finderFrom my understanding, most of Trumps tax cuts have incentivized outsourcing. His rhetoric is almost the polar opposite of his actions.
I never really cared for either radical angle on the Russia investigation, but if Trump is totally innocent, then why did Barr block like 85% of the Mueller report? Like I tried reading it and there are entire pages plastered with "HARM TO ONGOING MATTER"
That is an excellent question dude, that is exactly why Mueller was questioned in July 2019 by both Republicans and Democrats. The Wall Street Journal dug into this consistently and have several succinct articles about their findings. This one addresses why the Mueller report makes little sense without followup reading. Be aware, this is an opinion piece as it includes Kim Strassel's thoughts on the matter on top of what she witnessed. This also touches on the origins of why Michael Flynn was recently let free if you will:
Special counsel Robert Mueller testified before two House committees Wednesday, and his
performance requires us to look at his investigation and report in a new light. We’ve been told it
was solely about Russian electoral interference and obstruction of justice. It’s now clear it was
equally about protecting the actual miscreants behind the Russia-collusion hoax.
The most notable aspect of the Mueller report was always what it omitted: the origins of this
mess. Christopher Steele’s dossier was central to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe,
the basis of many of the claims of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. Yet the
Mueller authors studiously wrote around the dossier, mentioning it only in perfunctory terms.
The report ignored Mr. Steele’s paymaster, Fusion GPS, and its own ties to Russians. It also
ignored Fusion’s paymaster, the Clinton campaign, and the ugly politics behind the dossier hit
job.
Mr. Mueller’s testimony this week put to rest any doubt that this sheltering was deliberate. In
his opening statement he declared that he would not “address questions about the opening of
the FBI’s Russia investigation, which occurred months before my appointment, or matters
related to the so-called Steele Dossier.” The purpose of those omissions was obvious, as those
two areas go to the heart of why the nation has been forced to endure years of collusion fantasy.
Mr. Mueller claimed he couldn’t answer questions about the dossier because it “predated” his
tenure and is the subject of a Justice Department investigation. These excuses are
disingenuous. Nearly everything Mr. Mueller investigated predated his tenure, and there’s no
reason the Justice Department probe bars Mr. Mueller from providing a straightforward,
factual account of his team’s handling of the dossier.
If anything, Mr. Mueller had an obligation to answer those questions, since they go to the
central failing of his own probe. As Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz asked Mr. Mueller, how could a
special-counsel investigation into “Russia’s interference” have any credibility if it failed to look
into whether the Steele dossier was itself disinformation from Moscow? Mr. Steele
acknowledges that senior Russian officials were the source of his dossier’s claims of an
“extensive conspiracy.” Given that no such conspiracy actually existed, Mr. Gaetz asked: “Did
Russians really tell that to Christopher Steele, or did he just make it up and was he lying to the
FBI?”
Mr. Mueller surreally responded: “As I said earlier, with regard to Steele, that is beyond my
purview.”
So it went throughout the whole long day. Republicans asked basic questions about the report’s
conclusions or analysis, and Mr. Mueller dodged and weaved and refused to avoid answering
questions about the FBI’s legwork, the dossier’s role and Fusion’s involvement. Ohio Rep. Steve
Chabot asked how the report could have neglected to mention Fusion’s ties to a Russian
company and lawyer. Mr. Mueller: “Outside my purview.” California Rep. Devin Nunes asked
several questions about one of the men at the epicenter of the “collusion” conspiracy—
academic Joseph Mifsud, whom former FBI Director Jim Comey has tried to paint as a Russian
agent. Mr. Mueller: “I am not going to speak to the series of happenings as you articulated
them.”
Then again, how could he? The Mueller team, rather than question the FBI’s actions, went out
of its way to build on them. That’s how we ended up with tortured plea agreements for process
crimes from figures like former Trump aide George Papadopoulos and former national security
adviser Michael Flynn. They were peripheral figures in an overhyped drama, who nonetheless
had to be scalped to legitimize the early actions of Mr. Comey & Co. Mr. Mueller inherited the
taint, and his own efforts were further tarnished. That accounts for Mr. Mueller’s stonewalling.
The special counsel’s often befuddled testimony has predictably raised questions about how in
control he was of the 22-month investigation or the writing of the report. Yet in some ways it
matters little whether it was Mr. Mueller calling the shots, or “pit bull” Andrew Weissmann, or
Mr. Mueller’s congressional minder, Aaron Zebley. All three spent years in the Justice
Department-FBI hierarchy, as did many of the other prosecutors and agents on the probe. That
institutional crew early on made the calculated decision to shelter the FBI, the Justice
Department, outside private actors, and leading Democrats from any scrutiny of their own
potential involvement with 2016 Russian election interference.
That’s been the story all along. Mr. Comey hid his actions from Congress; the Justice
Department and FBI worked overtime to obstruct Republican-led congressional probes; and
Mr. Mueller and his team are clearly playing their own important role in hiding the truth. The
Mueller testimony only highlights how important it is that Attorney General William Barr is
finally pursuing accountability.
