Claims And Issues

SO WHAT WERE WE TALKING ABOUT? THE UNREDACTED EMAILS?

So what were we talking about before the drone exploded?

It is hard to recall, which is a measure of distraction in itself.

As best I recall, we were talking about the unredacted emails. An online blog or zine or whatever called Just Security published some totally redacted emails which the current regime had filed in a court file in response to a court order to release those emails. Just Security says that it "viewed" many of those emails, unredacted, and it published them along with the redacted version.

The emails evidenced communications between political appointees in the current regime, and officers in the Department of Defense and in the Department of State, over the illegality of impounding funds which Congress had already appropriated and ordered spent, and over who ordered this action.

One of the more significant emails, which the regime had blacked out, revealed that the head of our government directed it.

That is what we were talking about before the drone exploded.

Since the drone exploded, it is hard to find any reporting in any medium anywhere about the message in the unredacted emails. Keep your eyes on the ball, media. Keep your focus, publishers and editors and reporters. The people could use your help and we are not getting it.

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"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN."

From Behind A Curtain, Naturally.

It started and ended with a tweet.  The Secretary of the Navy and the Admiral in charge of the SEALS thought that a trophy photograph clearly displayed conduct unbecoming.  In it, the individual in question is photographed standing on top of the body of an unarmed man.  Parenthetically, I tried to get you that photo, but it is much, much easier to find photos of the individual smiling at his good luck than it is to find the trophy photo.

The Secretary of the Navy said that the Navy does not act on a tweet.  He wanted an order to keep the individual in the photo in the Navy SEALS.

The Navy Secretary wasn't fired, apparently.  At least that's how the story goes.  The Secretary of Defense asked the Secretary of the Navy to voluntarily resign.  So, the Secretary of the Navy voluntarily resigned over the weekend.  Read his resignation letter here.

The chair of the Joint Chiefs says that ends the matter.

Except it really doesn't, you know.  That photo doesn't even come close to displaying what the SEALS stand for.  The individual in question is standing in a trophy photo on the dead body of his unarmed victim.  (Is he the next Secretary of the Navy?)

That leaves the Admiral in charge of the SEALS who doesn't want this individual in his command, either.  No word yet on what has happened to him.

My best guess?  Plan on the Secretary of Defense asking him, too, to "voluntarily resign."  There appears to be nothing that the current Secretary of Defense will not do.

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IT'S NOT THE first MUELLER LETTER TO BARR.

Just in time for Attorney General William Barr's scheduled testimony to the Senate on Wednesday, on Tuesday evening we started getting reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had sent Barr a letter.  Since then, we have been told repeatedly that Mueller's letter to Barr was on March 27, 2019.  That's not the whole story.  And now, for the rest of the story you might say.

The Special Counsel delivered his long-awaited Report to the Attorney General on March 22, 2019.  That was a Friday.  And by the way, that was the day of the first letter from Special Counsel Mueller to Attorney General Barr.

According to Mueller's March 27 letter (view a copy here:  Download Special Counsel Mueller March 27 2019 letter to AG Barr.), he "reiterated" to the Department of Justice "early in the afternoon of March 24" that the Special Counsel's Introductions and Executive Summaries of both of the two Volumes of the Report were accurate summaries.  We do not know how Mueller "reiterated" that, but presumably it was either in-person or over the telephone or by email, perhaps.

Barr's "summary letter" was released "late in the afternoon of March 24," Mueller wrote, and Barr's letter "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office's work and conclusions."

"We communicated that concern to the Department on the morning of March 25."  (Emphasis added.)  Once again, presumably the "communication" came in person, over the telephone, by email, or in some other way.

So, within the space of about 12 hours from "early afternoon" on Sunday the 24th to "the morning of March 25" there were two communications from Mueller to Barr and the Department of Justice.

Then, on Monday, March 25 there came a third contact:  Mueller sent Barr a letter which we have not yet seen.  Special Counsel Mueller says that he enclosed with that letter "the introduction and executive summary for each volume," with proposed redactions.

Apparently nothing happened on Tuesday, March 26th.

Not having heard anything back, Mueller again wrote to Attorney General Barr and again enclosed the introduction and executive summaries of both Volumes of the Special Counsel's Report, and again with proposed redactions.  This was Special Counsel Mueller's letter of March 27, 2019.  And this time Mueller specifically requested that Barr "provide these materials to Congress and authorize their public release at this time."  (Emphasis added.)

"At this time."  To say again, that was March 27, 2019.

It took Barr a month to provide any parts -- redacted, as we know -- of the Special Counsel's Report to Congress and to authorize public release of any other parts -- likewise redacted, as we know -- of the Special Counsel's Report.

In the interim, in testimony to the Senate on April 10, 2019, Attorney General Barr reportedly testified that he had no idea what redactions Special Counsel Mueller would have in mind.  Of course, as of April 10th, Barr had received at least four messages from Mueller relating to exactly that subject, and not just about redactions but proposing which ones to make, set out in two communications, and two letters in writing. 

Four.  That we know of "at this time."

Barr and his redactions.  What pieces of work.

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