The Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into itself smells like panic. It has been widely noted that no one can tell what crime is being investigated. It’s broadly assumed that Barr is either using a phony criminal investigation as a distraction from impeachment or, worse, is using a phony criminal investigation as a means to purge the “deep state” of Trump enemies. And this may be just a way to placate Trump, who is no doubt so consumed with white-hot rage he is liable to set fire to the White House.
And let us also resolve that Bill Barr spend eternity in a deep, dark pit. Greg Sargent:
Barr is at the nexus of everything. Trump told the Ukrainian president to contact Barr to help carry out his corrupt scheme. His acting chief of staff sought to legitimize it by connecting it to the Justice Department’s review of the special counsel probe’s origins. Ambassador Gordon Sondland apparently discussed another version of that same idea.
The Justice Department keeps denying Barr’s connections to the Ukraine scheme. But this pattern suggests there might be more overlap than we know. On top of all this, Barr’s Justice Department tried to keep Trump’s Ukraine plot buried by advising against the transmission of the whistleblower complaint about it to Congress, and by declining to investigate its charges.
What’s more, we don’t know what, exactly, Barr is criminally probing right now.
Barr is traveling the world to validate an absurd conspiracy theory holding that the Russia investigation originated in a U.S. “deep state” effort to set up the Trump campaign.
Given Barr’s apparent willingness to place law enforcement at Trump’s political disposal, it’s very possible Barr’s designs are maximally nefarious. But one can also imagine the criminal probe is of some intermediate matter. Marcy Wheeler runs through a few such possibilities, none of which appears all that serious.
See also Nancy LeTourneau, Trump Needed a Distraction. Barr Gave Him One.
Update: This just happened:
A federal judge on Friday said that the U.S. Justice Deparment must turn over to the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee normally secret grand jury material collected as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Judge Beryl Howell repeatedly noted that the House is conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, which could be assisted with the material assembled by Mueller’s probe.
The judge dismissed arguments by Trump supporters in and outside of Congress that the House’s impeachment inquiry is illegitimate because the House has not held a formal vote to authorize such a probe.
I guess Hillary's emails have been depleted of all nutrient.
I don't see that Trump or DOJ has grounds to appeal.
Barr better get on the stick and hurry up with his investigation.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doj-mueller-grand-jury-evidence-house-democrats_n_5db3525ce4b079eb95a34d9c
Barr is, unsurprisingly, covering the Tangerine Idi Amin's fat ass!
Barr is obviously acting unconstitutionally. He's supposed to be "We the People's" Attorney General, not tRUMP'S personal lawyer! Barr is like Joe Besser as the latest version of the original Curly (Michael Cohen) in the new political "Three Stooges" (Cohen, Ghouliani, and Barr). Hopefully, Barr'll follow Cohen into jail – and Ghouliani, sooner or later.
I was watching MSNBC last night, and pretty much all of the attorney's said that Barr's lead on this faux-investigation, Durham, was unbiased and a straight-shooter. But then, at least some of them said the same thing about Barr-Barr, the sociopathic "Elephant* Man."
Those attorney's also said that these kind of investigations take YEARS.
So, I'm keeping my finger's crossed that this is Barr-Barr trying to mollify Hair Furor for awhile.
But even if it's a delay tactic, this is still an extremely dangerous precedent – in behalf of a very dangerous presudent!
*Think GOP symbol.
"President," not 'presudent."
OY!
The hell with it, just make it presiDUNCE,!!!
Barr is the most corrupt attorney general since John Mitchell.
Barr denied a connection to the Ukraine shakedown, which means (to my cynical self) that Barr recognized it is illegal. Barr held up the whistleblower report in a desperate bid to prevent the scandal from going public.
The Titanic has hit the berg. It may go down in the impeachment or the election. Barr would prefer to survive as A/G but he's looking to the bow sinking as Trump takes on water. If Barr hasn't left a paper trail of crimes, he won't start now. There's too much chance that a hostile DOJ will inspect everything Barr's name is on starting the day he moves out. He knows it. (And all that stuff will be preserved.)
People are defying Trump to testify. (Bolton??!!!) People who committed crimes are going to position themselves with the House committees doing the investigation as pretending to be unwilling participants with information in the hopes of avoiding criminal prosecution. Kirsten Nelson is trying to rehabilitate her image and rewrite her role (this week, coincidence?)
It happened with Nixon – criminals suddenly became patriots eager to fight for justice and a reduced sentence. In a few months, Pat Paulson will be able to beat Trump, and he's dead. Trump will become increasingly erratic as the wheels come off. Buckle up.
"There's too much chance that a hostile DOJ will inspect everything Barr's name is on starting the day he moves out."
Not hostile, but "real" DOJ, something we don't have now. And when a democrat takes the white house, one of the first orders of business should be to hire someone with integrity and drive for the truth as AG, and let that person overturn every stone with Barr's name on it. And go after all those who thumbed their nose at subpoenas and otherwise ignored the law because they knew Barr wouldn't uphold it.
So far Barr hasn't been as ridiculous as Rudy Giuliani, whose latest antic was butt dialing his way to more self-incrimination. However, hand wringing aside, Barr is globe trotting to bolster a conspiracy theory about the Russia investigation. It might be an effective distraction, or it might revive issues the administration had already managed to slither past. The exercise smells of desperation, but also of not being smart enough to quit while ahead.
You may get a rat in a corner, but my experience as a lab assistant long ago taught me to wear good gloves when you do so. As this particular species is bred hostile and aggressive, it might not hurt to wear two pair.
Barr, in all probability, knows full well his investigation will never find more that reasonable actions to determine Russian election interference. The release of the Mueller report investigative data will give the House the supporting evidence for those Russians Mueller indicted. They will never leave Russia and never go to trial. The extent to which Russians used right wing organizations and infiltrated them will also never truly come to light. And Facebook, an alleged "social" media, which became a delivery vehicle for anti-social Russian asymmetrical warfare content with aims and intentions to disrupt and weaken the United States and it's interests operates under control of Mark Zuckerberg who continues to confuse legitimate free speech with illegal hate speech. Will we ever know if his company was a naïve co-conspirator or selling out to Russia for corporate profit. One has to also wonder if this is just an attempt by Trump to provide for Putin, cover for the Russian asymmetrical warfare machine. We do know that the primary force in influencing United States foreign policy is Putin. We know this by consistent and persistent behavior on Trump's part.
At this point in time no one can refute the possibility that Trump is acting as a compromised active agent for Russia. Barr is certainly a lackey and acting more as an agent for Trump than an agent for the good of the United States. Neither of them shows anything but contempt for the United States Constitution with the exception of using it to justify their untoward actions and block legitimate investigations. A cherry picking exercise quite common of wayward administrators.
So maybe more than a diversion or hunt for proof of right wing stink tank conspiracy theories like Jade Helm but an operation to protect Russian covert operations within the United States. Nothing seems to scream for oversight outside of the executive branch like this one. Why? Well because we just do not know how compromised Trump is. We can fairly easily list those rats who would politically go down with his ship if this sort of treasonous intent is true. They are the ones closely around that big orange blip on the radar screen. That big orange blip did openly conspire with a different foreign country ( by all apparent evidence) to help rig the upcoming election. That big orange blip did obstruct investigation by the Mueller team, as reported extensively by the Mueller documents. Mueller did not disprove collusion, co-ordination, co-operation, or conspiracy with Russia and the Trump campaign in the 16 election, He was just unable to evidence such with a severely obstructed investigation. Barr provided cover for and continues the obstruction process toward the Mueller investigation. He finds himself in the corner and also cornered by the impeachment process. Yeah, two pair of gloves might be a good idea when handling this bunch.