Part VII: Charging Decisions
Lawfare Presents: The Aftermath
Lawfare
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 August 2019
⏱️ 58 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
It’s April 18, 2019, Attorney General Bill Barr summons reporters to the Department of Justice in Washington DC. Robert Mueller’s report is about to be released. Before the press and the public finally see the document for themselves, Barr wants a chance to tell his own version of the story it contains. But is the bottom line according to Barr the same as the bottom line according to Robert Mueller? We’ll let you decide.
Previous episodes have told the story of the factual findings of the Mueller report—what did investigators figure out about what happened? And what were the questions they couldn’t fully answer? Conducting the investigation is one part of the Special Counsel’s job: collecting evidence and assembling a record. But the investigation actually supports Mueller’s larger responsibility: he must reach a set of legal conclusions about the evidence his team has found. The Special Counsel needs to decide which parts of the story laid out in Volume One of the Report amount to prosecutable crimes.
This episode covers those decisions. Where does Mueller decide to bring charges? And when he doesn’t, is that because he thinks nothing improper or possibly criminal occurred? Or is it because he finds that the evidence just isn’t sufficient to prove things beyond a reasonable doubt? Here’s what the Mueller Report says about how the Special Counsel’s office made these decisions.
This is The Report: Episode 7: Charging Decisions
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | previously on the report. |
| 0:04.5 | Two years ago the Acting Attorney General asked me to serve as special counsel and he created the special counsel's office. |
| 0:11.0 | It is important that the offices written work speak for itself. It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions. |
| 0:19.5 | We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. |
| 0:23.5 | And I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments that there were multiple. |
| 0:30.0 | Systematic efforts to interfere in our election and that allegation deserves the attention of every American. |
| 0:47.5 | It's April 18th, 2019. Attorney General Bill Barr summons reporters to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:57.0 | Robert Mueller's report is about to be released. |
| 0:59.5 | Before the press and the public finally see the document for themselves, Barr wants a chance to tell his own version of the story it contains. |
| 1:08.5 | His version sounds like this. |
| 1:10.5 | The special counsel found no evidence that any American, including anyone associated with the Trump campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government or the IRA in this illegal scheme. |
| 1:25.5 | Put another way the special counsel found no collusion by any Americans in IRA's illegal activities. |
| 1:33.5 | The special counsel's report did not find any evidence that members of the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these hacking operations. |
| 1:47.5 | In other words, there was no evidence of the Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government's hacking. |
| 1:55.5 | So that's the bottom line. After nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the Russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election. |
| 2:14.5 | But did not find that the Trump campaign or other Americans colluded in those efforts. |
| 2:20.5 | Barr's version sounds suspiciously similar to President Trump's account. |
| 2:25.5 | I can only say this. There was absolutely no collusion. No collusion, which I knew anyway. No coordination, no nothing. |
| 2:31.5 | Time, no collusion, no obstruction. We want to get back to running our great country. |
| 2:37.5 | There was no collusion. There was no anything. I didn't. |
| 2:41.5 | But is the bottom line according to Barr the same as the bottom line according to Robert Mueller? We'll let you decide. |
| 2:54.5 | This is the report, Episode 7, Charging Decisions. |
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