Profile picture
Tim O'Brien
@TimOBrien
, 4 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Barr now says that his 4-page letter last weekend wasn't really a "summary" of Mueller's report and he never intended to summarize 400 pages because that wouldn't have been in the "public interest." The technical legal term for this is "walking back your story."
Barr plans to release the Mueller report by mid-April and that the White House won’t see the document before it goes to Congress. 400 pages long, plus exhibits
It’s now apparent that there was no reason Barr couldn’t have waited a week to draft a more thoughtful, accurate and legally judicious letter about the Mueller report. Yet he rushed a letter last Sunday on a voluminous report he would have presumably been challenged to digest.
Barr's letter today should refocus everyone's attention on the fact that we still don't know what's in the Mueller report. “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Tim O'Brien
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @TimOBrien see all

Profile picture
Tim O'Brien
@TimOBrien
President Trump may have tweeted about his bond with electricians today because Biden was speaking to the IBEW. Worth remembering that for all his pro-worker rhetoric, he doesn’t have much sympathy for workers whose wallets have been drained. My column: bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
"When I was reporting on Trump’s political and business dealings in New York and Atlantic City in the early 1990s, vendors routinely complained to me about how casually and frequently he refused to pay his bills. That’s never really changed much." bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
"Electricians (and contractors, architects, lawyers, you name it) who have actually worked for Trump and the Trump Organization know that the president has a well-worn reputation for stiffing people who work for him once they submit their bills."
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
Tim O'Brien
@TimOBrien
President Trump routinely stiffed vendors over the years, often forcing them to go to court to collect unpaid bills. The list includes:

1) Electricians: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/e…

2) Contractors: usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
“Trump’s actions in refusing to pay for work performed, after a project has opened, is a repeated practice of the Trump Organization on various projects; evidencing a typical business practice meant to force subcontractors to accept ‘pennies on the dollar" usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
Trump said he doesn't pay his vendors' bills because...he can: "I take advantage of the laws of the nation because I’m running a company. My obligation right now is to do well for myself, my family, my employees, for my companies. And that’s what I do” fortune.com/2016/09/30/don…
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
Tim O'Brien
@TimOBrien
"Giuliani defended his dual roles working closely for Trump and foreign clients, noting that he spells out in his contracts with those clients that he doesn’t lobby the U.S. government. 'There’s no conflict. What’s the conflict?' he said.

bloomberg.com/news/features/…
"The question of conflict arises, in part, because Giuliani keeps popping up in world capitals to make pronouncements that dovetail with Trump’s foreign policy positions."
“It’s wildly inappropriate for Giuliani to continue to openly associate with” the MEK, says Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution. “This is one of those cases that in any other administration, Republican or Democrat, it would be a front-page scandal.”
Read 3 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
Sheldon Whitehouse
@SenWhitehouse
I’m sorry, but this is weird.

First, if you’re confident in your decision, you don’t need to defend it. You just make it and move on. nytimes.com/2019/04/04/us/…
Second, there’s a strange mismatch between the pace of the super-fast “no obstruction” decision, versus not-so-fast #Mueller report vetting.

Obviously, Barr wanted to get the no obstruction finding out in his summary letter.
Reviewing thousands of pages of evidence to make a complex, fact-intensive legal conclusion on obstruction ought to be as time intensive as vetting a 400 page report for material that shouldn’t be released.

The fast-train/slow-train contrast is odd.
Read 5 tweets
Profile picture
Daniel Dale
@ddale8
Barr says his letter was not actually a "summary" of Mueller's report, just a report on its "principal conclusions": "the bottom line." He says he didn't think it'd be in the "public interest" to try to summarize a 400-page report.
Barr: "My March 24 letter was not, and did not purport to be, an exhaustive recounting of the Special Counsel's investigation or report." He says it was a summary of the big conclusions, yes, but it's "mischaracterizing" to call it a summary of the report or investigation.
On "summary": in Barr's original letter, he said, "Although my review is ongoing, I believe that it is in the public interest to describe the report and to summarize the principal conclusions reached by the Special Counsel and the results of his investigation."
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
Robert #Resist Sandy
@frodofied
I have always said that there is the distinct probability that #Mueller would turn up nought, because to find anything would start a cascade of discovery that would cause systemic failure on a global scale.

I stand by that theory.

Or we have been hoodwinked after all.

1/
There is always the sad chance that Mueller never intended to find much, and this whole push and pull between Trump and Mueller has been nothing but staged theatrics.

Fifteen years ago this charge would have sounded ridiculous and conspiratorial, but today it seems mundane.

2/
I mean after 2016 and what was done to Hillary Clinton, after Comey, or learning that Kennedy made a backroom deal with Trump that gave his seat to #BrettKavanaugh, or how @SenatorCollins threw her legacy under the bus to give Kavanaugh the seat, or, or, or...

3/
Read 6 tweets
Profile picture
Sotiri Dimpinoudis ❁‏
@sotiridi
#Breaking: Update - Attorney General William Barr has handed in his summary of Mueller's report to Congress. And clears President Donald @realDonaldTrump from any Russian Collusion... #Trump/#Russia
#Breaking: Just in - #Mueller report also says that there is not enough evidence to suggest that President Donald Trump obstructed justice, according to Attorney General William Barr. #Trump/#Russia Collusion.
#Breaking: Also Just in - #Mueller only found 2 main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. But he did not find that the Trump campaign colluded in any way with them, and could not link the President to it #Trump/#Russia Collusion.
Read 6 tweets
Profile picture
Diana West
@diana_west_
#Mueller is not always so quick w the #jackboots. No, depending on his master's wishes, he will slow-walk, cover-up and deport. My chron begins when he (& whatddya know, AG William Barr) consigned BCCI scandal to darkness in 1991.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/….
In 2001, #Mueller "denied or downplayed the significance of warnings that had poured in yet were all ignored or mishandled during the spring and summer of 2001." More shushing up. #TheSwampIsHisBoss
Also in 2001, #Mueller was fine with sending all those Saudis home ASAP -- so compromising, dontcha know. We would see this again in 2010 when he was fine with deporting a dozen, deep-penetration, Russian "illegal" SVR agents getting too close to "Reset" Hillary & Dems!
Read 6 tweets
Profile picture
Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
THIS

#Barr reply to @SenBlumenthal

“There are two different reports…Under the current regulations, the special counsel report is confidential. The report that goes public would be a report by the Attorney General.”

Opposite of reassuring that he'll make Mueller report public.
Senator @maziehirono follows up

"What I am hearing you saying is that...neither Congress nor public will get the Mueller report because that's confidential."

#Barr dodges: will release information "consistent with the regulations"—regulations which he says make it confidential!
Bingo

@SenFeinstein's precise followup:

"There is nothing in the regulations that prevent you from providing Mueller's report to Congress…the regs do not state that confidentiality means the report cannot be provided to Congress…Will you provide Mueller's report to Congress?"
Read 5 tweets

Trending hashtags

#SuborningPerjury #WaExaminer #Disinformation #Mueller #Russia #Panic #UraniumOne #C_A #Assange #RussiaCollusion #POTUS #impeachment #McCabe #USAttorneys2 #R #APNews #HRC #WHITAKER #Downranks #forGodandCountry #Anons #BS #BCImpeachment #DSMinions #Hussein
Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!