Breaking down massive Mueller Report with George Conway

All the charges stemming from the Mueller Report ... and counting.

Have you read the Mueller Report yet? All 448 pages. 2,375 footnotes. About 16,500 lines of text, and roughly 200,000 words?

That's lot of heavy reading to wade through, even for those of us who like to stay on top of the news and keep track of the many, many, many shortcomings of the Trump administration. (Actually, I've lost count.)

Its not exactly the Readers' Digest version, but Just Security unveiled Tuesday (Aug. 20) a compilation of the best summations of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's massive report that he released  earlier this year, most of it in easy to read lay language that the ordinary non-lawyer can understand. Just Security is an online nonpartisan forum for the rigorous analysis of U.S. national security law and policy. Emphasis on "rigorous." "We aim to promote principled and pragmatic solutions to national security problems that decision-makers face," it's website states.

George Conway, the Filipino American attorney who is married to Kelly Anne Conway, Senior White House Advisor  and chief Donald Trump apologist, wrote a summation of the summations and has added some insights of his own.

Conway is an old-school Republican and hates what Trump has done to the Grand Old Party. He and I would probably disagree on most things but on the subject of Trump, we see eye to eye. What's that phrase? "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" probably applies to Conway and his like-minded allies among Trump's critics.

His blistering, daily attacks on Trump and his administration have become legendary and must reading for those who would like to restore some semblance of sanity and intelligence to the White House; and uphold and protect the US Constitution.

As  one of Just Security's Board of Editors, Conway sums up the essence of the summaries in his Epilogue: 

"In 2016, the United States was attacked. Not its ships or its soldiers, and not with missiles or bombs. Our democracy was attacked, by a hostile foreign government, through the use of technology, lies, and deception. In “sweeping and systematic fashion,” the report tells us, the Russian government interfered in an American presidential election, seeking to affect its result, and to undermine public confidence in our politics. Whether the attack did the former will be debated for a long time, but it certainly did the latter, and all patriotic Americans ought to agree: We must do everything we can to see that it never happens again."

SCREEN CAPTURE / GEORGETOWN LAW UNIVERSITY

Filipino American attorney George Conway has become one of Donald Trump's most outspoken critics.

Since he began tweeting about Trump and his administration almost from the time Trump took office, Conway has gone way past  being diplomatic and tip-toeing around the subject of the possibility of wrongdoing by Trump. The son of an immigrant father from the Philippines is blunt about his assessment of this administration. In his Epilogue, Conway writes:

"In the case of a president, the trust is the nation’s federal government, and the beneficiaries are its people. The President is called upon to 'pursue the public interest in a good faith republican fashion rather than pursuing his self-interest.' In particular, given his constitutional duty to faithfully execute the laws, the President 'must diligently and steadily execute Congress’s commands' as embodied in federal law. The special counsel’s report shows Trump disregarded that duty — indeed, that he showed contempt for it almost whenever he could. Called upon to protect the nation against an attack from a foreign power, he acted principally to protect himself. ... 

"The Framers laid out the standard by which the President’s compliance with his fiduciary obligations must be judged—as well as who must do the judging. The standard is “high crimes and misdemeanors.” That term was not meant merely to incorporate the criminal statute books. It is a legal term of art, packing in centuries of Anglo-American parliamentary history. At its core, as another scholar has explained, “the phrase denotes breaches of fiduciary duties” by public officials. And the Framers charged the Congress of the United States with enforcing that standard.

"If the Mueller report demonstrates one thing, it is that President Trump utterly failed to carry out his duties under the Constitution—that indeed, he shamelessly abjured them. It is time for members of Congress to do their duties and to hold the President to account."

Amen to that! 

The best thing about the summaries is that taken individually, the 30 articles are manageable. You can read them one at a time. or as much as you can digest. After reading a few, you can stop, run your errands, watch some TV, listen to music and when you feel like it, return to the site  to learn exactly why this White House occupant should be kicked out.

CLICK HERE To link to "Expert Summaries of Mueller Report: A Collection,"  

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