Denouement

"The denouement is the moment when all of the knots of a story are untied, and all the threads are unraveled, and everything is laid out clearly for the world to see." — Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events



...Except it was anticlimax. And there hasn't been a whole lot of unraveling. And what's been laid out certainly isn't clear.


Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III delivered his 400-page report to Attorney General William Barr a week ago. According to Barr's 4-page summary, the President* was cleared of conspiracy to act with Russia in the influence of the 2016 election, but Barr says that Mueller did not find conclusively either way about the obstruction of justice charge:

The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion - one way or the other – as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction. Instead, for each of the relevant actions investigated, the report sets out evidence on both sides of the question and leaves unresolved what the Special Counsel views as “difficult issues” of law and fact concerning whether the President's actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction. The Special Counsel states that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

So, the good news is, our President* wasn't a witting conspirator with a foreign power. This is great news for our Democracy. But it leaves us scratching our heads. The Russia Thing was a big ol' honkin' knot, with many threads. Thirty-seven people and entities were indicted or plead guilty to 199 charges. There are mountains of "stuff" surrounding Russia and the President* of the United States!

My overwhelming question that remains is: Why, then, is 45 so chummy with Putie? Maybe it doesn't rise to the level of criminal conspiracy, but they have something going on between them. Why does Benedict Donald defend Putin at every turn? Why does he meet privately with him? Does Putin have something on him? Or is it simply the fact that TЯUMP wants to stay in his good graces until he is out of office so that he can go ahead with his Moscow tower project? SOMETHING is going on with the TЯUMP circle and Russia, and it stinks.

My second question is: Why no indictment of Donny Jr?? There is so much there!

Obstruction of justice. There are many questions about why Mueller did not come to a conclusion. Did he mean to punt it to Congress, or to Barr? Does the decision surround the erroneous thought that there has to be an underlying crime for obstruction to occur? Did he honor the Justice Department's policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted? It may be, simply, that 45 is dumb as rocks and couldn't plan criminal obstruction any easier than he could eat hamburders with rubber chopsticks.

There are serious questions about Barr's own role in the obstruction charge. As I noted in my February 23 post "America is Thirsty," William Barr wrote an unsolicited 19-page memo (15 pages longer than his Mueller summary) to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last June -- long before he was nominated for A.G. -- questioning the obstruction of justice charge altogether. Some speculate that he was chosen for the Attorney General job in part because of his opinions in this matter. Indeed, after a couple days' review of the 400-page, 22-month-long investigation report, he and Rod Rosenstein (not Mueller!) "have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense." Hmmmmmm  <LSR holds her nose>  Something stinks.


After Barr's summary was released, there were choruses of calls for the full release of the report. Yesterday he announced that he will release the full report, albeit undoubtedly heavily redacted to protect Grand Jury secrecy or ongoing investigations, to Congress within a few weeks.

John Cole

So where are we now, as a country?

We are thirsty for more. An overwhelming majority of Americans want to see the whole report.

Clay Jones

We are trusting. Most Americans trust Mueller and are satisfied that he faithfully completed his investigation.

We are untrusting. Those of us on the left, at least, don't trust Barr, a powerful political appointee with preconceived opinions on the important obstruction charges.

We are fatigued. Americans are split on the opinion of wanting Congress to continue the investigations.

We are still divided. Despite TЯUMP's  "total exoneration" lie, poll numbers indicate that the results of the report did not change anyone's opinion of SCROTUS.  His base is calling for apologies; the rest of us are demanding to read the report for ourselves.

We are undaunted. This is just one thing. Mueller didn't hand us a smocking gun, but it doesn't exonerate SCROTUS from being a dangerous individual, unfit for the office, for many other reasons than being an outright traitor. We will persevere in resisting and removing him, one way or another. There are still threads to unravel. Investigations -- many of them -- continue.

Clay Jones

But really, you don't need me to explain all this to you. Stephen Colbert, once again, to the rescue.






Resist, my friends. RESIST!