Mueller Report sites tweets as possible obstruction

[jtssrx]

Mind you both the media and the Clinton administration torched Ken Starr the entire time he was investigating. Oh but that was OKAY. No one claimed obstruction then. 

 

 

[xtralettucetomatoe580]

Jesus... You’ve started like 10 Mueller threads in a couple days. Couldn’t you just consolidate lol? No one actually reads or listens to your hard right propaganda.

[Mainecat]

Tweets are right from the horses mouth.

[jtssrx]

9 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

Tweets are right from the horses mouth.

ARCHIVES | 1998

White House's All-Out Attack on Starr Is Paying Off, With His Help

By DON VAN NATTA JR.MARCH 2, 1998

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From the moment that the name Monica S. Lewinsky began to dominate the national conversation, the White House determined that President Clinton's best survival strategy in the scandal was to mount an all-out attack on Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel.

''There's going to be a war,'' said James Carville, a longtime Clinton loyalist. In the five weeks since Mr. Carville's drawled declaration, the war between the President and the Whitewater independent counsel has escalated with a bitter and personal attack from Hillary Rodham Clinton, who accused Mr. Starr of being part of ''a vast, right-wing conspiracy'' against her husband.

One White House official was blunt about the strategy, calling the coordinated hostilities ''part of our continuing campaign to destroy Ken Starr.''

While these broadsides aimed at Mr. Starr and spearheaded by the White House have been effective, the independent counsel's own miscalculations, including last week's subpoena of a White House aide who was grilled about his press contacts, have contributed to a growing perception of Mr. Starr as an overzealous and tone-deaf prosecutor.

Now, even some of Mr. Starr's deputies are questioning the wisdom of some of his recent moves.

''We're getting creamed,'' a top deputy to Mr. Starr said.

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Several members of Mr. Starr's team acknowledged that the office has made several strategic miscalculations that handed the White House additional ammunition to attack the independent counsel and to raise questions about the fairness of his investigation. Several lawyers in the office say they are worried that the inquiry may be in danger of losing its remaining reservoir of public confidence.

And some leading Republicans, whose party stands to gain from Mr. Starr's investigation of the President, have joined the chorus saying that the independent counsel may have gone too far.

Mr. Starr has suffered a plummeting public approval rating. His favorable ratings sagged to just 11 percent last week in The New York Times/ CBS News poll. At the same time, his unfavorable ratings have jumped to 36 percent from 21 percent since the Lewinsky sex-and-coverup inquiry began in mid-January. Mr. Clinton's approval ratings, meanwhile, are soaring at 73 percent, the highest mark of his Presidency, according to The Times/CBS poll.

Thus far, the White House strategy has squelched previous speculation of Mr. Clinton's resignation or impeachment. Mr. Starr has suffered the reverse fate. Last week, some in Washington began demanding that Mr. Starr step aside.

Yet such a fate for Mr. Starr might not be preferred by the White House, whose aides acknowledged that they preferred a weakened Mr. Starr to stay at the helm rather than have Mr. Starr resign and a new independent counsel take over. ''We trust the devil we know,'' a White House loyalist said, ''more than the devil we don't know.''

Given the White House's state-of-the-art public relations machine, it is not a surprise that the President has appeared to enjoy the upper hand. Still, Mr. Clinton's partisans say they are amazed by the ease with which they have made Mr. Starr's tactics, and not the President's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, the most scrutinized topic.

What is even more startling is how Mr. Starr and his prosecutors have allowed the White House to bait them into decisions and maneuvers that the public has found to be questionable, at best, and distasteful, at worst. And Mr. Starr's rebuttals are often drowned out by the deft return volleys of the Clinton loyalists and White House aides.

For instance, Mr. Starr issued only a brief, written statement in response to Mrs. Clinton's attack, calling her accusations ''nonsense.''

When President Clinton's personal lawyer, David E. Kendall, called a news conference to accuse the office of leaking grand jury testimony, Mr. Starr announced he would conduct an inquiry into the source of the leaks and simply pointed out that the information was also known by Mr. Clinton's defense lawyers and others.

One of the first major blunders by Mr. Starr, according to at least one lawyer on his staff, was calling a low-level White House aide named Bob Weiner before the grand jury. Mr. Weiner, a spokesman for the White House drug policy office, was asked on Jan. 30 if he had urged Maryland Democratic officials to open an investigation into whether Linda R. Tripp had violated wiretap laws in tape-recording Ms. Lewinsky without her permission.

''That should send a message that people should not try to impede our investigation,'' one of Mr. Starr's lawyers said at the time.

But Mr. Weiner got plenty of air time that night and over the weekend, saying, ''This is Big Brother at its worst.''

While Mr. Weiner made Mr. Starr appear as if he might be overreaching, the independent counsel's caustic confrontation last week with a White House aide, Sidney Blumenthal, provoked more questioning of Mr. Starr's motives and tactics.

Mr. Blumenthal was summoned before the grand jury on Thursday because prosecutors suspected him of orchestrating a covert campaign to discredit two of Mr. Starr's prosecutors -- and even Mr. Starr himself. The office had received more than 100 phone calls from journalists concerning what Mr. Starr regards as ''malicious rumors'' about two of Mr. Starr's prosecutors, Michael Emmick and Bruce Udolf.

Mr. Starr's office responded with the extraordinary measure of sending a grand jury subpoena to Mr. Blumenthal and to Terry F. Lenzner, a private investigator with Democratic Party connections. The prosecutors' sole purpose was to find out whether Mr. Lenzner had dug up dirt about prosecutors, and whether Mr. Blumenthal had spread the dirt to reporters.

Mr. Starr suggested that the people who were spreading the ''misinformation or distorted information'' about members of his team had impeded his investigation or even obstructed justice.

 

''The effort to investigate people -- hire private investigators and look into the private lives of prosecutors -- may be part of an effort to really obstruct justice,'' said Ronald D. Rotunda, a consultant to Mr. Starr's office and a professor of law at the University of Illinois College of Law. But, he added, ''It is a perfectly valid thing to do.''

White House officials said Mr. Lenzner had been hired by President Clinton's private lawyers for work defending Mr. Clinton in the sexual misconduct suit brought by Paula Corbin Jones, and Mr. Lenzner denied that he had investigated Mr. Starr's prosecutors. Mr. Blumenthal denied that he had spread rumors about their personal lives.

Mr. Blumenthal is a former journalist who is a confidant of Mrs. Clinton. His well-embroidered conspiracy theories have inspired White House colleagues to call him G. K., for Grassy Knoll, but Mr. Starr's subpoena succeeded mostly in transforming Mr. Blumenthal from a behind-the-scenes whisperer to a front-and-center defender of the First Amendment.

In an interview last Friday, Mr. Blumenthal recalled that he was asked by prosecutors whether he had heard negative rumors about Mr. Emmick and Mr. Udolf and others in the office of the independent counsel. ''I said that I had, but they never pursued it in any detail,'' Mr. Blumenthal recalled.

''They wanted to know what reporters had told me about people in Starr's office and I said that a lot of information flows around,'' Mr. Blumenthal said. ''I tried not to name reporters' names and just stick to news organizations.''

Mr. Emmick and Mr. Udolf have much in common. They joined the office last summer for one-year stints. Both men had strong records as public corruption prosecutors. Before joining Mr. Starr's office, Mr. Emmick was an assistant United States attorney in Los Angeles and Mr. Udolf was an Assistant United States Attorney in Miami. Both are Democrats.

According to Clinton loyalists, Mr. Emmick was criticized by a judge for using ''threats, deceit and harassment'' to get testimony in a 1994 police corruption case.

The court transcript shows, however, that the ''threats, deceit and harassment'' accusation is directed at another Federal prosecutor in Los Angeles. And the same judge called Mr. Emmick ''a man of integrity'' at a hearing a year later.

It was also reported last month that Mr. Udolf was fined $50,000 in a Georgia civil proceeding for violating the civil rights of an innocent man wrongfully held in jail for four days in 1985.

Associates, though, were quick to defend Mr. Udolf. ''He was very sensitive and always had compassion for people, even though he had to prosecute them,'' said A. R. Kenyon, a retired Federal chief judge in Georgia.

It is odd that Mr. Udolf and Mr. Emmick were the targets of the alleged covert White House attacks because both men were often the voices of moderation within Mr. Starr's office. For instance, both men advised their colleagues that the office should make a deal with Ms. Lewinsky several days after the case began.

And although the criticism was leveled against both of them, Mr. Udolf and Mr. Emmick argued that Mr. Starr should not bring Mr. Blumenthal before the grand jury. But they lost the argument, and the office's gambit quickly backfired.

Pundits, reporters and legal experts harshly criticized the move, saying Mr. Starr was using grand jury subpoenas as weapons against his perceived enemies in an effort to chill criticism of his office.

Mr. Starr replied to the criticism by saying, ''The First Amendment is interested in the truth.''

That comment brought a rebuke today from Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who criticized Mr. Starr and said: ''I think the First Amendment is not intended only for what somebody may think is the truth. It is intended for freedom of speech.''

Mr. Specter's comments show that the solid wall of partisan support for Mr. Starr is cracking a bit, as some other Republican Senators said that the prosecutor may have erred in issuing a subpoena to Mr. Blumenthal.

Senator Specter, a former district attorney in Philadelphia, spoke today on the CBS News program ''Face the Nation'' and said he thought ''Ken Starr went too far'' in using the grand jury to counter criticism of him and his deputies.

''I just think that it is unwise to try and stretch the obstruction of justice statute as far as Ken Starr was thinking about last week,'' he said. ''I think that's sort of a first-year law student's reading of the statute.''

Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, Republicans, voiced support for Mr. Starr but both suggested it may have been politically unwise for him to have embarked on the obstruction of justice matter.

Mr. Starr's office seems determined to get back to the business of investigating Ms. Lewinsky, President Clinton and Mr. Clinton's close friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr., who is scheduled to appear before the grand jury on Tuesday. But prosecutors will also spend part of next week questioning two private investigators in Arkansas about the origin of more rumors about Mr. Starr's personal life.

The Arkansas investigators were retained in 1996 on behalf of The National Enquirer through a Grand Rapids, Mich., investigations firm, Matrix group. The Enquirer said that the White House was not involved in the article, but would not say who passed on allegations about Mr. Starr to the tabloid.

 

[Momorider]

So tweeting is obstruction I guess people are forced to read the tweets too

[AKIQPilot]

49 minutes ago, xtralettucetomatoe580 said:

Jesus... You’ve started like 10 Mueller threads in a couple days. Couldn’t you just consolidate lol? No one actually reads or listens to your hard right propaganda.

Yet you clicked into this one and responded.  Bizarre.  

[xtralettucetomatoe580]

3 minutes ago, AKIQPilot said:

Yet you clicked into this one and responded.  Bizarre.  

Lol, figured someone should let him know!!! I’m here to serve. 

[Angry ginger]

Last I checked Clinton's not pres and didn't have twitter. Now let's get back to the behavior of our current president

[Sleepr2]

5 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

Last I checked Clinton's not pres and didn't have twitter. Now let's get back to the behavior of our current president

But the left and Obambi had no problems bleating “ Bushes fault “ for years? 

[Angry ginger]

Just now, Sleepr2 said:

But the left and Obambi had no problems bleating “ Bushes fault “ for years? 

At least that was a comparison one admin to the next not going back 20 years to a completely different world 

What bush did or did not do directly affected what Obama had to do what bill Clinton did has no bearing on Trump

[Highmark]

13 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

At least that was a comparison one admin to the next not going back 20 years to a completely different world 

What bush did or did not do directly affected what Obama had to do what bill Clinton did has no bearing on Trump

Well that's clears it up.    

[Sleepr2]

38 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

At least that was a comparison one admin to the next not going back 20 years to a completely different world 

What bush did or did not do directly affected what Obama had to do what bill Clinton did has no bearing on Trump

Yeah, I get it , stop reminding people of their hypocrisy,  

[Angry ginger]

30 minutes ago, Highmark said:

Well that's clears it up.    

You can just say you've got nothing. 

[Ez ryder]

1 hour ago, Mainecat said:

Tweets are right from the horses mouth.

so you are saying you think tweets  condemning the investigation for the trash we all know it was is obstructing ? 

lmfao I bet you actualy do why am I asking 

 

[Ez ryder]

1 hour ago, xtralettucetomatoe580 said:

Jesus... You’ve started like 10 Mueller threads in a couple days. Couldn’t you just consolidate lol? No one actually reads or listens to your hard right propaganda.

as opposed to the 10 a day pampers and slinger start from hard left propaganda sites ? 

 

[Ez ryder]

18 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

You can just say you've got nothing. 

so tweeting his feelings on a investigation is diff than bill doing press conferences about his feelings of star and his investigation? how,so 

and for the record I don't think either one is obstructing anything in any way 

Edited April 22, 2019 by Ez ryder

[Snake]

10 minutes ago, Ez ryder said:

so tweeting his feelings on a investigation is diff than bill doing press conferences about his feelings of star and his investigation? how,so 

Because shut your mouth.

[Roosting]

23 hours ago, xtralettucetomatoe580 said:

Jesus... You’ve started like 10 Mueller threads in a couple days. Couldn’t you just consolidate lol? No one actually reads or listens to your hard right propaganda.

hey tell us what you know about spreading propaganda. DERP DERP DERP

[jtssrx]

21 hours ago, AKIQPilot said:

Yet you clicked into this one and responded.  Bizarre.  

He's like an Hemeroid. it doesn't matter what I post he's there hanging out of my ass to give me grief. I just laugh at him

[AKIQPilot]

3 minutes ago, jtssrx said:

He's like an Hemeroid. it doesn't matter what I post he's there hanging out of my ass to give me grief. I just laugh at him

He's a good kid, just a little misguided.  

[f7ben]

48 minutes ago, AKIQPilot said:

He's a good kid, just a little misguided.  

You.....just told a flat earther.....that our resident manbun......is fucked up

Sweet fuck everyone kill themselves

[AKIQPilot]

Just now, f7ben said:

You.....just told a flat earther.....that our resident manbun......is fucked up

Sweet fuck everyone kill themselves

Hahaha.   

[xtralettucetomatoe580]

1 hour ago, AKIQPilot said:

He's a good kid, just a little misguided.  

Oh? How? Enlighten me...

[AKIQPilot]

20 minutes ago, xtralettucetomatoe580 said:

Oh? How? Enlighten me...

Well....  Remember the old saying "hire a teenager while they still think they know everything" .  You often sound like a 29 year old teenager. 

[Roosting]

Careful you will be labeled too stupid to respond to.

he's not to be questioned as his propaganda is the bestest