Playwright William Shakesepeare, in “Macbeth,” talked of “a tale … full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”
The final part of Macbeth’s speech resembles a prediction from ABC’s Jonathan Karl as he looked for ward to the expected March unveiling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on allegations that President Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 president campaign.
Karl spoke on Sunday’s edition of ABC’s “This Week.” During the interview, he noted a Friday report that the FBI launched an investigation of the president at the time he fired former FBI Director James Comey to determine whether Trump had connections to Russia.
Based on the record, the allegation/suggestion that the #FBI came close to investigating @realDonaldTrump as a Russian spy/asset-if true-says more about anti-Trump bias within the DOJ than it ever does about the president’s actions regarding Russia.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) January 13, 2019
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Trump later called the story “the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked. I think it’s the most insulting article I’ve ever had written. And if you read the article, you’d see that they found absolutely nothing.”
Trump has tweeted his innocence, and his anger with Mueller’s probe.
Bob Mueller (who is a much different man than people think) and his out of control band of Angry Democrats, don’t want the truth, they only want lies. The truth is very bad for their mission!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018
Karl indicated that Trump’s summation of what has been found against him may not be far from the truth.
“This is all building up to the Mueller report and raising expectations of a bombshell report. And there have been expectations that have been building, of course, for over a year on this. But people who are closest to what Mueller has been doing, interacting with the special counsel caution me that this report is almost certain to be anti-climactic,” he said.
Karl said Mueller’s investigation had little in common with the FBI probe reported by the Times.
“And if you look at what the FBI was investigating in that New York Times report, you look at what they were investigating, Mueller did not go anywhere with that investigation,” he said.
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Karl said that despite all the publicity generated by Mueller and the indictments of individuals such as former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, nothing has indicated that anything has been discovered relating to the main reason for the Mueller probe’s existence.
“He has been writing his report in real time through these indictments and we have seen nothing from Mueller on the central question of, was there any coordination, collusion, with the Russians in the effort to meddle in the elections? Or was there even any knowledge on the part of the president or anybody in his campaign with what the Russians were doing, there’s been no indication of that,” he said.
Abc’s Jonathan Karl admits he was told there was likely nothing to this sensationalized, concocted investigation by same anti- Trump FBI operatives: Russia: transcripts detail how FBI debated if President was ‘following directions’ – CNNPolitics https://t.co/C3w8ePOt8v pic.twitter.com/NG4vNRPpCQ
— Wake Up America (@WakeAmericaNow) January 14, 2019
Karl noted that just because individuals such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn had personal deals involving Russians does not mean there was a Trump-led orchestrated effort to work with Russia during the 2016 campaign.
What we’ve certainly seen over and over again is the people around the president, first of all, have been willing to lie to … investigators, and had their own dealings with Russians, had their own agendas with Russians. And Manafort was trying to get paid for his work on behalf of Ukraine. Flynn had his own dealings,” he said.
“But it is not added up to anything of the central question, again, was there anybody – was the Trump campaign aware of or coordinating with the Russians in their effort to meddle with the election? So far there’s been nothing on that and I’m led to believe – don’t expect there’s going to be anything,” he said.
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