Who Wrote the Mueller Report?

After watching the once proud (but now confused, disoriented, and feeble) Bob Mueller stumble through his testimony before two hyper-partisan Democrat House Committees last Wednesday, nothing was clearer than that Bob Mueller did not write the "Mueller" Report. It was also clear that he knew very little about what it contained, and that we was incapable of leading the investigation we were told he had led.

So who really directed the investigation, and who wrote the report. "The Hand" may give us a clue.

But first, let's look at some of the statements by politicians and the headlines that were published following this painful day of testimony:

“Caught off Guard, Falling Apart, Mumbling, Bumbling, Stuttering, Confused, Doddering, Nervous, COMPLETELY LOST!”

Mueller’s Testimony was “Shaky; Halting; Flustered; Monosyllabic; Tired; Confused.”

“I think the hearings took the wind out of the impeachment sails.”

“Mueller fell flat by stumbling over responses and appearing confused on specific questions about details in his own report.”

Any Liberals reading this are probably infuriated by the statements above, since it appears they came from Conservative Republicans. Let me burst your bubble. All of the statements and headlines above are direct quotes from Democrats and Liberal newspapers and websites. If you doubt that, do a word search for any phrase I quoted.

NBC News Extreme Liberal Political Director Chuck Todd called the hearings a “disaster” for the Democrats – on national TV!

Another Liberal Commentator, MSNBC’s Jeremy Bash, said, “I have to say, with all reverence for Bob Mueller and his lifetime of career service…I have to say that far from breathing life into the report, he kind of sucked the life out of the report. I thought he was boring. I thought in some cases he was sort of evasive, he didn't want to explain or expand on his rationale. He seemed lost at times…And I thought it really was a very ineffective defense of his own work.”

Conservative commentators were more kind to Mueller than the Liberals and Democrats, perhaps because they (like I) respect his former service as a Marine:

Chris Wallace said, “I think this has been a disaster for the Democrats and I think it’s been a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller. He has seemed very uncertain with his brief. He doesn’t seem to know things that are in the report.”

Fox News anchor Bret Baier also criticized Mueller’s deliberate approach to answering lawmakers’ questions, calling it “halting, slow and painful.”

Anne Coulter was sympathetic to Robert Mueller. She called the House Democrats forcing Mueller to testify “Elder Abuse.” He was humiliated before the entire nation, and will probably never regain his reputation.

Let’s look at just a few – of the dozens I could use – moments during Mueller’s testimony that prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not direct the investigation that bears his name; that he did not write the report he supposedly authored; and that – because of his service as a decorated Marine and his reputation, he was used as a figurehead to give legitimacy to an extremely flawed and misleading effort by the Democrats to undo the results of the 2016 election.

But first, let me tell you about “The Hand.” At the last-minute before his forced testimony, Mueller requested – and received – permission to have his former chief of staff, Aaron Zebley, sit next to him during his testimony in the role of “counsel.” Zebley never spoke in the hearing, but appeared to be there as Mueller’s handler.

If you watch the video of the hearings you will see “The Hand” appear on the screen repeatedly from Mueller’s left side. A Congressman would ask a question; Mueller would ask for the reference in “his” report; the Congressman would tell him the section and page; and Mueller would have trouble finding it. Then “The Hand” would appear from off camera holding a pen, and would point the relevant section out to Mueller.

“The Hand,” of course, belonged to his minder. It would also appear on Mueller’s shoulder or arm from time to time when he was about to say something that Zebley didn’t like. Mueller would then either clam up and refuse to answer or he would change the direction of his remarks. Several times Zebley put his hand over Mueller's microphone while he coached Mueller on how to respond to a question. It was clear that "The Hand" was in charge of keeping Mueller from embarrassing himself. He failed.

Mueller was forced to recant key testimony from his testimony in the first House hearing. Democrats thought they had a “gotcha” moment that would hurt the President. Mueller said, “That is correct” when asked by Congressman Lieu if he declined to charge Trump because of the Justice Department opinion that a sitting president can’t be indicted. But he began his remarks at the second hearing by changing his testimony. He said he “misspoke” and that he didn’t reach a decision either way because of the opinion. (It’s kind of hard to “misspeak” a yes or no question.) In any case, the Dems lost their only “gotcha” moment of the entire day.

His memory throughout the two hearings was remarkably poor. Among many other things, he forgot to raise his right hand when he was sworn in. He even forgot which president nominated him U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. That would have been a remarkable moment in any attorney’s life; how could he forget that?

His answers were short, mostly single syllables, and often terse. Other times his answers were vague or non-specific. Many times he asked questioners to repeat questions that were perfectly clear (an often-used stalling tactic). After a long string of questions about whether a quotation that was right in front of them was true, he would ask the questioner to read it to him, or what part of the report the question came from. One moment that got a laugh was when he asked a Congressman where he got his material from, the questioner said, “That was my question to you.”

He seemed angry to be there, and he had a right to be since the Democrats forced him to testify against his will. Perhaps he knew how he would appear under scrutiny, and wanted to maintain what was left of his reputation.

In his five minute opening testimony he discussed the Steele Dossier and Fusion GPS, which produced it. In my mind, that was his only truly lucid time during all the hours of the hearings. But remember that he was reading from a script. He didn’t do so well when he had to answer without someone telling him what to say.

For instance, less than two hours later he was asked about the Steele Dossier and Fusion GPS, and he said he wasn’t familiar with either of them. When the questioner reminded him, he replied that he couldn’t talk about that. Was he embarrassed that he couldn’t remember something he had had only hours before discussed? Or did his memory truly fail him about the importance of the Fusion GPS and the Steele report, which began the entire farcical Trump-Russia investigation?

Mueller’s performance was so confusing that some legal experts openly questioned whether there was something wrong with Mueller’s health. I am not a psychologist, but I – and millions of other Americans – found this to be very troubling.

It clearly demonstrated that, at least at this point in time, Mueller was incapable of leading the most in-depth and (at $40 Million) most expensive investigation in U.S. history. If, as most believe, he is incapable today, how can we know if he was capable two and a half years ago when it began?

I am one of the 3% of Americans who actually read the “Mueller” Report. I ordered it the day it became available, and the next day I had the electronic version on my desktop. I was able to answer multiple questions about the report that Mueller was not. Which raises serious questions about the authorship itself.

Robert Mueller: Decorated Marine Corps veteran. Former U.S. attorney. Former Director of the FBI. Sterling reputation. But clearly on the decline.

Aaron Zebley: Young, ambitious lawyer. Trusted confidant of Robert Mueller. Mueller’s Chief of Staff at the FBI, who followed him into private practice. Later, Chief of Staff once more – but this time on the most high-profile investigation in U.S. history.

Ask yourself which of these is more likely to be the person who was actually in charge of the investigation and the author of the report that bears Mueller’s name? The legendary trusted name being used as a front-man for the partisan Democrat “investigation.” Or “The Hand”?

I will end this with the opening statement of Congressman Devin Nunes, the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee:

“Welcome, everyone, to the last gasp of the Russia collusion conspiracy theory.”