Attorney General William Barr is deeply committed to convincing the American people that the real problem isn’t the crimes Trump committed, crimes for which Barr exonerated the president without ever reading the evidence, but the investigation of those crimes.
My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on. Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2019
As long as Barr and Trump continue to rant about “spying,” they can shift focus. The fact that the president committed crimes gets lost in the endless conversations about the investigators, a tactic Trump has been trying to use since the first whispers about the investigation began.
Barr spoke about the “spying,” which the Trump-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray already said was not supported by any evidence, in an interview. The Wall Street Journal, reports:
‘Attorney General William Barr said his review of the origins of the Russia investigation is focused on U.S. intelligence gathering before the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened its formal inquiry in July 2016 and could lead to rule changes for counterintelligence investigations of political campaigns.
‘“Government power was used to spy on American citizens,” Mr. Barr told The Wall Street Journal, in his first interview since taking office in February. “I can’t imagine any world where we wouldn’t take a look and make sure that was done properly.”’
New Fox Poll: 58% of people say that the FBI broke the law in investigating Donald J. Trump. @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2019
Absurdly, Barr insists that the investigation needs to be performed in order to ensure that elections cannot be tampered with. Never mind that the election was tampered with by the Russian government with the full knowledge of the Trump 2016 campaign, who knew and were delighted to benefit from it but told no one in law enforcement. The investigation into that campaign, Barr says, may have influenced the elections, as well. Never mind that every voter saw the social media campaign and read or heard of the Wikileaks email dump while no one knew Trump was under investigation until he had already won, Barr is determined to compare the two equally.
‘Just like we need to ensure that foreign actors don’t influence the outcome of our elections, we need to ensure that the government doesn’t use its powers to put a thumb on the scale.’
Attorney General William Barr said his review of the origins of the Russia investigation could lead to rule changes for counterintelligence investigations of political campaigns https://t.co/jtds71vhyq
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 17, 2019
Just as he waffled throughout his testimony to Congress about how the White House has influenced him to take up these investigations and on whether or not he would consider the “spying” that the FBI did (with a fully legal FISA warrant) illegal, he also cannot point to any particular part of that investigation that warrants investigation.
‘Mr. Barr wouldn’t specify what pre-election activities he found troubling, nor would he say what information he has reviewed thus far or what it has shown. He said he was surprised that officials have been so far unable to answer many of his questions.
‘“I have more questions now than when I came in,” he said, but declined to detail them.’
From Ken Starr to William Barr, the Republican view of power hasn't changed: it's unquestionable when in their hands, illegitimate when wielded by the opposition https://t.co/fFT8IqJyRS
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 15, 2019
