NY Times says Trump called Australia PM to help Barr investigate Mueller probe, but then admits it WASN’T Trump’s idea!

by The Right Scoop

The NY Times tried to make a bombshell news story out of a call Trump made to Australia PM Scott Morrison with this headline: “Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquiry’s Origins“.

Here’s their story:

President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.

The White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to a small group of the president’s aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. Like that call, the discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the extent to which Mr. Trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner in his goal to show that the Mueller investigation had corrupt and partisan origins, and the extent that Mr. Trump sees the Justice Department inquiry as a potential way to gain leverage over America’s closest allies.

And like the call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the discussion with Mr. Morrison shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.

There’s the accusation: Trump is using his position as president to help himself politically. They even tweeted it out:

But is he really?

Before I answer that, let me also add that the White House has been restricting access to calls with foreign leaders since 2017, as we learned last week. It’s not “unusual” as the Times suggests:

Back to the question. Is Trump really using his position to help himself politically, as the Times suggests? Here’s what they wrote in their fourth paragraph:

President Trump initiated the discussion in recent weeks with Mr. Morrison explicitly for the purpose of requesting Australia’s help in the Justice Department review of the Russia investigation, according to the two people with knowledge of the discussion. Mr. Barr requested that Mr. Trump speak to Mr. Morrison, one of the people said.

And then even further down…

…former Justice Department officials said that Mr. Barr would need to ask foreign countries for cooperation in turning over documents pertaining to the 2016 election.

It sounds like AG Barr asked Trump to make the phone call to Australia’s PM because he needed to solicit his cooperation to get the documents he needs for his very legitimate investigation.

In other words, a big fake news nothingburger. Actually it’s worse than that, because knowing all this didn’t stop the NY Times from using it to unjustly attack Trump for the phone call. Which is pathetic.


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