Thread by @RAlperstein

In the wake of yesterday's "news" that the Mueller report contains information deeply damaging to Trump -- meaning it details actions that are almost certainly unethical, immoral, and unpatriotic, and possibly unconstitutional and illegal -- it is critical that we rise up. 1/

The people must demand the report's release. Because if Trump can bury it, the festering corruption that defines this corrosive administration will only grow worse, and it's very, very, bad already. 2/

The Trump admin's flagrant obstruction of Congress's oversight power, on which its corruption depends for its survival, and the grotesque complicity of GOP apparatchiks in protecting Trump from accountability, is not limited to the Mueller report. 3/

Trump and his appointees are already obstructing oversight of multiple agencies, forcing Congress to subpoena even basic information. Everything is going to end up as a court battle, where Trump appointees Gorusch and Kavanaugh will decide the outcomes. 4/

Congress' oversight role is a core component of the separation of powers. The separation of powers is one of our primary protections from the kind of despotism Trump salivates over in strongmen from countries that reject democracy. 5/

The GOP is increasingly seeking to prop up Trump as some kind of mad king, immune from the Constitution and the law and the will of the people. They have shown that will use any argument or pretext to defend him, regardless of the damage to the Constitution and the country. 6/

But Trump and the GOP are answerable to us, American citizens. They are supposed to work for us, and protect the Constitution, not attack it and undermine it. 7/

But we can see that the GOP isn't actually truly interested in accountability for a lawless president, illegitimately elected with the aid of a hostile foreign power, who is brazenly using the presidency to monetize his family "brand" without regard for national security. 8/

If our national security were a GOP priority, they would be going berserk over the fact that Mar-a-Lago is an unsecure gateway for massage parlor owners and possible human traffickers to gain access to Trump for the Chinese govt. They'd want Mar-a-Lago closed, not the border. 9/

If national security were really the GOP's concern, they'd be freaking out about Trump's and his family's unsecure cell phone use and use of private emails -- you know, way worse than the kind of stuff they said Hillary Clinton should to prison for doing. 10/

If national security were their concern, they'd be flipping out over Trump's overruling of security clearance denials to install his unqualified offspring and others into the highest levels of government to give them access to information they have no right or reason to see. /11

All of this demonstrates--which was pretty clear at the time anyway and which Rep Kevin McCarthy admitted later--that the entire investigation into Hillary Clinton was a politically motivated charade, an actual witch hunt, undertaken with the goal of destroying her candidacy. /12

The Republicans' weaponization of their Congressional oversight power worked and Trump still leads chants of "lock her up" for his frothing base -- a base which doesn't care about any of it -- not Trump's own email /cell phone/security breaches or corruption or lies. /13

The GOP sees this and supports it. And so for Trump's first two years in office, they made a mockery of oversight and obstructed investigations and let him run wild and rampant, confirming his unqualified corrupt noiminees and stampeding partisans and cronies into power. /14

These appointees have dismantled governing norms, disemboweled and/or politicized their agencies, and abused their positions to harm citizens and enrich themselves and GOP donors. /15

The country was fed up and in 2018 elected Democrats to Congress across the country to exercise oversight on a corrupt, power abusing president who views all who criticize his misconduct and indecency as "enemies", /16

And the GOP, from McMarthy to McConnell to Meadows etc,, has responded to Dems' attempts at oversight by defending Trump and falsely accusing Dems of partisanship for attempting to understand the national security and other risks that Trump's corrupt practices expose us to. /17

They are silent and supine in the face of the Mar-a-Lago, security clearance overrides, unsecure phones and emails, and ambassadorships-to-the-highest-Trump bidder scandals, the risks to the U.S. of Trump's flagrant shilling for his golf courses and hotels. (But her emails!) /18

If Trump or the GOP were interested in ensuring and restoring public faith in Trump and his administration's "integrity", and in the protecting and adhering to the norms of democracy, they would have chose an AG who would at least convey the appearance of non-partisanship. /19

But instead Trump chose and the Republican senate confirmed over Dem objection a man who openly auditioned for the job with his views that a potus cannot obstruct justice, after spending his career protecting Republicans who broke the law from ever being held accountable. /20

Barr's disingenuous summary therefore was not a surprise, but it was and remains an absolute outrage, along with his indefensible refusal to give Congress the full Mueller report. The GOP played along, repeating false claims of "exoneration" to protect Trump bury the Report. /21

And so this concerted obstruction by Trump and his party is not only about the Muller report. It's about Trump's overarching corruption and abuse of power, and about the GOP/ @senatemajldr 's broader project of permanently rigging the government in favor of Trump and the GOP./22

That broader project includes the rightwing extremist takeover of the courts, the hijacking of the U.S. bureaucracy into an instrumentality of corporate greed and agency-head pocket-lining, the refusal to protect our elections, and sustained GOP assaults on voting rights. /23

So if we let them bury this Mueller report, if we don't stand up and demand its release, Trump and his GOP partners in crime will be further emboldened to continue to trample democratic norms and weaponize our government against us. The abuses and corruption will multiply. /24

So we must rise up. Please -- attend a protest near you tonight to send the message we will not stand for this obstruction and abuse. We demand and deserve the truth. /END act.moveon.org/event/mueller-…