White House Given First Look at Full Mueller Report

Did you really think he’d do it?

The “he” in this case being Attorney General William Barr. The “do it” being to release the full report written by special counsel Robert Mueller, regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election, possible conspiracy by members of Donald Trump’s campaign team, and obstruction of an investigation by Donald Trump.

To be more specific, did you really think Trump’s new fixer would let Congress see the report before running it past the White House first?

If you believed that would happen and there would be full transparency, with lawmakers allowed to do their jobs, along with oversight, then you haven’t been paying attention.

So here’s what we know.

AG Barr announced that he’d finally be releasing the full Mueller report on Thursday, after some careful redactions to protect sensitive information.

Fair enough.

Congress has requested the full report, along with any documents or materials that went into Mueller’s determinations.

Democrats in Congress have expressed concern that the White House would get to see the report before they did.

Apparently, those fears were well-founded, so we can assume Democrat lawmakers have been paying attention.

By the way, have you wondered why President Ranty Pants has been particularly spastic on his Twitter account, for the past couple of days?

Well, Barr the Fixer made sure the White House and Trump’s legal team got first crack at the report. According to The New York Times, White House lawyers and the Justice Department have put their heads together to prep their defense.

The two sides have had “numerous conversations,” according to the newspaper, which said the talks have allowed President Trump‘s legal team to begin prepping a response to the report.

The president’s aides plan to divide up the Mueller report and develop a rebuttal strategy, the Times reported. The full document is expected to total more than 400 pages.

Trump’s legal team is expected to release a lengthy response to Mueller’s report that rebuts any potentially damaging information.

What’s more, Barr will be working the propaganda angle by giving a 9:30 am press conference.

Yes, he’ll be telling you his version of what the report says, putting the narrative dictated by the White House into the public consciousness before Congress or the public has a chance to see anything it holds.

Now, this probably wouldn’t be such a big deal, if we were dealing with sane times. As it is, the groundwork has already been well laid in MAGA land to label investigators the “bad guys.”

It’s dangerous territory.

President Trump has also hinted that he may have his own press conference.

Here’s a thought I can’t get out of my head: Why is all this prep necessary? After Barr’s initial summary of Mueller’s report, President Trump, as well as all his bootlickers were ecstatically declaring victor.

COMPLETELY EXONERATED! INNOCENT! NO COLLUSION! NO OBSTRUCTION!

I mean, if that were true, then getting the full report to Congress and soon after, the public, is a mere formality, right?

Nothing to see, no wrong doing would mean there would be no need for the White House legal team to prep any sort of rebuttal.

But that’s what they’re doing.

They’re not just doing that, but Trump’s brown shirts are calling for retribution against anyone who participated in what was a lawful investigation into the activities surrounding the election.

Trump has even spit out frothy tweets, suggesting Mueller and his team investigate something they were never given assignment to investigate – like the debunked claims of “spying” on Team Trump.

“The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax,” he tweeted Tuesday.

The president said last week he has not seen the Mueller report but in an interview Wednesday with WMAL said he expected to see “a lot of very strong things come out.”

“[Barr’s] been a fantastic attorney general. He’s grabbed it by the horn,” Trump told Larry O’Connor.

Well, Barr hasn’t been in his position long enough to say “fantastic.” What we can say is that it is clear he has an audience of one, and he is dutiful in pleasing the boss.