Carmine Sabia Source: TheFederalistpapers
Syndicated talk show host and one of the most popular conservative voices in America, Rush Limbaugh, just took the mask off of Robert Mueller.
Limbaugh laced into the former special counsel who said that he would have said that President Donald Trump did not commit a crime if he had the confidence to do so.
But, as Limbaugh pointed out, he could have just as simply said, and what a prosecutor usually does, “if we had confidence he committed a crime we would have said so.”
“You know, this is going to be very interesting because I went back during the break, I went back to the archives out there, and I found the attorney general on two separate occasions — they were both in the press conference — when he announced that Mueller’s report was in and that he had read the report and gave his four-page summary, it had some questions out there.
“The media asked questions. Of course, Mueller didn’t deign to take any questions. And we know why. Mueller doesn’t want any questions about the stuff he ignored.
“Anyway. This is going to be a big bone of contention because Mueller made it plain today — in fact, I’ve got three Mueller sound bites. I’ve been looking for every reason in the world not to use ’em ’cause they just tick me off.
“This is going to be a big bone of contention because of what Barr has said on two separate occasions. I’ll get to what Barr has said after I play for you Mr. Integrity, Mr. Boy Scout, Mr. Honorable, Mr. Impeccable, Mr. They don’t come any better than this, Robert J. Mueller III,” Libaugh said before playing a clip of Mueller.
“As set forth in the report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.
“We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. Beyond department policy we regarded by principles of fairness, it would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of the actual charge.
“So that was Justice Department policy, those were the principles under which we operated, and from them we concluded that we would not reach a determination one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime.
“That is the office’s final position, and we will not comment on any other conclusions or hypotheticals about the president,” Mueller said in the clip before Limbaugh tore into him.
“Now, he actually was more emphatic than that, even, on the Justice Department guidelines. By the way, Office of Legal Counsel is the lawyers for the lawyers. You know, DOJ is the Department of Justice, but even they have lawyers who tell the other lawyers what the law is and what procedures are, and it’s the Office of Legal Counsel that determines what the DOJ can charge and not charge. They have determined since 1979 that you cannot indict a sitting president.
“And Mueller made it clear over and over again today that that’s the reason they didn’t pursue the president is because of those guidelines. Can’t indict a sitting president, so why do it? That’s why I was screaming when he said this. “What the hell was this for then?” If from the very beginning you were operating under guidelines that say you can’t accuse him, you can’t charge him, you can’t indict him, then what the hell has been going on here?
“Well, Attorney General Barr on two separate occasions has said that Robert Mueller told him three different times Mueller specifically was asked by Barr, “Is your reason for not charging Trump anything to do with the Office of Legal Counsel guidelines?” And Barr says that Mueller said three times, “No, that has nothing to do with it.” Barr is on record on two occasions saying that Mueller told him three times the Office of Legal Counsel guidelines have nothing to do with his decision not to indict the president or not to link the president to crimes,” he said.
“And today Mueller goes out there and says the only reason we didn’t — he implied — the only reason we didn’t is because of those guidelines. And then what else he said here? You know, I promised I was gonna drop this, but I played this sound bite and I get revved up again. ‘As set forth in the report after the investigation, if we had confidence the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.’