Mark Levin appeared on “The Sean Hannity Show” last night and provided the most spot-on analysis of Mueller’s sneak attack I’ve heard. (The clip can be viewed here.)
Levin’s take is that Mueller is scared to death to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. He believes Mueller agreed to make this statement in return for not being subpoenaed by the committee’s chairman, Jerry Nadler. He gave Nadler exactly what he needed yesterday. Mueller left the President standing inside of a dark cloud of suspicion. In fact, at this point, Nadler doesn’t want Mueller subjected to questioning by the Republicans on the committee because he’s got Trump right where he wants him.
If you watch Mueller’s demeanor, especially when he first steps up to the podium, he appears extremely ill at ease. It’s hard to imagine that such a powerful man would be quite so nervous, but he appeared petrified. And all he had to do was read something. He gave the impression that if he had to answer a serious question, he would explode.
Levin’s observation was that Mueller appeared feeble. He said, “this is not a man who would do well under seven, eight, nine hours of questioning, with the Republicans honing in on so many issues.”
Mueller is vulnerable. And he has a lot to hide.
Which is exactly why Levin calls Republicans to action. He strongly encourages GOP lawmakers to demand documents, emails and most importantly, to get him in front of their committee to answer the tough questions.
Mueller wishes that reading an eight minute statement in front of reporters was his last responsibility, but his little trick has only created more questions. For a smart man, he sure miscalculated badly this time.
I’ve included Levin’s full monologue because it’s so well stated.
Hannity: Mark, you were the first person to tell me about Justice Department guidelines as it relates to a sitting president. But it wasn’t relevant in this case at all as Attorney General Barr told us at the time.
Levin: I watched Mueller today. What crossed my mind is he sounds quite feeble and I’m quite serious about that. And I’ll explain why that matters. So, the question is why did Mueller speak today? I’m gonna tell you why I think he spoke today. Because the Democrats were unhappy with the report. And so they wanted Mueller to push the edge of the envelope on collusion which today he tried to do. They wanted him to be more emphatic about the issue of obstruction where he contradicts the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General which he did today. They have the narrative that they want. And that’s why Nadler really doesn’t want to call him to testify. They have their narrative. Now let me ask you a question. Why doesn’t Mueller want to testify? The reason is simple. There’s 1001 questions to ask this man from who he hired, why he hired them, why he ignored Hillary Clinton, the dossier, the real Russians.
Here’s a man today, who said, he’s not going to pass judgement on the Russians who were indicted, their guilt or innocence. But he passes judgement on the President of the United States and his guilt or innocence. It is such a huge abomination.
I think this whole thing was orchestrated. I think he didn’t want to testify. I think [Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jerry] Nadler (D-NY) said give us the information we want in terms of propaganda. He gives the propaganda. He said I’m not going to answer the press and I’m not going to talk to Congress. Is this the same guy who demanded that the President of the United States sit down for an interview on obstruction?
I want to challenge some of Mueller’s premises today which is one of the reasons why he didn’t want to be questioned. Did Mueller say he had evidence of a crime that met the probable cause standard but could not indict? He never says that. He doesn’t say it today, it’s not in his report. He doesn’t say he has probable cause ever.
Number two. Did he say we had to question the president about obstruction and therefore found others who had actually obstructed and charged them? No. Who are these other people? There aren’t any other people because the president didn’t obstruct. So, no, nobody else who was not immune was charged with obstruction for trying to cover up this investigation.
Why did Mueller leave it to the Attorney General to decide obstruction rather than wait a couple years and see if the president wins reelection and if he doesn’t, indict him in 2020? Notice he didn’t do that. The answer is there were no crimes, he had no case, there was no probable cause, and by Mueller writing Volume II and giving his little spiel today — and he was very feeble. And I’m serious about this. This is not a man who would do well under seven, eight, nine hours of questioning, with the Republicans honing in on so many issues.
So the question is, why did he do this today? Why did he do this today? Listen to the Democrats today. They are thrilled with this man. They were not thrilled with him yesterday. They’re thrilled with him today because they think, and they are wrong, that he delivered new information. The problem with the media is this. I just went through some basic lawyering. Does he mention that he could have charged because he had probable cause? No, he didn’t. Who are these other people who obstructed justice? There weren’t any, there wasn’t any. Why didn’t he wait a couple of years? What’s he in a hurry for, nobody bothers him. He’s noble, he’s better than everybody else. Rather than toss it to the Attorney General, why didn’t he wait a few years? Well, because he didn’t have anything.
I want to remind Mr. Mueller of something that a first year law student knows. The Fifth Amendment, it’s called Due Process. The Sixth Amendment, it’s called The Right to a Jury Trial. The Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment, Presumption of Innocence. You burned every one of those amendments, Mr. Mueller.
Just because you can’t indict a sitting president, and I heard somebody say that “Sure he can indict a sitting president, it’s just that the Attorney General can reverse course.” That’s not what the memos say.
It says you cannot indict a sitting president. I was explaining this from day one. That’s why I never understood this obstruction investigation. I never understood the appointment of a special counsel where you don’t have any predicate crime.
This whole damn thing has been a set-up against this President and it is still. Republicans, you drag this man in front of the House Judiciary Committee if you can. You demand it every time. And you question him. Lindsey Graham, you’re Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. You get him in front of your committee and you question him. And you ask him the questions. Who’s behind this report? Why did he write this report? Has he been communicating with the Democrats on Capitol Hill? Who have they leaked to if they’ve leaked to anybody else? You ask for documents. You ask for emails. You give Mueller the Trump treatment and let’s see how that ends.
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