Sen. Lindsey Graham doesn’t play games anymore and he’s not doing so in regards to Robert Mueller’s antics.
As we found out this week, Mueller sent a whiny letter to Barr, where he insinuated Barr had not provided proper context for his findings. When pressed on it though, he folded and admitted nothing Barr had said was inaccurate. In the end, Mueller blamed the media for misrepresenting the findings.
Buried in the Post report and absent from the headline is this pretty important line way down in the body.
“When Barr pressed him whether he thought Barr’s letter was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not, but felt that the media coverage of the letter was misinterpreting the investigation, officials said.”
In other words, Barr pushed back on Mueller’s silly complaints and got him to admit that Barr hadn’t misrepresented anything. Then we see Mueller fold and say he’s actually just upset with the media for misrepresenting the matter.
That hasn’t stopped the media and Democrats from losing their minds over it and continuing to assert that Barr is lying. Some have even called for him to be thrown in jail.
Well, Graham has a solution to that. He’s asking Mueller directly to put up or shut up about Barr and his report.
In response to questions by Senator Blumenthal, the Attorney General testified in essence that you told him in a phone call that you did not challenge the accuracy of the Attorney General’s summary of your report’s principal conclusions, but rather you wanted more of the report, particularly the executive summaries concerning obstruction of justice, to be released promptly. In particular, Attorney General Barr testified that you believed media coverage of your investigation was unfair without the public release of those summaries.
Please inform the Committee if you would like to provide testimony regarding any misrepresentation by the Attorney General of the substance of that phone call.
This is what it looks like to call someone’s bluff. Enough silence and enough hiding.
What will happen now is that Mueller will come back and say that Barr’s characterization was accurate, Democrats will be really sad, and we’ll move onto the next faux outrage. Barr is way too smart to have lied about anything interaction with Mueller. In fact, I’d guess he’s got the whole thing recorded and memorialized just in case the former special counsel tries anything. If you’ve watched Barr work in his testimony before Congress, it’s clear he’s not a guy you screw with.
Good on Graham for not letting this simmer and instead going right to the source to demand answers. Now the pressure is placed on Mueller to stop cowering and start talking. Once he does, there will be noway to obfuscate from reality, although CNN, et al will certainly try.