Bill Barr looks even worse in his interview with CBS than we even had reason to expect — and that’s saying something
Full transcript of CBS’ interview w Bill Barr — the second most dangerous man in America, after Donald Trump. 1/17
Barr at 1:40: Mueller’s legal analysis “did not reflect the views of the Department.” [bullshit]. “It was the views of a particular lawyer or lawyers.” 2/17
I am sure this was a reference to Michael Dreeben, as I’ve suggested previously.
Dreeben has more legal smarts in his feet than Barr has ever had in his head. 3/17
This is absurd. (1) You don’t need proof to START an investigation. That would be circular. (And of course it was Rosenstein who made Trump a target for the first time — is he including Rosenstein in his criticism?) 4/17
(2) Mueller did find *plentiful* evidence of “collusion” in any ordinary sense of the term. And that collusion in any ordinary sense of the word is essential 5/17
to understanding why Russia was motivated to intervene in the election to help elect Trump. And that makes it essential in turn to understanding why Trump obstructed justice. 6/17
Jan Crawford is totally inadequate as an interviewer and should be fired.
She doesn’t even challenge him about the 1,000+ former federal prosecutors who have said that Barr is just plain WRONG about whether Trump obstructed justice. 7/17
As for Barr’s beyond-appalling remarks about whether Obama officials committed “treason.” He says: “not as a legal matter.” 8/17
Of course, they couldn’t possibly have committed treason as a purely LEGAL matter because we are not at war, and there can be no treason as a legal matter without a declaration of war. 9/17
Barr then proceeds in this generous fashion to acknowledge that the Obama officials’ motives (but he forgets Rosenstein, who was a Trump appointee!) may not have had corrupt motives, but that their actions raised questions. (He declines to specify what these questions are.) 10/17
Barr is not going to find anything in his investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation that IG Michael Horowitz hasn’t already found. 11/17
Horowitz has already found that both pro- and anti-Trump factions in the department leaked. 12/17
And he found that strong anti-Trump bias had been expressed personally by Strzok and Page, but found NO evidence that this personal bias had implicated them in any improper ACTIONS or DECISIONS. 13/17
And of course there must have been plenty of anti-Clinton personal bias in the department as well — as Lisa Page has in fact testified to in her congressional testimony (and she named names). 14/17
There probably was a LOT of anti-Clinton personal bias in the department and agency, because, as Page pointed out, law enforcement officers just tend to be conservative. But we don’t hear anything about that from Barr. 15/17
Like I said, the second-most dangerous man in America, after Donald Trump. And no, he isn’t smart, and he isn’t articulate, as the transcript shows very clearly. 16/17
He’s an embarrassment and a danger to the country. We cannot get to impeachment or to an electoral defeat for Trump fast enough. The country can’t survive much more of this. 17/17
