Trump repeatedly contradicts himself about Mueller’s report - 6 minutes read

President Donald Trump started his week by retweeting himself multiple times within the 5 a.m. Eastern Time hour on Monday.

Trump’s tweets highlighted the inconsistent narrative that the president has pushed about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“For two years all the Democrats talked about was the Mueller Report, because they knew that it was loaded up with 13 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, later increased to 18,” he wrote. “But despite the bias, when the Report came out, the findings were No Collusion and facts that led to No Obstruction.”

He continued, “The Dems were devastated – after all this time and money spent ($40,000,000), the Mueller Report was a disaster for them. But they want a Redo, or Do Over. They are even bringing in sleazebag attorney John Dean. Sorry, no Do Overs – Go back to work!”

Trump was referring to a hearing held Monday by the House Judiciary Committee to address the “lessons learned” from Mueller’s final report, a redacted version of which was made public in April. The hearing featured a panel of experts, including John Dean, former White House counsel under President Richard Nixon. Dean pleaded guilty to obstruction in connection with the Watergate scandal, and in his testimony, he pointed to several similarities between that case and the current case for impeachment against Trump.

Since the release of Mueller’s report, Trump has alternately claimed he was exonerated by the report and the special counsel’s work was biased against him.

Last Friday, for example, the president appeared to quote The Hill’s John Solomon — who has a long history of defending Trump — by claiming Mueller’s report was “totally biased against Trump.”

Later that morning, however, Trump shared a video from Fox News’ Sean Hannity and referred to Mueller’s report as “pure, political garbage!”

The president also insisted in numerous tweets during previous weeks that Democrats were disappointed about Mueller’s findings, suggesting that the report was favorable to him and cleared him of any wrongdoing.

On April 24, Trump specifically claimed Mueller’s report “didn’t lay a glove on me.”

But on April 19, Trump tweeted that the report contains “total bullshit” and was an “Illegally Started Hoax.”

Trump has tweeted “no collusion” or “no obstruction” nearly 60 times in the 78 days since Attorney General William Barr’s “summary” of Mueller’s report was released in March. Barr at the time stated incorrectly that the investigation exonerated the president.

Reports later emerged that Mueller had complained to Barr on multiple occasions about the misleading early characterization of his work, which did not investigate “collusion,” which is not a legal term.

The special counsel’s report instead detailed links and contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, and notably cited at least 10 instances in which Trump may have tried to obstruct justice.

Mueller did not refer any indictments against the president. In a press conference last month, he explained that current Justice Department regulations prohibited him from doing so, as a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime.

Mueller, with his report, has instead passed the baton to Congress to carry out the next step, which many believe to mean impeachment proceedings.


Ericka Politics
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