Trump Hides Mueller Report. Barr Charged with Contempt of Congress
Attorney General William Barr, who is behaving as a personal attorney of Trump, is helping Trump conceal the findings of the Mueller report.
By Rakesh Raman
The House Judiciary Committee held Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress on Wednesday for his failure to turn over unredacted report of special counsel Robert Mueller on President Donald Trump’s secret links with Russia.
The Committee’s 24-to-16 contempt vote against Trump loyalist Barr came after President Trump asserted executive privilege to hide the full report along with the underlying evidence from Congress.
Trump has been claiming baselessly that the Mueller report has fully exonerated him from the charges of collusion with Russia to win the 2016 presidential race deceptively and obstruction of justice to scuttle the Mueller investigation.
[ Trump-Russia Links: William Barr Refuses to Testify ]
Democrats, however, argue if Trump feels he is exonerated, why is he trying to block the release of the report? Barr, who is behaving as a personal attorney of Trump, is helping Trump conceal the findings of the Mueller report.
The House Judiciary Committee has raised concerns over Barr’s characterization of Mueller report and even the special counsel himself had written a letter to Barr with his objections, saying Barr has not fully captured the context, nature, and substance of the report.
[ Biased Barr Won’t Release Full Mueller Report. Trump-Russia Collusion Possible ]
The Department of Justice headed by Barr has also decided to ignore the subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report and the underlying evidence that the Congress is demanding.
The Democrats are up in arms after the Department of Justice released Mueller’s partial report along with Barr’s misleading conclusion about the report.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that Barr presented a conclusion that the president did not obstruct justice, but special counsel Mueller’s report cites several instances of presidential action that appear to undercut that finding.
[ Trump Obstructed Justice. Need to Impeach Trump ]
After nearly two years of investigation, Mueller delivered a 448-page report on March 20. The report in two volumes – covering Russian interference including charges of conspiracy and the obstruction of justice – is so vague that it is difficult to make heads or tails of his random conclusions.
The vagueness of the report has given an opportunity to Trump to claim that there was no collusion with Russia and no obstruction of justice by him. Trump claims that the Mueller report has completely exonerated him.
Democrats believe that Trump and Barr are lying, but the beleaguered Democrats are not able to get the full report and Barr has flatly refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.
In all probability this case will eventually get hushed up and Trump will win again in 2020 to retain his presidential position.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications on different subjects.
