,
19 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
A few thoughts on the Mueller / Barr news today (thread)
1. To reiterate what many have said but should be said louder. We do not yet have the report. We do not yet have the underlying documents. Until we do, drawing conclusions is premature.
2. Given that, be VERY wary of those who have seen the report, refused to share it and are making representations about its contents. Good journalism, like good science relies on primary sources. What someone says about what someone else said is not reliable.
3. Also, keep in mind that Mueller's mandate was not to look into intelligence breaches, fitness for public office or any other non-criminal charges. His report will be about evidence of criminality. The balance of those activities are jurisdictional to Congress.
4. So regardless of what is in the Mueller report, we can say with certainty that we have reached the end of Act 1. Act 2 now begins, but the play is far from over.
5. I'm not trained as a lawyer, so I leave to my colleagues to flesh out the prior 4 points, but let's now shift to the public trust, and how to hold an organization together - something I do have some experience with as a CEO.
6. In any organization, once you lose trust you lose everything. It's why mission statements matter. The minute people no longer believe that an organization honors its mission is the minute it falls apart. For the country, the "mission statement" is the Constitution.
7. What we KNOW right now is that the President is almost incapable of telling the truth. We know he lied about his business affairs in Moscow. We know he lied about his net worth. There is no reason to trust anything he says. That in itself is massively dangerous.
8. We also know that he has gradually whittled away his circle of advisors who show any fealty to the truth. Major positions are unfilled. Many positions are filled by sycophants and family. That is how despots work, not democrats.
9. That's a problem because once the public loses trust in the government's fealty to the truth - and to the Constitution - we've lost everything. As a country of laws, we are only as strong as the public's confidence that we will hold ourselves accountable to same.
10. So let's assume, for the sake of argument that A.G. Barr is a patriot who puts his allegiance to country over his allegiance to his President. As he is obligated to do. If that is true, he MUST release not only the Mueller report but ALL the underlying documents.
11. First, because that's par for the course. A Justice department that released over 800,000 documents about Benghazi and Hillary's emails cannot credibly argue that it is not in the public interest to meet the same standard on the Muller report.
12. But second because when you've lost people's trust, the only way to earn it back is to over-share. Be twice as transparent as would be if you hadn't already sacrificed all your credibility.
13. SO... we will know with a high degree of certainty in the next few days whether Barr takes his oath to the constitution seriously or whether he is simply another Trump flunky. We should all hope for the former - but put any pressure on we can to ensure.
14. And in the meantime, watch the Members of Congress. I have never worked for any organization before where employees were actively trying to weaken the institution. ANY member of Congress who isn't demanding documents from Barr is doing exactly that.
15. And read this from @jonathanchait. We do not need any additional information from Mueller to know we are knee deep in a Constitutional Crisis. The question is what we do next. nymag.com/intelligencer/…
16. And finally, remember this: our founders were smart enough to design a government that contemplated someone like Trump. What they failed to contemplate was whether the other branches will do their Constitutionally-imposed jobs.
17. The crisis we're in is not Trump per se; it is the acquiescence of the entire leadership in the 115th Congress and the GOP leaders in the Senate today who are normalizing his behavior. THAT is what his pacing full disclosure and truth.
18. I hope they have the wisdom to recognize that. I hope that they have the confidence to change course. I hope they find the patriotism that deserted them over the last 2 years. And I hope you'll all encourage them to do so. /fin
