Not if Individual 1 claims executive privilege.
That might delay things for a bit, but I think that there is zero chance the findings can be buried indefinitely. One way or another, perhaps piecemeal, the information will get out.
I don’t believe Individual 1 has any executive privilege to claim for anything he did as a candidate during his campaign, or during the period between election and assuming of the office – which is what Mueller was tasked to investigate. We have only one president at a time. Every lawyer who pretended otherwise during the past two years damn well knew it, too.
As for the obstruction charges, most of that happened in plain public view, so again, I don’t believe a claim of executive privilege could attach.
This one is an easy call, even for this SCOTUS. I’m not personally worried about executive privilege as an obstacle.
And who will do what, exactly, if the SCOTUS were to accept an assertion of executive privilege? :dubious:
There are always solutions, even for a rogue SCOTUS. They would have to wait for a Democratic president and filibuster-proof-majority senate, of course.
I think they’re already worried about it. Did you ever imagine Roberts would be a swing vote on his own conservative court?
And think about it: If you’re Chief Justice, wanting to preserve your majority for the really big stuff… do you actually choose Trump as your hill to die on? Especially knowing your SCOTUS will long outlast him? Seems to me you’d want the fucker gone sooner rather than later as much as almost anyone. Remember, Roberts has already rebuked Trump publicly over his constant demeaning of district court judges and has ruled against him more than once.
The ruling re executive privilege is as simple as it gets for an institutionalist, which Roberts claims to be. I can’t even see Gorsuch or Kavanaugh biting for this one.
Mueller himself has run a pretty leak-proof operation, but I would bet that once the report gets into the hands of the wildly incompetent and constantly in-fighting Trump administration significant parts get leaked.
In the long run, there’s no more chance that the report remains secret than the Nixon tapes or the Pentagon Papers did. If it doesn’t get out one way, it will get out another.
Mueller hasn’t leaked, and has maintained a pretty professional demeanor throughout.
However, should Barr toss the report into the circular file, or send to congress a “summary” that grossly mischaracterizes his work, I can see Mueller either leaking, or even just going straight on record, to set the story straight.
I think Barr is going to surprise anyone who expects him to try and deep six the report. Especially Trump.
An experienced Washington insider, Barr knows as well as anyone the report will not remain secret. May as well be the hero and release it as fully as possible.
Glen Kirschner, an experienced, retired US attorney who worked with Barr and believes him to be a straight arrow, was positively gleeful this morning as he reminded us of this fact: After Trump read Barr’s memo, he initially invited Barr to act as his personal attorney. Barr declined, saying he was too busy in retirement to accept the job. Two weeks later, when Trump offered him the AG position, he immediately accepted. No such qualms over being too busy for that.
By the same token, why not be the hero for the Republican Party if it won’t hurt anything? A working class hero is something to be, but this one pays a lot better.
I hope the public gets the information. There are just so many forces that are going to try to quash it that I’m not sure can be overcome. They’ll say well, there’s too much top secret info in it. They’ll say well, Mueller can testify behind closed doors. They’ll say well, there were improprieties but nothing actually illegal that charges would be brought and our tradition is not to mention those (unless you’re Comey talking about HRC). If HRC stubs her toe wrong a congressional committee will be launched to investigate it and all findings released publicly, but if trump enriches himself at the expense of US citizens WELL, there’s technically not a law against it or there is a law but no one’s ever been charged under it, SO we just don’t need to mention that.
But trump is the one who is so mistreated. :rolleyes:
I think Barr is fixed ok for retirement. He’s an old Bush/Cheney guy, not a Trump guy, so his big money supporters come from a different crowd. Old corrupt money, not new corrupt money.
I think the Barr play was the old Bushies’ shanking of Trump without getting their hands dirty – or by extension, the hands of their Congressional Favored (McConnell, e.g.). I’m no Barr admirer, but in this case, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Would you rather be the hero to 65% of the population? Or 35%? Probably fewer, once some additional arrest warrants are executed.
We know there is so, so, so much more that Mueller knows about but has said nothing. He has protected his investigation at every turn, making sure the public knows only what he’s ready to reveal, when he’s ready to reveal it.
As was very well explained at emptywheel, if the Manafort sentencing memorandum was to be Mueller’s last hurrah, then why is it so scarce on details? E.g., we know Mueller has evidence of Manafort’s attendance at the 666 5th Avenue meeting, where Manafort passed inside campaign data to Kilimnik. Not a word about that.
He has Gates. He has Flynn. He has Cohen. These are all people close to Trump who likely have first hand knowledge of Trump’s direct involvement with the conspiracy. Manafort would have been nice to have too, but Mueller doesn’t need him.
Mueller is not acting like a man who is worried he won’t get the opportunity later on to run his case at the times of his own choosing. And the thought that keeps running through my mind over and over: Mueller loves surprises.
There’s no chance that Mueller will leak the report. If he feels the need to release it directly to the public, he’ll do so openly, under his own name and letterhead, and openly accept whatever consequences follow from that. I don’t think it’s likely, though. The more probable course of action is that Team Trump tries to shut him down, the House subpoenas the report from him, Team Trump tries to shut down the House, too, and then someone in the House leaks it.
This is my favorite image that sums up the game Mueller is playing against Trump.
Love it! 
They are STILL trying to peddle that “Trump is unindictable because DOJ policy which means no unfavorable things can be reported because he is unindictable because blah blah blah”.
That tells me they will STILL try to to bury it, hide it, or destroy it.
And no policy from any agency can override or negate the law. No law or Constitutional words say Trump - or anyone else - is un-indictable or above the law.
Schiff will definitely have to subpoena and demand a full, unedited, unredacted copy.
Also, Trump does not get to answer the report with some bullshit “rebuttal”. The law doesn’t work that way.
This is why we need a LIKE button.
That is marvelous. 
Thank you!!
Looks like you can get coffee mugs and t-shirts with the same idea (although not that cartoon).
^ This. All of it. We do not elect Kings. Would they say that he is indictable if he, say, slugged a reporter? It’s bullshit. Total bullshit.
Leak or no, I just want Bob to let it all (ALL of it!) hang out, testifying to Congress.