The MSNBC hosts have blown the lid off the real story behind the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials to impact the outcome of the 2016 presidential election: host Joy-Ann Reid suggested that Attorney General William Barr has orchestrated a “cover up” designed to protect the President.
Mediaite captured the exchange involving Reid and Above the Law editor Elie Mystal, as well as former Watergate proscutor, Nick Akerman. In it, it appears neither Reid nor Mystal are able to wrap their minds around the idea that the completed report may exonerate the President and key members of his campaign team of charges that they illegally manipulated the election outcome.
“Is Trump’s flunky going to release a report that might be damaging to his sugar daddy? I don’t think so,” Mystal mused.
“I don’t even know why we think that Barr isn’t the one who stopped the investigation,” he continued, outlining the motive behind a Barr-driven conspiracy within the Justice Department. “This is a 22-month-long investigation, Barr’s been on the scene for a month, and now we’re done? That doesn’t strike anybody as odd? No, I have absolutely no confidence that Bill Barr will do anything other than what is in the best interest of Donald Trump.”
Reid immediately agreed, despite the obvious fact that Trump ally Jeff Sessions served in the position of Attorney General during at least 18 of the 22 months of Mueller’s investigation, and Barr reported that Mueller experienced no interference from the White House or the DOJ while conducting his independent probe.
Instead, Reid, says, it’s very clear that Barr’s letter, which accompanied news of Mueller’s report, demonstrated that the “seeds of a cover-up” has aleady been planted.
“The fact that this investigation takes place within the Justice Department, which Donald Trump essentially controls,” Reid suggested, “and that he got rid of the problem, Jeff Sessions, who––the one decent thing that he did was just recuse himself. This guy is not recused. It feels like the seeds of a cover-up are here.”
WATCH:
MSNBC conspiracy theorist Joy Reid on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report: “It feels like the seeds of a cover-up are here.” pic.twitter.com/rZMF76nBWc
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 23, 2019
For his part, Akerman, who has experienced with presidential investigations (and, ultimately, prosecutions), noted that Barr’s conduct has been nothing but professional since he assumed office in early 2019: “So far so good. The letter says all the right things, and he’s really adhered to the letter of the regulations, which is good.”
Reid remained unconvinced.
Reid, of course, is only joining a vocal chorus of Democrats, progressive activists, and media luminaries, proposing alternative theories and explanations for news that Mueller did not recommend any further indictments beyond the 30 or so his team has already pursued.
Although this development reveals little about Mueller’s final report, it does seem to suggest that President Trump and his son, Donald Trump, Jr., will not be arrested and President Trump removed from office as some had hoped. Disappointed, some Democrats and media figures have suggested waiting for the Southern District of New York to conclude its own investigation (which they now claim was the “showpiece” investigation, and not Mueller’s), and are demanding that the notoriously silent Mueller sit in front of Congress for grilling by House Democrats.