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‘Totally Legit!’: Experts Balk at – Or Support – Claim Mueller Is Almost Finished ‘6 Days Into Barr Taking Over’

Some experts are balking at the news CNN broke Wednesday afternoon that the Mueller investigation is wrapping up and newly-minted Attorney General William Barr will be receiving a report soon, possibly next week. Others are saying it makes sense Mueller is wrapping up, insisting he would not give in to pressure if he weren’t finished.
But the timing, some are suggesting, is curious.
“Sounds Totally Legit!” wrote Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall, sarcastically. Marshall has become one of the most insightful and prolific experts on the Mueller investigation.
“This is fascinating. Six days into Bill Barr taking over the Justice Department,” Marshall notes. Chillingly, he adds: “Barr has made clear that he does not believe the DOJ can release negative information about people who have not been charged with a crime.”
Other experts on the Mueller investigation are also weighing in.
Some have pointed to last week’s chilling tweet from far right wing lobbyist and pundit Matt Schlapp, whose wife just happens to be a senior Trump White House official:
Tomorrow will be the first day that President Trump will have a fully operational confirmed Attorney General. Let that sink in. Mueller will be gone soon.
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) February 14, 2019
The truth is, no one outside of key players in the Dept. of Justice knows for sure.
Here’s what some other experts are saying.
Former federal prosecutor turned CNN legal analyst Renato Mariotti asks:
That raises two obvious questions:
1) Was Mueller’s decision to conclude his investigation free from any pressure from Barr or any other Trump Administration official?
2) What will be excluded from Barr’s “summary” to Congress, and how will they get access to what’s missing? https://t.co/jLrcvWFZlN
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) February 20, 2019
And responding to Marshall’s claim that ‘something does not fit,” he adds:
To be clear, I also doubt that Mueller is closing down the investigation prematurely. But the public has a right to know whether he has been pressured to do so and why he didn’t take certain investigative steps, such as subpoenaing Trump. https://t.co/vkg8uSt3Ev
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) February 20, 2019
Frequent MSNBC contributor and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance says, “it’s hard to figure how Mueller closes up shop with the Stone trial still pending,” but “the timing will be his decision, not Barr’s.”
Ross Garber, a CNN legal analyst and a top impeachment lawyer, offers this insight, which may not please those hoping for Trump to be criminally charged:
This would mean:
1. No conspiracy between Trump campaign officials and Russians in connection with interference in 2016 election.
2. No charges against Trump for obstruction of justice. (Note: DOJ policy precludes charging sitting POTUS. Theoretically possible post-presidency). https://t.co/H0psoRCz8U— Ross Garber (@rossgarber) February 20, 2019
This would NOT mean:
1. All Trump-related investigations are over. SDNY seems to be humming along.
2. We will learn everything that Mueller found. Issues of DOJ general policy against disclosing investigation info, Nat Sec issues, executive privilege, grand jury secrecy.— Ross Garber (@rossgarber) February 20, 2019
Bottom line: Trump issues will be firmly in the hands of Congress, which can investigate and, if Trump committed impeachable offenses, remove him from office. Dem-controlled House has been staffing up, but seems unlikely to act with alacrity.
— Ross Garber (@rossgarber) February 20, 2019
Noted national security and civil liberties journalist Marcy Wheeler has a different take:
We almost certainly are NOT getting The Mueller Report next week.
But we are likely to get a pretty damning report about “collusion” this week.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) February 20, 2019
But it’s professor of international relations David Rothkopf, who until recently was the CEO of the company that publishes Foreign Policy, that offers few answers but the wisest and best questions:
How can the investigation be done without more the financial ties of Trump to Russia or to the Saudis or others? Is the House investigating these areas because they already know Mueller will not? How can it be done as the news about the Saudi nuke deal is breaking?
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) February 20, 2019
Would an inconclusive or “no-smoking gun” Mueller report stop such a process? Or would it make such a process our only hope of arriving at some sort of justice? What do other intelligence agencies know that might leak if the U.S. investigation is quashed or incomplete?
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) February 20, 2019
…after Mueller? Will a real investigation have to wait until thereis a Democratic president and Senate to work with the Democratic House? How intensively would a new administration work to prosecute wrong-doing by Trump, his family and his protectors, enablers and accomplices?
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) February 20, 2019
d.) Trump and his aides repeatedly lied to law enforcement about Russian intervention, e.) Trump repeatedly thought to obstruct justice to squelch this investigation, f.) McConnell, Ryan, Nunes, Whitaker and others abetted Trump in this efforts,
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) February 20, 2019
i.) Trump met secretively with Putin in ways that violate all protocols and historical precedents, j.) Trump revealed classified information to the Russians in the Oval Office, k.) Trump was lax with security regarding his own cellphone and with regard to WH security clearances,
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) February 20, 2019
You can read the entire thread of Rothkopf’s comments starting here.
If you’ve lost all hope, there’s always this:
Even as @cnn is reporting that Attorney General Bill Barr is preparing to announce as early as next week the completion of Robert Mueller’s Russia report, let’s not forget several federal, state and Congressional investigations Involving @realdonaldtrump will continue. pic.twitter.com/Y8X6cL5rk7
— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) February 20, 2019
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