Former Special Prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr today blasted Robert Mueller for doing a "great disservice" to the Justice Department and to Attorney General William P. Barr.
Starr said that he was using "strong words" to chastise Mueller, who has just stepped down as special counsel, for whom Starr said he has had much respect.
Starr told Neil Cavuto of Fox News that Mueller's March 27 letter criticizing Barr's initial summary of the outcome of the Russiagate probe was "unreasonable" and had given Democrats ammunition for a war against "the truth."
Starr said the Democrat attacks on Barr seem to be motivated by Barr's decision to investigate the origins of the Russiagate probe. "It's hard to explain it otherwise."
Kimberly Strassel, a Wall Street Journal columnist, was of the same opinion.
The Democratic attacks are not about Mueller, his report or "even the surreal debate over Mr. Barr’s first letter describing the report," she noted. "The attorney general delivered the transparency Democrats demanded: He quickly released a lightly redacted report, which portrayed the president in a negative light."
So what is it that is bothering Democrats? Fear is the most probable cause, the columnist wrote, observing that Barr "made real news" in a Senate hearing in which he endured hours of Democrat insults and "while the press didn’t notice, Democrats did."
Strassel added,
Mueller's claim that Barr somehow misrepresented the special counsel report seems strange because Barr had already agreed to release to Congress and the public most of the report -- even to the extent of overriding privacy regulations. So what sense would there be in making a bad-faith statement when Barr knew that whatever he said in the summary could soon be compared with the report?
Hirono and Pelosi need to return to college for a refresher course in logic 101, and learn to tone down their emotional natures. Likewise for Mueller.
As special prosecutor, Starr in 1998 filed an impeachment case against President Bill Clinton in which Starr focused on a charge of perjury by Clinton in relation to his young girlfriend, Monica Lewinsky. Starr's book Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation (Penguin Random House) was released last year. Strassel told an Aspen, Colo. audience, that, for writing about "FBI abuses" in Russiagate, "I have been called a russian spy, a traitor, a communist..."
She warned her audience that Democrats no longer favor the First Amendment, but, if they disagree with you, they will try to ostracize you from society, to "make you a pariah -- and we cannot allow that to happen." The columnist said she moved to Wasilla, Alaska, to enjoy the "freedom" evident there.
Strassel defends free speech, rips Russiagate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6den-SEYXb0
Starr said that he was using "strong words" to chastise Mueller, who has just stepped down as special counsel, for whom Starr said he has had much respect.
Starr told Neil Cavuto of Fox News that Mueller's March 27 letter criticizing Barr's initial summary of the outcome of the Russiagate probe was "unreasonable" and had given Democrats ammunition for a war against "the truth."
Starr said the Democrat attacks on Barr seem to be motivated by Barr's decision to investigate the origins of the Russiagate probe. "It's hard to explain it otherwise."
Kimberly Strassel, a Wall Street Journal columnist, was of the same opinion.
The Democratic attacks are not about Mueller, his report or "even the surreal debate over Mr. Barr’s first letter describing the report," she noted. "The attorney general delivered the transparency Democrats demanded: He quickly released a lightly redacted report, which portrayed the president in a negative light."
So what is it that is bothering Democrats? Fear is the most probable cause, the columnist wrote, observing that Barr "made real news" in a Senate hearing in which he endured hours of Democrat insults and "while the press didn’t notice, Democrats did."
Strassel added,
The attorney general said he’d already assigned people at the Justice Department to assist his investigation of the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. He said his review would be far-reaching – that he was obtaining details from congressional investigations, from the ongoing probe by the department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, and even from Mr. Mueller’s work. Mr. Barr said the investigation wouldn’t focus only on the fall 2016 justifications for secret surveillance warrants against Trump team members but would go back months earlier.Two Democrat lawmakers, Sen. Mazie Hirono and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have accused Barr of having lied in his summary. Barr said that after receiving Mueller's publicly released letter, he had called Mueller and asked him to specify inaccuracies. None were forthcoming, Barr said.
He also said he’d focus on the infamous "dossier" concocted by opposition-research firm Fusion GPS and British former spy Christopher Steele, on which the FBI relied so heavily in its probe. Mr. Barr acknowledged his concern that the dossier itself could be Russian disinformation, a possibility he described as not "entirely speculative." He also revealed that the department has "multiple criminal leak investigations under way" into the disclosure of classified details about the Trump-Russia investigation.
Mueller's claim that Barr somehow misrepresented the special counsel report seems strange because Barr had already agreed to release to Congress and the public most of the report -- even to the extent of overriding privacy regulations. So what sense would there be in making a bad-faith statement when Barr knew that whatever he said in the summary could soon be compared with the report?
Hirono and Pelosi need to return to college for a refresher course in logic 101, and learn to tone down their emotional natures. Likewise for Mueller.
As special prosecutor, Starr in 1998 filed an impeachment case against President Bill Clinton in which Starr focused on a charge of perjury by Clinton in relation to his young girlfriend, Monica Lewinsky. Starr's book Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation (Penguin Random House) was released last year. Strassel told an Aspen, Colo. audience, that, for writing about "FBI abuses" in Russiagate, "I have been called a russian spy, a traitor, a communist..."
She warned her audience that Democrats no longer favor the First Amendment, but, if they disagree with you, they will try to ostracize you from society, to "make you a pariah -- and we cannot allow that to happen." The columnist said she moved to Wasilla, Alaska, to enjoy the "freedom" evident there.
Strassel defends free speech, rips Russiagate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6den-SEYXb0
No comments:
Post a Comment