Thread by @rgoodlaw

My good friend @jacklgoldsmith defends Barr's handling Mueller report @lawfareblog

Some key flaws:

1. Jack faults Mueller for not making up or down prosecution decision.

Yet Jack never once discusses DOJ opinion forbidding indictment. Also not what Jack's said before. Compare:

2. Jack criticizes Mueller: "Mueller made an impeachment referral that the regulations do not contemplate."

But, in July 2017, Jack wrote: "imprudent for RM [Robert Mueller] to indict rather than refer to Congress."

3. Jack quotes five passages from Special Counsel Regulations to make a point about the relationship of special counsel to the Attorney General.

But doesn't quote this passage from the Regulations: "the Attorney General will give great weight to the views of the Special Counsel"

4. Jack says Barr's summary "letter purported to state the Mueller report’s 'principal conclusions.' It did that."

Too much for a tweet, but that misses a huge amount of the criticism of Barr's portrayal of Mueller's reasoning, obstruction conclusions, quotes out of context.

5. Jack says Barr's are "not the actions of a man trying to mischaracterize the report or hide the ball."

But Jack makes zero mention of Barr's grossly misleading (if not perjury) response to Rep. Crist on whether Barr knew of special counsel team's concerns about summary letter

6. I'd have more to say—including Jack's quoting Barr's "We have to stop using the criminal justice process as a political weapon," given Barr's support for Trump/Graham's going after political enemies, etc.—but that's it for now.

Here's the link:
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lawfareblog.com/thoughts-barr-…