Rep. Amash Drags Bill Barr For Using Position To Sell Trump's 'False Narrative'
Although Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) seems to be the only Republican willing to consider the possibility that President Donald Trump “engaged in impeachable conduct,” he’s not letting that stop him from making his case with the American people.
Now Amash is accusing Attorney General William Barr of selling a “false narrative” that special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the U.S. election and the Trump campaign was “unjustified.”
Amash made his case against Barr on Monday with a truly epic tweetstorm that included details from the Mueller report.
Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Mueller’s report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the president’s false narrative about the investigation.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
After receiving Mueller’s report, Barr wrote and released a letter on March 24 describing Barr’s own decision not to indict the president for obstruction of justice. That letter selectively quotes and summarizes points in Mueller’s report in misleading ways.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr’s letter doesn’t mention those issues when explaining why Mueller chose not to make a prosecutorial decision. He instead selectively quotes Mueller in a way that makes it sound—falsely—as if Mueller’s decision stemmed from legal/factual issues specific to Trump’s actions.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
But, in fact, Mueller finds considerable evidence that several of Trump’s actions detailed in the report meet the elements of obstruction, and Mueller’s constitutional and prudential issues with indicting a sitting president would preclude indictment regardless of what he found.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
In noting why Barr thought the president’s intent in impeding the investigation was insufficient to establish obstruction, Barr selectively quotes Mueller to make it sound as if his analysis was much closer to Barr’s analysis than it actually was:
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr quotes Mueller saying the evidence didn’t establish that Trump was personally involved in crimes related to Russian election interference, and Barr then claims that Mueller found that fact relevant to whether the president had the intent to obstruct justice.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
But Mueller’s quote is taken from a section in which he describes other improper motives Trump could have had and notes: “The injury to the integrity of the justice system is the same regardless of whether a person committed an underlying wrong.” None of that is in Barr’s letter.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
As a result of Barr’s March 24 letter, the public and Congress were misled. Mueller himself notes this in a March 27 letter to Barr, saying that Barr’s letter “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions.”
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Mueller: “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
To “alleviate the misunderstandings that have arisen,” Mueller urged the release of the report’s introductions and executive summaries, which he had told Barr “accurately summarize [Mueller’s] Office’s work and conclusions.”
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr declined; he allowed the confusion to fester and only released the materials three weeks later with the full redacted report. In the interim, Barr testified before a House committee and was misleading about his knowledge of Mueller’s concerns:
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr was asked about reports “that members of [Mueller’s] team are frustrated…with the limited information included in your March 24th letter, that it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the report’s findings. Do you know what they’re referencing with that?”
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr absurdly replied: “No, I don’t…I suspect that they probably wanted more put out.” Yet Mueller had directly raised those concerns to Barr, and Barr says he “suspect[s]” they “probably” wanted more materials put out, as if Mueller hadn’t directly told him that.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
In subsequent statements and testimony, Barr used further misrepresentations to help build the president’s false narrative that the investigation was unjustified.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr notes that Mueller did not “find any conspiracy to violate U.S. law involving Russia-linked persons and any persons associated with the Trump campaign.” He then declares that Mueller found “no collusion” and implies falsely that the investigation was baseless.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
But whether there’s enough evidence for a conviction of a specific crime which Mueller thought was appropriate to charge is a different and much higher standard than whether the people whom Mueller investigated had done anything worthy of investigation.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
In truth, Mueller’s report describes concerning contacts between members of Trump’s campaign and people in or connected to the Russian government.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
For instance, Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner took a meeting with a Russian lawyer whom Trump Jr. had been told worked for the Russian government and would provide documents to “incriminate Hillary,” as part of the Russian government’s “support for Mr. Trump.”
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
It’s wrong to suggest that the fact that Mueller did not choose to indict anyone for this means there wasn’t a basis to investigate whether it amounted to a crime or “collusion,” or whether it was in fact part of Russia’s efforts to help Trump’s candidacy.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr says the White House “fully cooperated” with the investigation and that Mueller “never sought” or “pushed” to get more from the president, but the report says Mueller unsuccessfully sought an interview with the president for over a year.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
The report says the president’s counsel was told that interviewing him was “vital” to Mueller’s investigation and that it would be in the interest of the public and the presidency. Still Trump refused.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
The president instead gave written answers to questions submitted by the special counsel. Those answers are often incomplete or unresponsive. Mueller found them “inadequate” and again sought to interview the president.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Ultimately, the special counsel “recogniz[ed] that the President would not be interviewed voluntarily” and chose not to subpoena him because of concerns that the resulting “potentially lengthy constitutional litigation” would delay completion of the investigation.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr has so far successfully used his position to sell the president’s false narrative to the American people. This will continue if those who have read the report do not start pushing back on his misrepresentations and share the truth.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Also on HuffPost
He Has 9 Billion Dollars
But He's Never Used A Cash Machine
He Gets Super Defensive About Money
He's Leading A Fact-Free Campaign
He Takes His Name Way Too Seriously
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.