Former federal prosecutor calls Barr out for misleading the Public in his letter and press conference.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/opinions/don-mcgahn-muller-report-congress-testimony-honig/index.html
Importantly, Honig points out the Barr blocked Mueller, so Mueller punted TO CONGRESS . . not to Barr.
"Before we saw the Mueller report, Attorney General William Barr told us two important things about obstruction -- both of which turned out to be misleading at best
1. Mueller Called on Congress, nit Barr to pick up on OBSTRUCTION
First, Barr wrote in his four-page letter purporting to summarize Mueller's "principal conclusions" that Mueller "did not draw a conclusion one way or the other as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction." This, according to Barr, "leaves it to the attorney general to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime." Predictably -- given his unsolicited 2018 memo to the Justice Department excoriating Mueller's obstruction theory as "fatally misconceived" -- Barr declared that Mueller's findings did not support an obstruction charge against Trump.
But, in the report, Mueller never actually "leaves it to" Barr to decide obstruction. To the contrary, Mueller seems to look to Congress to resolve the obstruction issue: "the conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of the office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and accords with the principle that no person is above the law." Mueller here appears to call on Congress to take up the issue of Trump's obstruction.
2. Barr's Policy Was The Reason Mueller Made No Decision on Obstruction
Second, Barr stated at his press conference before the report's release that Mueller's decision not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment on obstruction was based on the facts of the case, not on the Justice Department policy memo advising against indictment of a sitting president. This mirrored Barr's claim in his four-page letter that Mueller declined to decide obstruction because of "difficult issues of law and fact."
In the report, however, Mueller makes clear that the Justice Department policy was, in his view, the primary obstacle to an obstruction charge. Mueller notes that in light of the policy, "we determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes." Then, in a passage that reads like a devastating closing argument at a jury trial, Mueller lays out 11 potentially obstructive acts by Trump. Mueller concludes as follows: "if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment." In other words: If we found that Trump did not commit obstruction, we'd say so -- and we're not saying so.
OUCH. THE FIX WAS IN
