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robert mueller
Trump Claims He Is 'Not Going to Partake' in Special Counsel Probes
"Thing is, with prosecutors you don't have to 'partake,'" noted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. "They and the agents and the grand jurors go about their business without you having to 'partake' at all."
Nov 18, 2022
Former President Donald Trump on Friday told Fox News Digital that he won't "partake" after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith to serve as special counsel for two ongoing criminal investigations involving the GOP leader, who recently announced his 2024 campaign.
"I have been going through this for six years--for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore," said Trump, who faces various legal issues at the state and federal level. "And I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this."
"I have been proven innocent for six years on everything--from fake impeachments to [former Special Counsel Robert] Mueller who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?" he continued. "It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political."
The first investigation Smith will oversee focuses on the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that Trump incited with his "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen from him--which led to his unprecedented second impeachment. The second probe focuses on classified documents and other presidential records.
\u201cTrump says he won\u2019t partake\u201d— Acyn (@Acyn) 1668804535
The ex-president insisted Friday that "I am not going to partake in it... I'm not going to partake in this."
"I have never heard of such a thing. They found nothing. I announce and then they appoint a special prosecutor," he said. "They found nothing, and now they take some guy who hates Trump. This is a disgrace and only happening because I am leading in every poll in both parties."
"It is not even believable that they're allowed to do this. This is the worst politicization of justice in our country," Trump added before taking aim at President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and again urging his allies to challenge the investigations.
"It is unfair to the country, to the Republican Party, and I don't think people should accept it. I am not going to accept it," he declared. "The Republican Party has to stand up and fight."
Journalist Aaron Rupar took to Twitter to highlight several of Trump's lies in his comments to Fox.
\u201c1. Trump has not been "proven innocent"\n2. Trump was impeached for stuff that happened on tape and in public -- they weren't "fake"\n3. Mueller did not find "no collusion," he decided not to prosecute\n4. Trump saying he won't "partake" in the investigation won't make it go away\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1668805381
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) tweeted: "Thing is, with prosecutors you don't have to 'partake.' They and the agents and the grand jurors go about their business without you having to 'partake' at all. You even have a right not to 'partake.'"
Garland did not shy away from Trump's bid to reclaim the White House in his Friday speech announcing the appointment. He said that "based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel."
Smith, a former federal prosecutor, said in a statement Friday that "I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice. The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate."
The Biden White House did not receive advance notice of Smith's appointment, according to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who said that "the Department of Justice makes their own decision when it relates to criminal investigation. We were not involved."
"We do not politicize the Department of Justice," she added. "That is something that the president said during the campaign. That is something that the president said during his early days of being in the White House, and that continues to be true. We were not involved in this particular issue."
Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that at 8:00 pm ET Friday, he will be "making a statement on the never-ending Witch Hunt" from Mar-a-Lago--his Florida estate where federal agents executed a search warrant in August.
"I have been proven innocent for six years on everything--from fake impeachments to [former Special Counsel Robert] Mueller who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?" he continued. "It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political."
The first investigation Smith will oversee focuses on the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that Trump incited with his "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen from him--which led to his unprecedented second impeachment. The second probe focuses on classified documents and other presidential records.
\u201cTrump says he won\u2019t partake\u201d— Acyn (@Acyn) 1668804535
The ex-president insisted Friday that "I am not going to partake in it... I'm not going to partake in this."
"I have never heard of such a thing. They found nothing. I announce and then they appoint a special prosecutor," he said. "They found nothing, and now they take some guy who hates Trump. This is a disgrace and only happening because I am leading in every poll in both parties."
"It is not even believable that they're allowed to do this. This is the worst politicization of justice in our country," Trump added before taking aim at President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and again urging his allies to challenge the investigations.
"It is unfair to the country, to the Republican Party, and I don't think people should accept it. I am not going to accept it," he declared. "The Republican Party has to stand up and fight."
Journalist Aaron Rupar took to Twitter to highlight several of Trump's lies in his comments to Fox.
\u201c1. Trump has not been "proven innocent"\n2. Trump was impeached for stuff that happened on tape and in public -- they weren't "fake"\n3. Mueller did not find "no collusion," he decided not to prosecute\n4. Trump saying he won't "partake" in the investigation won't make it go away\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1668805381
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) tweeted: "Thing is, with prosecutors you don't have to 'partake.' They and the agents and the grand jurors go about their business without you having to 'partake' at all. You even have a right not to 'partake.'"
Garland did not shy away from Trump's bid to reclaim the White House in his Friday speech announcing the appointment. He said that "based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel."
Smith, a former federal prosecutor, said in a statement Friday that "I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice. The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate."
The Biden White House did not receive advance notice of Smith's appointment, according to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who said that "the Department of Justice makes their own decision when it relates to criminal investigation. We were not involved."
"We do not politicize the Department of Justice," she added. "That is something that the president said during the campaign. That is something that the president said during his early days of being in the White House, and that continues to be true. We were not involved in this particular issue."
Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that at 8:00 pm ET Friday, he will be "making a statement on the never-ending Witch Hunt" from Mar-a-Lago--his Florida estate where federal agents executed a search warrant in August.
Watchdog Leader: 'It Is Clear Why Barr Did Not Want the Public to See' Newly Released Trump Memo
The head of CREW—which fought for the document's release—said that "it twists the facts and the law to benefit Trump and does not comport with a serious reading of the law."
Aug 24, 2022
This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
Following a watchdog group's win in court last week, the Biden administration on Wednesday released an unredacted memorandum from 2019 about whether then-President Donald Trump obstructed Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russia's election interference.
Noah Bookbinder--president of the organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)--highlighted that then-U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr pointed to the memo from the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel to claim there was no justification for charging Trump with obstruction of justice.
"The memo presents a breathtakingly generous view of the law and facts for Donald Trump," Bookbinder said. "It twists the facts and the law to benefit Trump and does not comport with a serious reading of the law of obstruction of justice or the facts as found by Special Counsel Mueller."
\u201cGreat work by @CREWcrew\u201d— Jane Mayer (@Jane Mayer) 1661377721
As Bookbinder explained: "The memo is premised in large part on the argument that there was no underlying criminal conduct and that it's hard to charge obstruction without an underlying crime. Of course, that's not what Mueller actually found."
"Mueller found there was not sufficient evidence to charge Trump and others with conspiring with Russia," CREW's leader continued. "He didn't find no crime, just not enough evidence for charges. Of course, Trump couldn't know about that future conclusion when he decided whether or not to obstruct."
He also noted that the document "takes an exceedingly cramped view of prior cases" and "relies on Trump's use of open-ended language [about] his 'hope' the investigation would be let go, and his delegation of firing prosecutors or narrowing investigations to others when he could have done it himself, as exonerating Trump."
\u201cThe memo also points to Trump\u2019s belief that the investigation was motivated to hurt him politically as somehow excusing his actions. It supports the chilling conclusion that any president can interfere with any investigation if they believe it could damage them politically.\u201d— Noah Bookbinder (@Noah Bookbinder) 1661374493
"The memo is not just wrong; it is dangerous coming from a usually respected office at the Department of Justice," Bookbinder added. "It is clear why Barr did not want the public to see it."
In a series of Wednesday tweets contrasting the memo with Mueller's report, New York Times reporter Charlie Savage said that the newly released document "reads like a defense lawyer's brief."
Appeals Court Orders Release of Secret Memo Barr 'Used to Undercut the Mueller Report'
While the DOJ has not announced whether it will appeal, a spokesperson for the watchdog behind the case said that "the American people deserve to know what it says. Now they will."
Aug 19, 2022
A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the release of a 2019 memorandum about whether then-President Donald Trump obstructed Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)--the watchdog fighting to reveal the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) memo prepared for then-Attorney General Bill Barr--celebrated the ruling as a win.
"Attorney General Barr cited this memo as a reason not to charge President Trump with obstruction of justice," said CREW spokesperson Jordan Libowitz in a statement. "The American people deserve to know what it says. Now they will."
\u201cYou can read the decision here: https://t.co/FG5ocboIGF\u201d— Citizens for Ethics (@Citizens for Ethics) 1660920340
The unanimous ruling from three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed a lower court's opinion about the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel memo--a redacted version of which was made public last year.
D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, joined by Judges Judith Rogers and David Tatel, outlined how the DOJ tried to conceal most of the memo "based on the deliberative process privilege, which protects records documenting an agency's internal deliberations en route to a governmental decision," but the lower court judge, Amy Berman Jackson, rejected that argument.
Jackson determined the DOJ failed to show that the privilege applied--specifically, she found that the department "had not identified a relevant agency decision as to which the memorandum formed part of the deliberations," Friday's ruling highlights.
"The department's submissions, the court explained, indicated that the memorandum conveyed advice about whether to charge the president with a crime. But the court's in camera review of the memorandum revealed that the department in fact never considered bringing a charge," it continues. "Instead, the memorandum concerned a separate decision that had gone entirely unmentioned by the government in its submissions to the court--what, if anything, to say to Congress and the public about the Mueller report."
As Bloomberg detailed:
Srinivasan... wrote that any analysis in the memo about bringing obstruction charges was more like a "thought experiment."
Srinivasan noted that the department expressed "regret" about leaving a "misimpression that an actual charging decision was under consideration," but he wrote that it missed opportunities to address the true purpose of the memo.
The court rejected the government's request for another chance to make the case for keeping the full memo secret. Srinivasan wrote that the Justice Department might have successfully argued to keep the memo sealed if it had revealed the public messaging purpose from the beginning and then tried to invoke what's known as the deliberative process privilege, but that it was too late now.
The DOJ has a week to consider appealing the latest decision. The Washington Post reported that spokespeople for the department and Barr declined to comment.
Politico noted Friday:
Trump was never charged in Mueller's probe and the special prosecutor's final report declined to opine on whether what he did in response to the investigation amounted to a crime.
However, some Trump opponents have called on the Attorney General Merrick Garland to reconsider the issue now that Trump is no longer president. Release of the long-sought DOJ memo could fuel those calls and draw more unwanted attention to Trump's potential criminal liability at a time when he is besieged by a slew of other legal woes relating to his handling of classified government records, his role in inspiring many of those involved in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and his broader efforts to overturn Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election.
As Common Dreams reported Thursday, a federal judge gave the DOJ a week to propose redactions to the warrant affidavit containing the information that led to last week's search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida home.
This post has been updated with additional details about the ruling.
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