THREAD: It was odd timing to have my "Please Mr Mueller" piece appear the night before Mueller finally appeared in person, in a nine-minute televised announcement on June 29, in which he emphasized key points from his report. This morning, I added the following note: 1/
The rationale for not making a judgment on obstruction, Mueller emphasized, was not that there was “insufficient evidence” to charge Trump, but adherence to the Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime. 2/
He also stated that if there had been clear evidence that the POTUS had NOT committed a crime, he would have said so. What Mueller didn’t make explicit was that, contrary to Barr’s spin,he DID NOT clear Trump. He apparently relied on that conclusion being logically implied.3/
And there, in a nutshell, is the problem that continues despite M’s appearance: his unwillingness to come right out and speak truth to power, straightforwardly and clearly, not in a language coded with lawyerly care and circumscribed by respect for the “chain of command.”4/
I suspect many listeners were baffled by the seemingly convoluted notion that indictment is prohibited but exoneration is not.“Just what did he say?” a very intelligent friend of mine asked. And many on Fox News went right on insisting that Trump was exonerated by Mueller.5/
Mueller also sent a message to Congress. I will de-code:
I can’t indict. But the Constitution Provides an alternative. It’s called impeachment. The ball is in your court, Congress. And btw, I don’t intend to testify — and there’s no need to. “It’s all in the report; read it.”6/
I can’t indict. But the Constitution Provides an alternative. It’s called impeachment. The ball is in your court, Congress. And btw, I don’t intend to testify — and there’s no need to. “It’s all in the report; read it.”6/
But “read the report,” while good advice to Congress, is both absurd and presumptuous as a recommendation to the American people. 7/
Most don’t have the time to read the 400-plus pages, and if they do will probably throw their hands up in exasperation over the dense detail and lawyerly circumlocutions. It all needs to be translated and clarified through question and answer in Congress.8/
Mueller may be right that it’s in the hands of Congress now. But he still has a responsibility to communicate more clearly to the American people. As uncomfortable as it may make him — and as I argue in the piece below — he MUST testify 9/
@threadreaderapp Please unroll.
