It’s another victory lap for President Donald Trump, the Republicans, conservative media, and the country. We won. And the Democrats lost. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report is now public. It’s been released. And it clears Trump of Russian collusion. The only thing the liberal media will have a conniption fit about is the obstruction of justice aspect, which Mueller punted on. The Department of Justice didn’t deem the evidence sufficient to bring forward formal charges. Still, no crime was committed, so how could there be obstruction? Regardless, the end result is no collusion and no obstruction. Half the country knew this clown show was a total joke. So, when liberal talking heads get up there and whine about obstruction, ignore them. There were no charges. They’ve got nothing. They only have their anti-Trump bias to inflate their overreaching arguments in this regard. Just grab a bag of popcorn and watch as these idiots try again to make a case for impeachment against Trump. In the meantime, do a victory lap. The Left ate crap on this whole Russia saga again.
Greenwald, who co-founded and edits The Intercept, is rightfully taking victory laps and lamenting the damage this circus has caused to the media’s credibility. The liberal media bubble is not gone. It’s reinforced, and it’s made a lot of the people in it unaware of what’s really happening in the world. He had a lengthy piece on the whole matter:
The key fact is this: Mueller – contrary to weeks of false media claims – did not merely issue a narrow, cramped, legalistic finding that there was insufficient evidence to indict Trump associates for conspiring with Russia and then proving their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That would have been devastating enough to those who spent the last two years or more misleading people to believe that conspiracy convictions of Trump’s closest aides and family members were inevitable. But his mandate was much broader than that: to state what did or did not happen.
That’s precisely what he did: Mueller, in addition to concluding that evidence was insufficient to charge any American with crimes relating to Russian election interference, also stated emphatically in numerous instances that there was no evidence – not merely that there was insufficient evidence to obtain a criminal conviction – that key prongs of this three-year-old conspiracy theory actually happened. As Mueller himself put it: “in some instances, the report points out the absence of evidence or conflicts in the evidence about a particular fact or event.”
With regard to Facebook ads and Twitter posts from the Russia-based Internet Research Agency, for example, Mueller could not have been more blunt: “The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation” (emphasis added). Note that this exoneration includes not only Trump campaign officials but all Americans
[…]
…so many of the most touted media “bombshells” claiming to establish Trump/Russia crimes have been proven false by this report. Despite an extensive discussion of Paul Manafort’s activities, nothing in the Report even hints, let alone states, that he ever visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy, let alone visited him three times, including during the 2016 election. How the Guardian could justify still not retracting that false story is mystifying.
Faring even worse is the Buzzfeed bombshell from January claiming that “President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow” and that “Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.” Mueller himself responded to the story by insisting it was false, and his Report directly contradicts it, as it makes clear that Cohen told Mueller the exact opposite.
Equally debunked is CNN’s major blockbuster by Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein, and Marshall Cohen from last July that “Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower.” The Mueller Report says the exact opposite: that Cohen had no knowledge of Trump’s advanced knowledge.
[…]
The centerpiece of the Trump/Russia conspiracy – the Trump Tower meeting – was such a dud that Jared Kushner, halfway through the meeting, texted Manafort to declare the meeting “a waste of time,” and then instructed his assistant to call him so that he could concoct a reason to leave. Not only could Mueller not find any criminality in this meeting relating to election conspiring, but he could not even use election law to claim it was an illegal gift of something of value from a foreigner, because, among other things, the information offered was of so little value that it could not even pass the $2,000 threshold required to charge someone for a misdemeanor, let alone the $25,000 required to make it a felony.
[…]
The sweeping Mueller investigation ended with zero indictments of zero Americans for conspiring with Russia over the 2016 election. Both Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner – the key participants in the Trump Tower meeting – testified for hours and hours yet were never charged for perjury, lying or obstruction, even though Mueller proved how easily he would indict anyone who lied as part of the investigation. And this massive investigation simply did not establish any of the conspiracy theories that huge parts of the Democratic Party, the intelligence community and the U.S. media spent years encouraging the public to believe.
Those responsible for this can refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing. They can even claim vindication if they want and will likely be cheered for doing so.
But the contempt in which the media and political class is held by so much of the U.S. population – undoubtedly a leading factor that led to Trump’s election in the first place – will only continue to grow as a result, and deservedly so.
And yes, Greenwald took to Twitter to fillet that last of this myth, where he described the media's Russia collusion peddling as "arrogant and willfully misleading."
Certain conspiracists (one in particular) have repeatedly emphasized Manafort generally - and his providing of polling data specifically - as proof of Trump/Russia conspiracy. Here's what Mueller had to say about that: pic.twitter.com/RqZJ8e5p75
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
The most amazing thing is that, as a Trump/Russia skeptic from the start, even I thought they would end up nabbing at least one American, like Carter Page, for conspiring with Russia. They didn't even get Carter Page! I *overestimated* what Mueller would find: pic.twitter.com/QqryctApjn
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
"Arrogant and wilfully misleading" are perfect terms for those in DC & the media who spent three years drowning US politics in incredibly dangerous but debunked conspiracy theories about a nuclear-armed power taking over our government & the Trump campaign conspiring with them: https://t.co/MUaSlDKNAy
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
I've honestly never seen the type of media meltdown that I'm seeing on CNN. They are so emotionally invested in the storyline that they've been pushing for 2+ years and they know what Mueller did to it and how this will forever reflect on them.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
I'm almost feeling sorry for the CNN panel. They are really hurt and are not even hiding it. Just live up to what you've done.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
CNN has spent two years leading everyone to believe that multiple members of the Trump WH and family would be arrested and charged for colluding with Russia, and are now furious that Barr said too many times this morning that Mueller found to evidence for it.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
The media has only 2 or 3 more hours to rage against Bill Barr for the complete collapse of everything they did for the last 2+ years. Then we'll have the Mueller Report that will say what we all know it will say and then they'll have to either accept that or target Mueller.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
Barr will give the standard small group of members of Congress a full copy of the Report without redactions of classified information. The only redactions that version will contain is for grand jury testimony, as the law requires.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
The Mueller Report undoubtedly contains information revealing how the US spies on Russia.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
If Barr released it all unredacted, they'd accuse him of treason & helping Russia.
With redactions, they'll claim the proof they were right all along is hidden under the black boxes.
On the eve of the long-awaited Mueller report about an already discredited conspiracy theory, the conspiracy theory's top proponent dubs the Mueller report the "Barr Report" & tries to make an issue out of Barr holding a news conference a few hours before the report is released: pic.twitter.com/JyAOeLSbhZ
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 18, 2019
She's going to spend the rest of her years insisting Mueller really did find a Trump/Russia conspiracy & Russian blackmail over Trump under the redactions, but Barr only released the parts of the Report where Mueller says he didn't find that, and I guess some will believe that: https://t.co/LileKhU5cI
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
Last, he went on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, where he actually gave the network credit for having debates about this Russia collusion myth; Greenwald noted Carlson’s exchange with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, who still thinks there was Trump-Russia collusion because a) he’s peddled this myth for so long he really can’t say anything else; and b) he’s a typical blue state idiot. Greenwald aptly noted that Donald Trump has broken the brains of a large swath of the liberal media. Granted, he said that what the media has done—justifying the sowing of the seeds of paranoia to stop Trump—would be okay if they all decided to quit their jobs and become activists, but they’re not. Though I’m sure many would like to be, which is why, as Greenwald noted, we saw such an epic meltdown.
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