Displaying items by tag: mueller

(Washington)

The Democrats are finally getting their time with Robert Mueller this week. Mueller is set to testify for a full five hours before the House Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. Democrats are seen as likely to push him to give further details on his investigation, especially into obstruction of justice claims, while Republicans are expected to probe him on bias within the FBI.

FINSUM: Everyone seems to agree—it is hard to imagine anything happening at these hearings that would change anyone’s mind.

(Washington)

Attorney General Barr held a press conference this morning as a prelude the to lightly redacted Mueller report that is being released today. Generally speaking, Barr stuck to his previous summary of the report, saying there was nothing that amounted to obstruction of justice or collusion. He did give some further details, however, mentioning that there were ten instances where Mueller highlighted possible obstruction of justice. As a response to the statements, the Democrats, led by Pelosi and Schumer, are calling for Mueller himself to testify as soon as possible.

FINSUM: The political chaos about this report will not abate until the text is released and Congress and the nation hear from Mueller. We think it will happen soon.

(Washington)

The Mueller report was finally released this weekend, and the early indications are that there is nothing in it that proves any wrongdoing on the part of President Trump. Attorney General Barr’s summary to Congress, given yesterday, said there was no collusion between Trump and Russia and nothing in the report amounted to enough for a criminal charge of obstruction of justice. Trump called the report a “complete exoneration”.

FINSUM: So this is far from a “put to bed” issue because Barr’s credibility is under attack. Democrats are pledging to press on. However, one of the things we are very happy about in these divisive times is that the Mueller team had the discipline to take a clear position on the case and did not seek to inflate charges that were not really there in an effort to validate their own work.

(Washington)

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, is set to hold his first and only public hearing on Thursday, when he will testify in front of the House about his dealings with President Trump. Cohen is reportedly going to directly accuse Trump of criminal activity in addition to testimony regarding “lies, racism, and cheating”. He will not be speaking about Russia matters under the purview of the Mueller investigation. The White House commented that “Sadly, he will go before Congress this week and we can expect more of the same … It’s laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies”.

FINSUM: This is either going to be a media firestorm or a dud. If Cohen doesn’t say anything new, it will be hard for the media to make much of it.

(New York)

Next week is going to be a media circus, as the odds of real Trump fireworks look likely to surge. The reason why is that Michael Cohen is going to testify at an open public hearing before the House Oversight Committee next Thursday. The committee, seemingly defending its actions, commented that “Congress has an obligation under the Constitution to conduct independent and robust oversight of the Executive Branch, and this hearing is one step in that process”. The questions Cohen will answer will concern hush money payments, potential Trump conflicts of interest etc, but will not touch on Mueller’s probe into Russian interference.

FINSUM: No matter how you feel about Cohen, or whether you think this is just political theatre, the odds of a media bombshell, true or not, seem high.