Did James Comey get a heads-up on the Mueller report from someone in the Mueller group?
In his N.Y. Times opinion piece published just before the public learned the report was complete, Comey said he didn't know or care whether Mueller had found collusion or obstruction of justice. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he had been told the report was about to be issued.
Aside from cautioning Congress against impeachment, Comey made a strange statement, to the effect that he hoped Mueller would neither charge nor clear the President. Why would a professional prosecutor hope Mueller would not clear the President? That's taking neutrality a bit over the edge.
Well, an amazing thing happened! Just by coincidence, the attorney general said Mueller neither found obstruction of justice nor exonerated Trump of that accusation. If I were suspicious (who me?), I would say Comey paved the way psychologically and politically for his good buddy Mueller's peculiar ambivalence.
Prosecutors know it is unfair to put the burden of proof on the defendant, as in: "I say to the jury that the defendant has not proved his innocence." Such a statement would very likely result in a mistrial. Yet that implication of "guilt by unproved innocence" was the effect of Mueller's statement, as relayed by the attorney general, William Barr.
Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervised Mueller, both agreed that there was insufficient evidence to find for obstruction. But, Mueller had tossed his dirty bomb, giving Democrats a pretext for continuing to hound Trump. Mueller, who hates to be told "no," is getting his revenge for not being permitted to have his ace interrogators give Trump "the third degree." Trump's lawyers forbade such a scenario in order to avoid a perjury trap, in which the victim is maneuvered into apparently committing perjury.
Aside from cautioning Congress against impeachment, Comey made a strange statement, to the effect that he hoped Mueller would neither charge nor clear the President. Why would a professional prosecutor hope Mueller would not clear the President? That's taking neutrality a bit over the edge.
Well, an amazing thing happened! Just by coincidence, the attorney general said Mueller neither found obstruction of justice nor exonerated Trump of that accusation. If I were suspicious (who me?), I would say Comey paved the way psychologically and politically for his good buddy Mueller's peculiar ambivalence.
Prosecutors know it is unfair to put the burden of proof on the defendant, as in: "I say to the jury that the defendant has not proved his innocence." Such a statement would very likely result in a mistrial. Yet that implication of "guilt by unproved innocence" was the effect of Mueller's statement, as relayed by the attorney general, William Barr.
Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervised Mueller, both agreed that there was insufficient evidence to find for obstruction. But, Mueller had tossed his dirty bomb, giving Democrats a pretext for continuing to hound Trump. Mueller, who hates to be told "no," is getting his revenge for not being permitted to have his ace interrogators give Trump "the third degree." Trump's lawyers forbade such a scenario in order to avoid a perjury trap, in which the victim is maneuvered into apparently committing perjury.
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