This Wednesday, Robert Mueller made is first public remarks since he was appointed Special Counsel, saying that he did not reach a conclusion as to whether or not President Trump obstructed justice due to “longstanding” Justice Department policy that says a sitting president can’t be indicted.
As expected, interpretations of Mueller’s words vary. But some unexpected sources are asking questions as to whether or not Mueller is contradicting Attorney General William Barr’s controversial summary of Mueller’s report.
Writing for BuzzFeed News, Zoe Tillman suggested that Mueller’s statement “appeared to bolster Barr’s version of events — or at least, they didn’t directly contradict it.”
In a tweet this Wednesday morning from Townhall.com editor and Fox News contributor Guy Benson mentioned that in April, Barr said that he and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “asked Robert Mueller when we met with him on March 5, whether he would have made obstruction a crime but for the [Office of Legal Counsel’s opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted]. He made it clear several times that it was not his position.”
“Would love to hear Mueller asked about this,” he added.
Moments before, Fox News host Brett Baier appeared in a segment where he essentially said that Mueller’s statement did Trump no favors.
“This was not – as the president says time and time again – no collusion, no obstruction. It was much more nuanced than that. [Mueller] said specifically they couldn’t find evidence to move forward with the crime of collusion for the investigation of the Trump campaign,” Baier said. “He said specifically if they had found that the President did not commit a crime on obstruction, they would have said that, and then went into specific details about the DOJ policy and why they couldn’t move forward with anything else than their decision. It was not anywhere as clear-cut as what Attorney General Bill Barr said. In fact, it was almost exactly the opposite.”
Bret Baier on FOX: "This was not, as the president says time and time again, 'no collusion, no obstruction.' It was much more nuanced than that."
Adds Mueller's statement "was not anywhere as clear-cut as attorney general Bill Barr. In fact, it was almost exactly the opposite." pic.twitter.com/rROOUdSLql
— Frank Dale (@fwdale) May 29, 2019
Soon after that segment aired, Baier retweeted Benson’s tweet and added, “This was my point moments ago. Night and day in what [M]ueller said today.”
This was my point moments ago. Night and day in what mueller said today. https://t.co/S4AZyJi5p6
— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) May 29, 2019
One thing is for sure, there’s still a lot of confusion over a report that everyone should have read by now.
H/T JoeMyGod
Featured image: screen grab/YouTube
