Jack - Get Smote (feat Renato Mariotti)

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

This Week on MSW we have an interview with Renato Mariotti, host of the On Topic podcast! If you'd like to support our show and get bonus content, head to patreon.com/muellershewrote! 

Hey, it's Kimberly Host of The Start Me Up Podcast. If you like your politics with some loose talk and salty language, you're going to love my show. I interview the coolest people like Mary Trump, Kathy Griffin, and DNC Chair Jamie Harrison. The Start Me Up Podcast has an easy-going, casual style and a strong emphasis on left-leaning politics. We also have frank discussions about sex

and more than a few spirited rants. Just visit patreon.com slash start me up or wherever you get your podcasts and start listening today. Thanks to Noom for supporting Mollershi Road. Getting in shape isn't about a number on the scale. Noom helps you develop a new relationship with food, build healthier habits, and feel better about yourself.

Sign up for your trial today at noom.com slash AG. This is Sarah Kenzeer from Gaffelet Nation and your listening to Mueller She wrote. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what our position is. I'm not aware of any of those activities.

I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I didn't have, not have communications with the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin for? I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. So, it is political. You're a communist! No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring. Like all members of the oldest profession, I'm a capitalist. Hello and welcome to Muller She Wrote.

I'm your host, A.G. and joining me today remotely is Jordan Coburn. Jordan, how are you? Hey, I'm good. Yes, doing okay. Happy, happy Easter. Yeah, happy bunny day. You were a Jesus person at one point in your life.

I was raised Catholic. Yes. Does it bring back any memories? No. Other than everything being closed, but you know, everything's already closed. That's true. It's very true isn't it? And we avoided church anyway, so it's the same. It's pretty much the same. Nice.

Of course there's no ham. There's no ham this time. Ah, blessed. That's okay. Really in a ham mood. It's too salty. I miss, we used to go to these crazy mega churches in Vegas on Easter as a family. It'd be like the one time of year that we'd go. I think I've mentioned this before, but it's like a full in Las Vegas. It's like a full-blown Cirque du Soleil production on Easter.

Holy shit. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Freaking like Jesus is like hooked up to carabiners just flying through the air. The boy who wouldn't grow up. He only made it to 33. So that checks. Yeah. Holy man, Julie, that's crazy. Well, we have a big show today. Later on, I'll be talking to Renato Marriotti from the on-topic podcast, former federal prosecutor,

about a few things attorney general Bill Barr said this week that are pretty shocking. And later on in hot notes, I'm going to be talking about hydroxychloroquine and how it's being pushed by the Ukraine clown posse. And how essential consulting could be involved. It's fucking essential. And Jordan, you have a story about the revolving door that is the White House press secretary

position. But before we jump into the news, we do have some corrections. So let's do that. It's time to say I'm sorry. Oh, I made a mistake. All right, so from Paul, he says, you are all the best. This is not a correction, psych. I just wanted to say Jordan made me laugh out loud again multiple times during Friday's episode.

Thanks Thursday night for subscribers. I love Jordan's sense of humor and spontaneous rifting. The best of all. She always makes me laugh and it's making quarantine so much better for me. Thank you, A.G. Mandy and Jordan for all you do. I'm happy to be a subscriber and support your efforts. Keep up the good work. I love you. Oh God. That's so nice.

A nice note. I know. Thanks, Paul. Yes, thank you. Thank you for including that. That makes me happy. Yeah. It wasn't really a correction at all. Just keep up your funniness. This would be a great point for me to riff and say something funny, but here we are I'm just gonna have to chalk it up to a lost opportunity Not how comedy works From Christina thanks all

Thank you all for MSW and DB my go-to podcasts long time listener and patron You've provided laughter and sanity checks to me a New Zealand, which is appreciated. By the way, the pronunciation of our prime minister's name is Jarsinda Adern, emphasis on the sin and the dern. Love the chemistry between you, keep it up. Sweet. Thank you. Awesome.

Yes. All right, now I know. Yeah, I was wondering how to pronounce that. A CERN. From Zachary, I love the good news segments. AG posted that Stephanie Grisham left press secretary role to possibly had to Fox news. Grisham is actually returning to serve the first lady. This time is Melania's chief of staff. Why is this significant? Grisham gets a paycheck.

Grisham is less likely to end up cooperating with any investigations. If she's currently employed by the White House and has access to White House lawyers. By the way, Fagluzzi's interview was on point. Thank you. Yes, it was. He's a man. Oh man, he's a man.

Oh man, what the fuck? Of course it was on point. He's a man. My lady brain. It just doesn't keep up. Yeah. That goes from the praise to outing someone real quick. How you phrased it?

I know. Oops. Correction for next week, I guess. From Stephen, you are all lights in the darkness, more context than correction. The 1918 flu was not the worst pandemic of all time. Numbers are shaky, but the black death of the 1300s killed more people.

Yes, it did. Estimates for the black plagues, first wave, are usually 100 plus million versus 30 to 60 million for the 1918 flu. Then there was smallpox and other pandemics that ravaged Native Americans in the 1500s. We also know Mexico Central America dropped from 25 million to only a few million over the century. Any particular outbreak was less, was likely less deadly than the 1918 flu but way more deadly in total. Also I want, or I was so glad Jordan got moved to the good news block occasionally. She was sounding very sad. During the COVID updates all the time, good managing your people AG from a fellow manager of wonderful people. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. out. It is one of the best. More of a clarification when chatting with Andrew Torres about the PPP program, a comment was made about not being able to go to any bank to apply for the loans. I work for a small community bank and we've received hundreds of applications over the course of the last few days. Because it is a streamlined process with limited documentation by being required to go to the bank where you have your relationship, it helps prevent fraudulent activity. We know their history thus can confirm the application data.

Keep up the great and much needed work. I'll keep supporting you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you for that. Nice. From Donna. I'm so grateful that you and your crew are immersing yourselves into the daily news consistently to bring it to us and help us make sense of it.

In the April 2nd episode, you indicated that face masks were only for protecting others. Dr. Price of the Wheel Cornell Medical Center in New York City tells us that the most infectious of the coronavirus, most infections of the coronavirus are transmissions from hand to face. If you wear a mask, any mask it will keep you from touching your face while you're in public. So it's good for protecting yourself as well. That's a good idea.

Yeah. It's a good point too. As she says, please take time out for yourselves. Skip a day or two, if you need to, we'll survive. Thank you. Thank you. Donna, I don't know if I'll survive if I skip a day though. I have to get on the mic and talk about this stuff

or I'll go bananas. So anyway, those are corrections. So yeah, and if you have any, head to mullershiro corrections. So, yay. And if you have any, head to mullershierote.com, click contact, select corrections, and build us a compliment sandwich. We'll get it right eventually. And now, let's hit the headlines with just the facts.

All right, everybody. The Alaska primary happened. In case you missed it, all by mail. And with 100% of districts reporting, Biden has won Alaska 55 to 45%. Everybody, the Alaska primary happened. And in case you missed it, all by mail. And with 100% of districts reporting, Biden has won Alaska 55 to 45 over Senator Sanders. Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign this week, but will remain on the state ballots,

the remaining state ballots, to collect delegates as leverage over the party platform during the convention. And as we know, Wisconsin voted this week in person, despite Governor Evers' efforts to postpone the election. He sued to stop in-person voting amid the coronavirus outbreak, but the conservative Wisconsin State Supreme Court blocked his executive order to postpone the election and the Supreme Court of the United States voted remotely

to say that they weren't allowed to vote remotely. They voted five to four, not only to force in-person voting, but to not allow an extension for absentee ballots, disenfranchising possibly tens of thousands of Wisconsinites. We are expecting to get the results from the Wisconsin primary Monday tomorrow. And of course Ruth Bader Ginsburg blasted the conservative justices in her dissent, saying either these people in Wisconsin will have to brave the polls or lose their right to vote. She was pretty mad in her dissent. And the Navy had a spat this week, acting secretary of the Navy, Thomas

Maudley, who replaced Spencer, who resigned after Trump intervened in the peer review of, you know, War Criminal Eddie Gallagher, and M modely ended up apologizing and resigning this week after he flew to Guam to shit-talk the captain of the Roosevelt to his crew after he fired him for being alarmist, quote-unquote, about the coronavirus on his ship. But there are now 550 positive cases of coronavirus amid the crew of the Roosevelt, including Captain Crozier himself. And I think just military leadership has gone to absolute shit under this administration. And now four carriers are reporting cases of coronavirus, including the entire Pacific fleet of aircraft carriers. And Richard Delmer, Dick Delmer, deputy inspector general of the Department of Treasury, has

concluded in a letter to Congress that Steve acted properly when he refused to give Trump's tax returns to Congress. Lawyers for the legal counsel's office wrote in June of 2019 that House Democrats demands for Trump's returns should be denied because they lack legitimate legislative purpose. So, the deputy IG of the Treasury wrote to Congress this week saying Steve Mnuchin was right because he followed that legal opinion, which is a bullshit legal opinion. It's incorrect. It was written by an asshole.

A spokeswoman for Richard Neal, the chair of the Houseways and Means Committee, responded saying Chairman Neal maintains the law is on his side and he believes his request should be granted. Republicans including Chuck Grassley, say that this one page letter and the council's opinion from last June should put this to rest, even though the law clearly states no legislative purpose is needed to obtain the tax returns. And even that, even then, Richie Neal gave a legislative purpose anyhow, saying they

needed to review the presidential tax audit program. So a lawyer installed by Trump wrote a legal opinion, saying up is down and black is white and the deputy inspector general cited that legal opinion. In a one-page letter that Maneucia followed the bullshit legal opinion and so he's fine. That's how they're breaking the law. So nice, right?

Very nice. And we've got a couple more big stories this week that have come out. So let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, Jordan, what do you have for us today for your hot note? Yes, so my hot note is, as was mentioned in the corrections before looking into Stephanie Grisham who has been ousted most recently like you said it's a total revolving door that job by House Press Agutary. News came out earlier this week she had the driver eight months didn't hold a single regular press briefing. Trump campaign spokesperson Kaylee McAnany is that how you say your name? McAnany? McAnany?

McAnany? McAnany? I don't know. Itcee. I'm not looking at it. I don't know it's emcee E N A N Y McAnnie McAnnie McAnnie Well, she's replacing her and then Pentagon spokeswoman Alyssa Farah Farah Farah We'll take over Grisham, so I'm just fucking of names. She's gonna take over Grisham's other West Wing title as Director of Strategic Communications. This is all according to a senior admin official. And then Ben Williamson, he was a senior aide to new White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and he will be taking over as the senior communications advisor. So Melania Trump said Tuesday Grisham is going to be joining her staff as was mentioned in corrections

as full-time chief of staff and spokesperson. And Melania called her a mainstay and true leader in the administration. You know, Melania's just got an eye for that. The true leaders. A senior official also said that the whole overhaul that's happening right now with their press office is apparently because they're trying to expand the press office, which is become increasingly small, especially in comparison to recent presidencies. And they're saying that they want to do the overhaul so that their press office can better

deal with communications needs during the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic trebles. So I don't know. I mean, wow. Yeah. It's only, this is my favorite part. I think of evolved this is Grisham. Apparently she was like losing allies on the inside, I guess like one by one and you know Insider say that they saw it coming that she was gonna be austed, but she talked to Axia so not too long ago and she was

completely like unaware of these plans apparently. She said, sounds like more palace intrigue to me, but I've also been in quarantine because she was in quarantine after hanging out at Marlaga. She says, she says, if true, how ironic that the press secretary would hear about being replaced in the press. That's awesome. It's so fucking funny. It's so funny. It gets like, it's perfect.

Her replacement, Mac and Annie. So what we've landed on, Mac and Annie, she's a, I hate calling women idiots just on principle, but she's kind of an idiot. On February 25th, she went on, she had an interview on Fox with Trish Regan, and she said, that Trump would keep the coronavirus from American shores. This is a direct quote. She said, we will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here. We will not see terrorism come here. And isn't it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama?

So that's what we're dealing with. Trish Reagan got fired for that interview. So, you know, this woman, McAnany, is not as not Fox enough for Fox, because Trish was ousted for that. One person's a pink slip is another's interview, I guess. Yeah, and I did the mash. She was hired on July 1st of last year. So she was there for almost 25 scaramuchis. Yeah. That's, that's pretty good.

I hope that unit of time continues to use even once. This is all over. It's such a fun name. Skataboochi. Did you see Trump's tweet today? He said, all I have now signed disaster declarations in all 50 states. We are winning and we will win. You know, go USA.

He was actually, he thinks a disaster declaration for the first time in US history and all 50 states is winning. Is it winning? That's pretty amazing. And Brendan Woodruff, who we've had on the show before, and he's part of Bad Libs podcast, he's like, well, that is a lot of states. Yes, that is true. He did get all of them if we're just talking numbers games.

Yeah, he's batten a thousand for disasters. Sweet. That's tag winning. Yeah, incredibly painful when you think that it didn't have to get this way, but here we are. And I guess we're celebrating. Yay, where number one? He posted that today, you said?

Yeah, wow. What a good Christian just taking this spotlight for Jesus. Does Jesus have something today? Something going on with Jesus today? Yeah. Somebody showed him coming out of his tomb and it says if he sees a shadow it's six more weeks of quarantine. Oh God. That's totally blasphemous. Yes that's okay. I said I could buy this point. People know we're not devout. But like lightning didn't strike me. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, you know, everything's up in the air at this point. I may have been smited. I may have been smote. Is that the past tense? I don't know. It should be. I just smote in a twat past sense of a tweet. I had twat. I was smote. Yeah, I twatted a smote. I twatted and then I was smote. Good times. Yes. I have a throwback for today's hot note. So we talked about this during the week during

the daily beans, but remember, essential consulting, Michael Cohen's Sleshe fun that peddled access and and curried favor with Trump by selling Consultancy from like major dollars. Yes, sadly, I'll never forget. We Yep, somebody made us a little logo. We said that the slogan was, you know, essential consulting. It's fucking essential And that you know, I don't think we ever made shirts, but it was a thing and You know, Russians put about a half a million in there, you know, in Trader and Vaxelberg, those guys. AT&T paid Cohen because they had an upcoming merger.

They didn't want any antitrust issues with, so that was a way to just sort of grease Trump was to put a bunch of money into, into essential consulting. There was a South Korean aerospace company that tried to buy Trump's favor by donating to Michael Cohen's little thing. And of course, a pharmaceutical company called Novartis. And it just so happens, Novartis is one of several drug companies that manufacture hydroxychloroquine, which is an anti-malarial drug that Trump and others, including Giuliani and John Solomon of the Ukraine clown posse, are pushing

really hard, despite a total lack of testing on patients with COVID-19. But Marcy Wheeler has an interesting theory. She says she had to think long and hard about how this group could profit off of an old cheap drug, right? Because this is a generic now. It's cheap. They were donating a bunch of it. But here's the deal. So she posits that this scam isn't about making money,

but instead it's about serving Trump's need to stay in office so he can live beyond the statute of limitations for his multiple federal crimes. She says, you know, studies are showing that hydroxychloroquine is like a 50, 50 crap shoot that critically old patients receiving the drug will recover. So Trump picks a drug with ambiguous success and few side effects,

and he ends up with just enough people recovering who may have recovered anyhow and not because of the drug. And as Marcy said, the other half are dead or disabled so they can't speak out. And the survivors are paraded as products of Trump's genius and bam, he wins a second term. And that could be a reason why Trump, Jr. Solomon, Giuliani and Charlie Kirk are all pushing this drug. Of course, now there are major heart complications. One study in France shows those who had COVID and took the drug. 43 of them had heart problems. But Trump did meet with CEOs of Novartis Bayer and Mylan at Davos when he was there.

And whatever the real reason is, it was most certainly discussed in those meetings. So, but that's an interesting theory. It's like a, just a way to get him reelected. Yeah. She does such good pieces consistently. Yeah, I Absolutely if you if you don't follow Marcy Wheeler and her blog Empty Whale you definitely need to do that. She's got just some really great theories and and

We I feel like we tend to think along the same lines too, so yeah first I was going to say it's amazing to me that he even finds the time to concoct these sort of plans that will somehow try you know benefit him in the future amidst all this chaos. But then it's like oh no this is the exact perfect time for him to do that. That's why he's doing that right now. This is like this is in sense, if he can pull this off in ways that he benefits from and all his friends benefit from, it's like almost best case scenario for him outside of the fact the entire economy is tanking. That's just the best case scenario for him would have been him listening to the professionals ahead of time and putting in mitigation strategies like social distancing earlier than he did.

Yeah, but if he even cared about getting reelected though, you know, because now it's like in the context of us knowing that he didn't even really want to be president in the first place, now I wouldn't be surprised if he's just shifting his mindset to how he can come out of this personally on top and that's about it and kind of like fuck everybody else. Yeah, whether he wants to be president for the next four years or not, he has to be or he's imminently prosecutable. Yeah. Is there any sort of like...

Yeah, I don't know. He should just... He should just run. He should just take his money and run. I wouldn't care. I wouldn't just go. Just disappear. Just desert.

Yeah. I would have zero problems with that. Find some find a bone spur doctor. Just a storefront to say that you have bones burrs and you can't be present anymore than co-living in Russia. Yeah, he's like, oh sure, daily activities involve sitting on your ass watching videos of cute cats. Well, I'm no longer able to fulfill my duties. I'm recording this. I will resign, effective immediately. Oh, cool.

Alright, bye. Alright, well, we'll be right back with former federal prosecutor Renato Marriotti on the other side of this break. So stick around, we'll be right back. Hey everybody, it's A.G. in this episode of Moller She Wrote is brought to you by NUME, finding the best way to achieve your health goals is hard, especially if you want to make lifestyle changes that last. Thankfully, NUME gives you the expert coaching and community support you need to make sustainable progress on your goals, whether you're trying to lose weight or get fit for good.

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So declassify the secrets to a sustainable lifestyle change at noom.com slash AG. You can even get started with a free trial when you sign up today at noom.com slash AG. That's noom.noom.com slash AG to sign up for a free trial when you sign up today at num.com slash AG. That's num.nom.com slash AG to sign up for a free trial. Hey everybody welcome back. Joining me today is former federal prosecutor and host of amazing podcasts called The On Topic Podcast. It's Ronaldo, Mariotti. Ronaldo thanks for being with us today. Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I hope you're holding up okay over there.

I hope you had a great, a great, you're having a great holiday weekend. Yeah, I've been, I've been celebrating Easter with my mom over FaceTime and then we've had a couple of saters that I've been a part of. It's, it's definitely different when things are over zoom, but I think that's something we're all going through right now. Yeah, just adapting. Indeed. Yeah, so the reason I wanted to speak with you today has not a lot to do with Easter, or Passover, but I wanted to speak with you today because of a recent, recent statements

made by Attorney General Bill Barr. In one statement, he endorsed and defended the firing of Inspector General Atkinson, that's the intelligence community inspector general, who turned over the Ukraine whistleblower complaint. And he also made statements about the Russian investigation in this statement and on Fox News. And it's kind of stunning what he's been saying. So first, let's talk about bars incorrect account of what happened with Atkinson. Bar says Atkinson misinterpreted the whistleblower law and failed to follow his instructions not to tell Congress without executive branch review, but that's not really true, is it?

No, it isn't. So first of all, Atkinson in his words, noting he was a Trump appointee. Somebody was a career public servant, not a partisan person at all. And just to be clear, he not only turned over this material to Congress, but of course, he think played an important role in trying to publicly state that we needed to protect the identity of the whistle blow or something that Trump was trying to undermine.

But in this issue, the issue is that if this was an appropriate whistleblower complaint, it had to be disclosed to Congress. But the interpreter of whether or not the interpreter of the law is a small part of the Justice Department called the Office of Legal Counsel. The Office of Legal Counsel are essentially like the lawyers, lawyers within the Justice Department. Many of us know them or many of you guys know them because they issued that opinion saying that sitting president can't be indicted. They'll opine about all sorts of legal issues. And here, a former law school classmate of mine actually opinedined, who's the head of OLC,

that essentially this wasn't a proper listable or plain to descend to Congress. So that's essentially what Barr is referring to is the fact that what ultimately happened was that he's required to follow that law and that interpretation of the law, but he let Congress know why he was holding it up. And that is essentially it was due to this LLC opinion.

Yeah, they've come out with a few. I think last June, the LLC came out with an opinion saying that Richie Neal of the House Ways and Means Committee didn't have a legitimate legislative purpose for requesting the tax returns of Donald Trump, which isn't the law. And also, I mean, they did have a legitimate legislative purpose, Richie Nielsen, he needed to do a review of the audit program, the presidential tax audit program. And that was getting Trump's tax returns

was part of that. So there's been a lot of interesting opinions coming out of the OLC since bar took over. Yeah, I have no question about it. I mean, really, that's Steve Engels' work. I mean, Steve's the head of OLC. And, you know, he's been carrying the administration's water. And there have been a number of opinions that have been issued that have been, I'd say, with sort of dubious support. And I think this was one of them, essentially essentially trying to argue that this was not a whistleblower, whistleblower complaint for the purposes of the statute.

I thought was an aggressive view to put it mildly. And Steve has increasingly been taking positions that are helpful to the administration, as that's what he's been doing. And bars, of course, is becoming a public spokesperson for that. You don't see, oh, well, see lawyers like Mr. Engel on TV, but we're obviously seeing that from Bar. Yeah, and I think Steve Engel also determined that the whistleblower law, in this case, didn't apply because it wasn't a matter of intelligence.

So the intelligence community inspector general didn't have the authority to send it to Congress without executive review, you know, without handing it over to the people who were committing who were being having the whistleblown on them. Yeah, it was quite a interpretation. And, you know, it was, you put Ackon in a difficult position and he tried to take a principle take I mean I will note that he did not. He take issue with angles determination he in fact said that he we was bound to follow it he essentially told Congress like I will I think I think that I need to hold this over but I'm by this other view, so I can't turn it over right now. That is essentially what happened there. And it was ultimately the sort of pressure

of public opinion and political pressure and other things that ultimately resulted in that getting sent to Congress. But, you know, add content to somebody who, and I think we have a certain testify before the House Intel Committee, you know, he was somebody who I think came office, you know, more or less a straight shooter who was trying to protect the whistleblower. He was appointed by Trump, you know, so certainly, certainly not a partisan. And, you know, he is what's

going on near the firing and and and these statements by bar are essentially a message that if you don't play ball and if you don't follow the Trump agenda that there are going to be consequences. And really what bar is doing is once again showing that he will mislead in order to you know, in order to convince the public that what Trump is doing is the right thing. And I will say, you know, often, Barg carefully chooses his words so that he's misleading the public, but not technically lying. And in this case, I think you actually was making false statements. And I think he's smart enough because he's clearly a very intelligent man. He knows better. He knows that he's lying to people. Yeah, and he made another false statement piggybacking on this statement

about Ackinson saying that the FBI opened the Russian investigation without any basis, which isn't the case either. The DOJ Inspector General Horowitz did not find that to be the case. And but he he made the statement anyhow. And then and then taking it a step further, he appeared on Fox News over the weekend saying, quote, my own view is that the evidence shows that we're not dealing with just the mistakes or sloppiness when referring to the Russian investigation. He said, there was something far more troubling here.

We're going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted. Now, can you tell us why? I mean, a lot of people aren't really reacting, I think, as fervently against this statement as they should be. Why is this a stunning statement

for an attorney general to make? Yeah, the key thing that you said there is for an attorney general to make. In other words, I have no problem with somebody at the local bar giving his opinion, personal opinion, about the Russian investigation. I can talk to lots of people who have opinions about it. There's nothing wrong with that.

But the Attorney General of the United States right now, firstly, it's the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in the United States, and he is overseeing an investigation into the origins of the Russia-Russian investigation and the conduct of investigators within the Russian investigation. And whenever you are overseeing an investigation or participating in an investigation, it's very important for you not to be making public statements about your views for a whole variety of reasons. One of which is that when an ongoing investigation,

the evidence is going to continue to evolve and you're gonna gain new evidence and your views are gonna change. Another important reason, and certainly more important, is that in this country, we have the presumption of innocence but, and until they're proven guilty. And in this country, we don't prejudice the jury pool,

we don't prejudice the jury pool, we don't prejudice the public against individuals until or unless they're, they're a sufficient evidence to publicly accuse them. And ultimately, you know, the government is going to have to back that up with proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That's how this country works. And when, so when the Attorney General of the United States goes on a national, a national cable news network and says, well, my opinion is that there's no basis here. My opinion is that this is very troubling. What he's suggesting is that his bias or his own personal views play a role in that investigation. And I, you know, if there are any criminal cases that emerge from this,

they will, those defendants will undoubtedly use that, those statements to argue that the jury pool's been tainted, that they need some relief from that. And I will also say, here's a prediction, because I think that bars a very clever tactical guy who seems to be very artful what he's doing. I predict that there's not going to be very numerous criminal charges coming out of the Durham investigation. What I suspect is that if there were very serious criminal charges, Barr would be in mom and let them speak for themselves

and then comment after the fact. But he would know that commenting in this way, and at this time would prejudice that. But I suspect that this is him getting out of front and giving his own opinions to signal what the view should be when there's going to be very little in terms of actual criminal charges coming out of this yeah that's really interesting uh... thought point there it because we know that

the the whole reason muller didn't do what everyone wanted him to do and call trump a criminal was because he didn't want to take future prosecutions of trump uh... because you know he constitutionally Trump can't be indicted, so he doesn't have a way to defend himself in a court of law, at least as long as he's president. So yeah, I would assume that bar making these kinds of statements, if any criminal charges

come out of this investigation by Durham, like you said, if they are even there, then they would have a very good chance to dismiss this case, maybe even on appeal, because of those public statements. Yeah, I think what would happen if there was such a prosecution of whomever, whether it's combing or macabre whoever, you know, bar in his mind would want, or would like to have charged. If they were charged, I think one of the early motions would be, I've been completely prejudiced, not just by the President of the United States

and the Attorney General Optical now, but by the Attorney General's statements throughout this investigation, calling into question whether the investigation was conducted in a fair way. And I imagine not only would they be making motions to have some relief in terms of jury selection and jury pool, but then I think a trial, all of these statements will be part of the trial. I mean, if I was defending that case, if I was representing one of these individuals, that would be a centerpiece of the trial, that it was already just a witch hunt, it's already been predetermined and so on. I will say that, you know, for people who are listening, the by the book way to do this is the way Robert Mueller did.

For years, we were trying to figure out what that guy was doing and he was completely silent. There was one time he, he issued like a very short statement that a particular report was not accurate, about Cohen, I think. And that was like a big deal because he said one thing. And it was merely commenting on the accuracy of a press account. But he said basically nothing the whole way through. And as you pointed out, AG, he took a very cautious approach in terms of making any conclusions at the end of the investigation. For someone ordinarily, if a prosecutor of I had when I was investigating people, if I

had made public statements about the people I was investigating in an investigation that was not yet completed, I think I'd be taken off the case and I would have disciplinary action taken against me. So for the attorney general, to be acting like this and doing this it's very disturbing. Yeah, you're right. I think it's just for show. And I mean, you know, many people like Joyce Vance included have said that he shouldn't even have oversight over the investigation into the Russia investigation because of his conflicts of interest. Multiple conflicts of interest, including, you know, Kirk Lonellis, etc., who represented Alpha Bank, blah, blah, blah, blah, who's a guy who's son-in-law, Sam Patton was indicted in the case, et cetera. I mean, there's just a multitude, not just one example, there's a multitude, and I know

she wrote a couple of opinion pieces. Joyce Vance did for Time Magazine about why he shouldn't even be allowed ethically to provide oversight in this case. Yeah, I will say, I don't take as strong as is stronger aggressive of you as that on towards us. I think you I don't think this is a mandatory recusal by bar. I think but I think he should. In other words, my view of it is I don't think any of these things.

If if bar was a different person and had made different public statements or none. You know, if he was the bar that some people, I always was kept, I was against his, his confirmation from the beginning. But if people who supported him, if he was a, a, a fair minded type person, I don't think these things would necessarily be disqualifying. But given his public statements and the distrust of many rightfully, including federal judge, have, have had of his own statements and the distrust of many rightfully, including a federal judge, have had of his own statements.

He's somebody who there could be a perception of bias and a perception of unfairness and an app process. So you wouldn't want, he's somebody who should recuse, not absolutely mandatory, but he should be recusing. And then to me, these statements would make it so that, you know, that would be almost certain, you know, in other words, if this was anyone else, they would all, they would certainly be taken off the case at this point, making public statements in the middle of an investigation, offering their personal opinions

and anticipated conclusions. You know, federal prosecutors don't just give conclusions and opinions. You either indict somebody or you don't. And that's usually how that goes. So, you know, it's a very, very surprising, very disturbing. Yeah, but it's a very politicized and weaponized agency at the moment. So we just, we just got a vote. That's pretty much the solution here, I think, in November. And hopefully the post office won't get shut down and we can somehow vote by mail.

If we, you know, Trump reopens the country too early and we get some second wave of the coronavirus, we're going to need to vote by mail. So... Indeed. All right. Well, thank you so much. Tell our listeners where they can find your podcast. Absolutely. So just search for on topic with Renato Marietti on anywhere where your where your podcasts are available whether it's Apple podcast, Stitcher, Google Play, wherever. And if you want to look at past episodes, look at all of our guests on topic podcast.com has all of our episodes, including our latest one with Andy Slavitt. Oh, Andy Slavitt. Wonderful. I'm going to have to listen to that too. I absolutely love

your podcast and he's a great guest. Good get. So. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. Happy Easter. Happy Passover. Happy holidays. Thanks, A.G. Have a good one. All right. Thanks again to Renato for joining us to discuss that stuff about good old attorney general Bill Barr. He's going to be a lot of trouble, I think, after this is all said and done, and hopefully, when we vote in November, we'll have a new attorney general. And we can start looking into all of the things that were mismanaged, you know? Definitely. Brighter days. Yeah. Uh, that's the light at the end of the tunnel. That's for me. Is that? Well, that's our show. And thank you again to everyone who came to our happy hour Q&A

Friday. That was so much fun. I really appreciated that. It was great to have contact with with our patrons. You can head to patreon.com slash muller she wrote. If you want to become part of that, we do it every Friday at 4 p.m. Pacific time. We need to come up with a theme this week. I'll think about it. We have a lot of good suggestions from listeners and patrons. So send us your ideas for a theme.

The first one was the... Well, the first one had no theme. The second one was the pajama, jami jam, and last one was... We all got dressed up, which was fun. Yeah, it makes me feel it's so nice. I just have something to look forward to. Just like, yeah, yeah, a daily, uh, yeah, daily, daily, daily goals. I think it was a Julia Louie dry fist.us, she was in... Wait, is it Julia, Julia? It's Julia, right? Julia Louie. Yes.

She did a comedians and cars episode with Seinfeld, and I think it was in that episode where she was saying, like, someone told her this advice, and it's like the best advice she's ever had, but just always have something to look forward to. If you just, whatever it is, just have like something that's on your calendar that's ahead that that you're like you know working towards or not even working towards just plantings some sort of

positive thing that you're looking forward to and that's like essential for mental health and I had never thought about that and it's so true it's like why not recreate that cool feeling when you have really fun plans that you're really excited about Just consistently do that. Nice. Yeah. Well, I look forward to our Fridays as well. Yes. That's a lot of fun. I'm not gonna. I don't want to give away too much. You have to just have to go So I'm glad to everyone thanks to everyone who who joined us if another few hundred people on there this week It was awesome. And

That's it. That's you have any final thoughts? No, I don't think so. Watch SNL. They just did a at home episode and it was very fun. Yeah, that was my final thought too. That was so cool. Yeah. What they did for SNL.

It was really, really great. So check it out for it's so funny. Kate McKinnon is genius. She's her ar-par-pe-jeet. She's the last one. What did she say about bats? Or something about like something like a Giuliani joke? About like, yeah.

I can't when she says it's so fucking good. It's so funny. The weekend update is really good too. Yes, it was. It was really good. Definitely check it out. It's worth your time. And you got time, right? We all have time right now, so let's check it out. All right, well that's it. Everyone, please take care of yourself and take care of each other. I've been A.G. I've been Jordan Coburn, and this is Muller She Wrote. Muller She Wrote is executive produced and directed by AG and Jordan Coburn with engineering and editing by McKenzie-Mazal and Starbucks industries. Our marketing manager, production and social media direction is by Amanda Reader, fact checking a research by AG, Jordan Coburn, and Amanda Reader, and our knowledgeable listeners. Our web design and branding are by Joao Reader with Moxie Design Studios and our website is mullershyrope.com.

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