Trump’s attorney says Mueller’s testimony shows “troubling deficiencies” in his investigation
From CNN’s Evan Perez From CNN’s live blog
He conducted the investigation unimpeded. And that was a bad thing?? 
ThelmaLou, the Republicans (the Justice Committee members in the hearing, and now Trump’s legal team) have been trying to push the fact that Mueller wasn’t actually fired and his team was “allowed” to operate to the conclusion of the investigation as evidence against obstruction of justice. That’s why Sekulow emphasizes “unimpeded”; he’s trying to imply “unobstructed”.
(Hey I didn’t say it was a clever ploy, just that this is one of the GOP strategies…)
Ted Lieu: “You did not indict Donald Trump is because of the OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?”
MUELLER: “That is correct.”
Well, despite all the Republicans trying to claim this is all a hoax and the Democrats are humiliating themselves here, this is the bottom line.
If Trump was not president, or if the Justice Department guidelines were not in place…
TRUMP WOULD HAVE BEEN INDICTED.
Intel hearings just starting. Adam Schiff going right into the treason (without that word) of even considering working with Russia to undermine an election.
My bad for trying to make sense of anything coming from the WH.
Nunes. Impressive. I couldn’t even see Trump’s lips moving.
Also, it was only unimpeded because certain White House staffers declined to act on Trump’s numerous efforts to impede it.
That was quite clear from the testimony.
Unfortunately, I doubt this moves the needle much. FOX, the official administration propaganda arm, will pull the old smoke ‘n’ mirrors act, ignoring the actual content while showing endless clips of Mueller’s halting delivery and refusal to answer questions that a) had nothing to do with his remit or b) might affect ongoing investigations of prosecutions. And the marching MAGA morons will buy it.
The real problem, for anyone hoping that today’s hearing will lead to impeachment, is that the House goes on vacation Friday, and won’t be back in session until after Labor Day. Then, even if the Dems really wanted to do impeachment, they’d have to decide between (a) a rushed impeachment inquiry, or (b) an impeachment proceeding that would run well into next year’s primary season.
They won’t like either choice, and that will give fence-sitters plenty of reason to fold.
(And that’s why they needed to begin this inquiry in April.)
Mueller just slapped down the Dems biggest win from this morning. It was obvious he had misspoken, though.
I like Nunes’ line here –
“Manafort lied?”
“Yes”
“Flynn lied?”
“Yes, he was convicted of lying”
And so on. Shows that Trump chose to surround himself with criminal liars.
Are you trying to claim that he walked back this? Because he didn’t;
Ted Lieu: “You did not indict Donald Trump is because of the OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?”
MUELLER: “That is correct.”
The full quote from Mueller:
“Now before we go to questions, I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by Mr. Lieu, who said, and I quote, ‘You didn’t charge the president because of the OLC opinion.’ That is not the correct way to say it. As we say in the report, and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. With that, Mr. Chairman, I’m ready to answer questions.”
I thought Schiff made a powerful opening statement and he relied on his prosecutor’s background to pepper Mueller with questions. Schiff came prepared.
One thing I’m not sure was made explicitly clear until just now, according to Mueller:
Manafort shared campaign and polling data with Kilimnik because he hoped to get paid by Russian/Ukrainian oligarchs.
And… Mueller confirms that Trump tried to suborn McGahn into Perjury.
That is also a crime.
As a side thing that I wonder- Has Trump expressed any deep thoughts or philosophical musings via Twitter today?
He’s off golfing today, but yes, he has claimed that Democrats are embarrassing themselves.
Mueller hates Wikileaks! All Wikileaks for the rest of the hearing!
I’ll bet he’s had to replace a lot of divots today. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m sure he just walks away from those as if someone else caused them.
Glenn Simpson worked for the Wall Street Journal, and then was hired by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative newspaper, to collect information on several Republican candidates. When the Free Beacon stopped funding his investigations, the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign picked up the funding. Fusion GPS is his company.