GOP Rep. Rips Into Trump, Barr After ‘Carefully’ Reading Mueller Report
 

GOP Rep. Rips Into Trump, Barr After ‘Carefully’ Reading Mueller Report
By: Summer Concepcion - TMP - May 18, 2019 5:09 pm
RE: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/g...mueller-report

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) tore into President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr while offering his critical analysis of the redacted Mueller report in a Twitter thread Saturday afternoon.

Amash argued that Trump “engaged in impeachable conduct” and Barr “intended to mislead the public” about Mueller’s findings.

The GOP rep. notes that he is now offering his conclusions after reading the redacted report “carefully and completely.”

Along with Barr and Trump, Amash criticized members of Congress who he claims didn’t read the report and whose “minds were made up based on partisan affiliation.”

Read the Twitter threads below:


Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
Here are my principal conclusions:
1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report.
2. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.
3. Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances.
4. Few members of Congress have read the report.

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Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
· 3h
Replying to @justinamash
I offer these conclusions only after having read Mueller’s redacted report carefully and completely, having read or watched pertinent statements and testimony, and having discussed this matter with my staff, who thoroughly reviewed materials and provided me with further analysis.


Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
In comparing Barr’s principal conclusions, congressional testimony, and other statements to Mueller’s report, it is clear that Barr intended to mislead the public about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s analysis and findings.

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Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
· 3h
Replying to @justinamash
Barr’s misrepresentations are significant but often subtle, frequently taking the form of sleight-of-hand qualifications or logical fallacies, which he hopes people will not notice.


Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
Under our Constitution, the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” While “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” is not defined, the context implies conduct that violates the public trust.

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Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
· 3h
Replying to @justinamash
Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment.


Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
In fact, Mueller’s report identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice, and undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.

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Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
· 3h
Replying to @justinamash
Impeachment, which is a special form of indictment, does not even require probable cause that a crime (e.g., obstruction of justice) has been committed; it simply requires a finding that an official has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt, or otherwise dishonorable conduct.


Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
While impeachment should be undertaken only in extraordinary circumstances, the risk we face in an environment of extreme partisanship is not that Congress will employ it as a remedy too often but rather that Congress will employ it so rarely that it cannot deter misconduct.

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Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
· 3h
Replying to @justinamash
Our system of checks and balances relies on each branch’s jealously guarding its powers and upholding its duties under our Constitution. When loyalty to a political party or to an individual trumps loyalty to the Constitution, the Rule of Law—the foundation of liberty—crumbles.


Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
We’ve witnessed members of Congress from both parties shift their views 180 degrees—on the importance of character, on the principles of obstruction of justice—depending on whether they’re discussing Bill Clinton or Donald Trump.

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Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
· 3h
Replying to @justinamash
Few members of Congress even read Mueller’s report; their minds were made up based on partisan affiliation—and it showed, with representatives and senators from both parties issuing definitive statements on the 448-page report’s conclusions within just hours of its release.


Justin Amash
✔
@justinamash
America’s institutions depend on officials to uphold both the rules and spirit of our constitutional system even when to do so is personally inconvenient or yields a politically unfavorable outcome. Our Constitution is brilliant and awesome; it deserves a government to match it.

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