President Donald Trump brought back a nixed idea to send detained immigrants to sanctuary cities, in part so he could distract from the findings of the redacted Mueller report, according to an article from The New York Times. Sources are described as “people close to him.”
It’s fair to say POTUS likes to direct public discussion. Trump did so in recent tweets suggesting that immigration officials could possibly send their detainees to these sanctuary cities. The Times report, if true, would show that the policy was a ploy, with the president bringing public debate back to territory that most appeals to his base.
Who knows what the Mueller report will show? Not Team Trump, reportedly. They don’t know what former White House Counsel Don McGahn told Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to ABC News’ Chief White House Correspondent Jon Karl.
“After all of that time before the special counsel, nobody on the president’s legal team debriefed McGahn about what he was asked by the special counsel, or what he told the special counsel. So the bottom line is they really don’t know,” he said on a Sunday episode of This Week.
Attorney General William Barr promised to release a redacted version of the report “within a week.” That was Tuesday. His summary of the document previously said that Mueller didn’t prove collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government in the 2016 presidential election. He also said that the special counsel didn’t make a decision on whether the president committed obstruction of justice. The AG stepped in, and said that the evidence didn’t establish such a finding.
Skeptics, including conservative attorney and Trump critic George Conway, cast doubt on whether Mueller’s findings lacked damaging information.
Yes, please do. It’s a critical distinction, and one not hard to understand. If Mueller had used the words “no evidence of a conspiracy or coordination” (i.e., no collusion), you can be damned sure Barr would have quoted those words. But Mueller didn’t, and Barr didn’t. https://t.co/dkLxnEWPQz
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) April 14, 2019
Trump and his allies have been driving forward the talking point that the Mueller report “exonerated” him. Aides said in the Times article that the president will publicly give more weight to Barr’s summary than the actual special counsel’s document.
Trump: “Everybody knows I won … As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care about the Mueller report. I’ve been totally exonerated.” pic.twitter.com/WsE90YhlSP
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 10, 2019
[Image via Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images]
