Democrat politicians are collectively wringing their hands over the revelations regarding the Mueller report that came out yesterday. CNN and MSNBC made sure to have half the Democratic caucus on last night in order to hopefully soothe their embattled souls. It’s not going very well.

Rep. Eric Swalwell actually appears to be having a mental break.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report.

Release the report. — Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) March 22, 2019

The Mueller report has been released to Attorney General Barr. We've been waiting for two years! Barr has the discretion about what he releases to the public. Let's tweet, tweet, tweet and demand that the entire report be released! We deserve nothing less! — Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) March 22, 2019

This is a foolish request and it’s not going to happen.

Why? Because the DOJ is not allowed to publicly slander people, public official or not, if lines of investigation did not lead to criminal charges. Normal people agree this is a good rule. Imagine if a prosecutor in your home state went after you and had jack as far as evidence. Would it be proper for him to run to the local news and spread innuendo about how you are still guilty? Of course not. It’d be completely improper and a corrupt use of power.

There is also the matter of classified information and grand jury testimony, which also can not be legally released.

Dep. AG Rod Rosenstein laid this out in a letter to Chuck Grassley last week.

In the letter, Rosenstein makes it clear he believes the Department of Justice will not – and cannot without violating long-standing Department of Justice policy – include disparaging or incriminating information about anybody who has not been charged with a crime. “Punishing wrongdoers through judicial proceedings is only one part of the Department’s mission,” Rosenstein wrote. “We also have a duty to prevent the disclosure of information that would unfairly tarnish people who are not charged with crimes.”

The next line will of course be BUT HILLARY!!! Adam Schiff has already teased that in an interview on MSNBC, saying there can’t be two different standards.

Here’s the thing. What James Comey did was wrong. He broke DOJ protocol (likely at the behest of Loretta Lynch to protect her and the Obama administration) by doing that press conference. He also broke DOJ protocol by announcing the Trump investigation in public testimony in early 2017.

James Comey was fired. The new standard is not “do whatever the disgraced, fired FBI director did.”

The Democrats know the relevant DOJ guidelines at play here but they aren’t happy with the results. They need a new narrative which will be the AG William Barr and Robert Mueller are hiding details that would incriminate the President. They are making a demand they know can’t legally be fulfilled in order to then claim a cover up when it’s predictably ignored. It’s complete bull but expect the media to buy it hook, line, and sinker.

In fact, it’s already beginning. Jerry Nadler, Adam Schiff, and Maxine Waters, among three others, have just sent a letter to the DOJ.

To be clear, if the Special Counsel has reason to believe that the President has engaged in criminal or other serious misconduct, then the Justice Department has an obligation not to conceal such information. The President must be subject to accountability and if the Justice Department is unable to do so, then the need to provide Congress with the relevant information is paramount. Because the Justice Department maintains that a sitting president cannot be indicted, to then withhold evidence of wrongdoing from Congress because a sitting President cannot be charged is to convert Justice Department policy into the means for a cover-up. Anything less than full transparency would raise serious questions about whether the Department of Justice policy is being used as a pretext for a cover-up of misconduct.

In other words, they want Robert Mueller to serve as a proxy for their wildest conspiratorial fantasies and if he doesn’t oblige, they are going to scream cover up.

The DOJ should tell them to go pound sand. Let them make their empty threats. They can go on CNN and cry every evening from now until 2020 to cope. They still don’t get to circumvent DOJ policy for clearly political reasons. If Schiff wants to try Trump in the court of public opinion, he can use his own impotent investigation in the House. The reason he doesn’t want that is because he wants the legitimacy that’s been attached to the Mueller report to rub off on his conspiratorial rantings. He shouldn’t be humored on this point. The moment you give him anything classified or confidential, he’ll have it leaked to CNN within in the hour. That’s not how our government is supposed to work.

These people are never going to give up. The narrative is already starting to shift to proclamations that it’ll be the SDNY that now gets Trump. After that, it’ll be New York state that’s going to get him. I say let them flail. They have no credibly and they deserve not one ounce of professional courtesy from the DOJ.

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