The Crimes of Bill Barr
Trump’s taxes dominated the news in the past two days. Secondary stories, each of which would normally generate a week’s worth of headlines, were Cambridge Analytica’s voter suppression of African Americans for Trump, and the arrest of a half-naked, drunk Brad Parscale after a police callout involving his Bikini-clad wife wrapped in a towel, a loaded pistol, and a SWAT team.
The day before, understandably, already seemed like it belonged to ancient history. Every news cycle feels like a month. But there was an important piece of news the previous day, nonetheless. FOXBusiness news anchor Maria Bartiromo, who is highly connected within the Trump administration, broke a piece of news that must’ve been devastating for her to report: John Durham, the attorney appointed by Bill Barr to investigate the investigators of Donald Trump, would not be bringing any indictments before the election. “A debate has begun within the Justice Department,” Bartiromo reported, and that will surely putting it mildly. Nora Dahenny, one of Durham’s top prosecutors, resigned from his team shortly beforehand, reportedly over pressure from Barr on the team to give him something Trump could use in the election. A single source connected to law enforcement passed RUMINT (rumor intelligence) to me, earlier this summer, that Durham was sitting on an indictment of Susan Rice, the former National Security advisor.
According to the chatter, this indictment was for “misuse of government property” over the email Rice sent on January 20th, 2017, inauguration day, relating to an earlier meeting she had attended in the Oval Office on January 5th, where Mike Flynn was discussed. This email was declassified by then-ADNI Richard Grenell , enabling it to be used in a prosecution. Since the email is unobjectionable in content, if the rumor about the charge is true, Durham’s theory would have to be that Rice lied in the email to cover up an illegal prosecution. Such specious charges sound far-fetched, but this is the Durham investigation we are discussing; more on that later.
Prosecutors resigning over Bill Barr is nothing new. But the Durham team are supposed to be his closest allies, his praetorian guard. The suggestion of a legal pressure coming from one of them is a sign that the machinery around Barr is starting to disengage from him. Joe Biden’s victory in the forthcoming election looks all but certain. Even those lawyers motivated by naked self interest would have to be pretty foolish to bet on a surprise Trump victory that leaves Barr in place to reward them.
Barr’s actions on Trump’s behalf, such as briefing the media on nonexistent ballot scandals, and falsely describing former prosecutions by his own department, may appear clownish. But seen in another light, they are more the terrified maneuvers of a criminal who knows he is about to be caught. Trump may have thought of Bill Barr as his lost hope. But it’s just as likely that Bill Barr thinks of Donald Trump as his only hope. Since Barr came into office, he has committed the crime of obstruction of justice multiple ways, on multiple occasions. Yet weak congressional questioning in the House of Representatives repeatedly allowed Bill Barr to slide off the hook. It is important that the FBI do not do the same.
Here are some of the questions Barr should have been asked:
Why, as Attorney General, did you pressure allied intelligence services to discredit the FBI?
If John Durham is investigating, why did you travel with him? Why isn’t he doing meetings rather than you?
Why do you repeatedly say the investigation was invalid when the Inspector General found it was valid?
You testified that in telling Trump the name of one of the sealed Mueller referrals, you passed him insignificant information. But if the name of the case included a member of his family, it was significant. Did you lie to Congress?
Have you ever intervened in a DOJ case unrelated to Trump or his campaign?
Did you ask ADNI Grenell to declassify Susan Rice’s email in order that Durham could prosecute her?
Did you classify evidence against Concord [the Russian troll factory case] in order that Mueller’s prosecutors could no longer pursue it?
Have you discussed any of these cases with any representative of Alfa Bank, or with any Russian national?
Barr is often said to be driven by arcane legal principles. It is said that he subscribes to the legal theory of an imperial presidency. But if that were true, Barr would not be pursuing Susan Rice, or making catty comments about Jim Comey and Joe Biden in a meeting held under Obama’s lawful authority as President.
What motivates Bill Barr to go so far outside his lane, then?
I suggest we look at his actions. In many ways they seem disparate. Pressuring intelligence agencies of foreign nations. Protecting Mike Flynn from an insignificant six month sentence that was a sweetheart deal. Classifying evidence that destroyed a case against Russia. Telling Trump about the prosecution of persons very close to him. And then there is Ukraine. Bill Barr set up a special process for Giuliani to deliver “information” to him that we now know came from a literal Russian spy.
I will have a separate piece on Barr and Ukraine / Wikileaks soon, but for now, let’s just note that Trump isn’t the only beneficiary of these acts. Russia and the Russian state are the other ones.
Bill Barr is malign, dishonest and slovenly. But he is not, unlike his boss, stupid. He must have known from the beginning that Trump was unlikely to be re-elected, and that people would see obstruction of justice in his actions. But he kept doing them, and escalated their intensity, like a man on a clock, a man who had to get things done before a deadline. Why? Why risk not only your reputation, but your liberty, for a broke President - and Barr would have known about Trump’s taxes - whom you know is going to lose?
The evidence suggests that Bill Barr is beholden not to Trump, really, but to Russia, to his former clients AlfaBank. Trump will not be his protector or beneficiary much longer; the Russian state can be.
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