy” come to mind.
The attorney general’s summation of Mueller’s obstruction findings was similarly incomplete and misleading. Barr cited the now oft-quoted: “This report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” But Barr conspicuously left out the damning remainder of Mueller’s conclusion: “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.”
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