GOP Rep. Amash Tweets Case for Impeaching Bill Barr

by | May 28, 2019

Congressman Justin Amash (R-MI) has called for the impeachment of President Trump. {photo: Twitter)

As one of the founders of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, Congressman Justin Amash may be the last person you’d expect to call for the impeachment of President Trump. But after completing his reading of the full 486-page Mueller Report, Amash became the first Republican in Congress to call for the impeachment of the president.

Today, Amash laid out on Twitter a 25-Tweet case for impeaching Attorney General Barr. He explains in detail the various ways that Barr lied about the Mueller report and intentionally misrepresented its contents to the American people. 

The key issue Amash has with Barr’s account of the report is that he completely leaves out the reason why Mueller declined to pass judgment on the obstruction of Justice evidence that he laid out in great detail in the report.

Civics Lesson: Office of the Attorney General

Is voter suppression a myth or a reality? Like all things in politics, the answers aren't as straightforward as some might think.

The United States Attorney General (A.G.) is the chief lawyer of the Federal Government of the United States, head of the United States Department of Justice and oversees all governmental legal affairs.

Under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, the officeholder is nominated by the President of the United States and appointed with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. The U.S. Constitution provides that civil officers of the United States, which would include the U.S. Attorney General, may be impeached by Congress for treason, bribery or high crimes and misdemeanors. In cases of the federal death penalty, the power to seek the death penalty rests with the U.S. Attorney General.

The 85th and current United States Attorney General is William Barr.

 

Amash Tweeted:

“Mueller’s report says he chose not to decide whether Trump broke the law because there’s an official DoJ opinion that indicting a sitting president is unconstitutional, and because of concerns about impacting the president’s ability to govern and pre-empting possible impeachment.

Barr’s letter doesn’t mention those issues when explaining why Mueller chose not to make a prosecutorial decision. He instead selectively quotes Mueller in a way that makes it sound—falsely—as if Mueller’s decision stemmed from legal/factual issues specific to Trump’s actions”

This intentional omission by Attorney General Barr amounts to an intentional lie told to deceive the American people. 

Amash goes on to outline several more lies told by the Barr and the president that are revealed in the Mueller report. He notes that even though Mueller did not find enough evidence to convict the president on charges of conspiracy, which holds an extremely high threshold to convict, Amash says Mueller found troubling connections between Trump and Russia:

“In truth, Mueller’s report describes concerning contacts between members of Trump’s campaign and people in or connected to the Russian government.

For instance, Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner took a meeting with a Russian lawyer whom Trump Jr. had been told worked for the Russian government and would provide documents to “incriminate Hillary,” as part of the Russian government’s “support for Mr. Trump. 

It’s wrong to suggest that the fact that Mueller did not choose to indict anyone for this means there wasn’t a basis to investigate whether it amounted to a crime or “collusion,” or whether it was in fact part of Russia’s efforts to help Trump’s candidacy.”

Amash goes on to outline how the report makes it clear that Mueller was frustrated by Trump’s incomplete written answers to his questions and his unwillingness to sit for an in-person interview. This directly contradicts Trump’s often-stated claim that he’s the most transparent president ever and gave Mueller everything he wanted. 

Amash calls on all Americans to read the Mueller Report and push back on Barr’s and all of the repeated Republican lies that continue to misrepresent the report.

It’s no wonder the Freedom Caucus was able to gain and wield so much power in the GOP these past few years, given that it had extremely principled and thoughtful lawyers like Amash at its helm. It’s a shame he’s the only member of the Freedom Caucus who has read the Mueller Report and seen all of the lies by Barr and Trump as clearly as the rest of America sees them.

It’s also a shame that more Democrats haven’t been this forceful in calling out Barr’s lies. Hopefully, they will use this Twitter essay as the basis for starting an impeachment inquiry into Attorney General Barr.

Eric Forst is the founder and CEO of Civics Nation. With more than 20 years of experience as a marketing technology executive, Forst has spent his career helping clients in politics and industry better understand voters and consumers. In an age of fake-news and Russian propaganda, our civic duty of being an informed citizen is harder than ever. Forst’s deep understanding of the methods of ad-tech and AI helps Civics Nation readers identify fake news, the methods of propaganda, and learn the civics and history lessons needed to make informed votes.

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