From Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
I’m beginning to wonder if that’s emblematic of Attorney General William Barr. Do readers remember William Barr’s appearance on the scene? He wrote a memo condemning the Mueller investigation; he gave a speech at Notre Dame, condemning contemporary culture. He was nominated and confirmed as Trump’s second full AG, succeeding the deeply unlucky and former Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL)[1]; the temporary AG who occupied the role between Sessions and Barr was so unmemorable and, well, Trumpian, that I’m not even going to look up his name.
Barr then stuck his fingers so flagrantly into the Stone and Flynn affairs that veteran prosecutors quit, and former DOJ employees signed unprecedented petitions asking that he resign.
Twice.
There was the humiliation of the Berman affair, in which Barr thought he could induce the SDNY Attorney to resign.
And, lately, there’s been the investigation of the Obama Administration, which is yielding … nothing, as Steve Benen on Maddowblog notes:
Donald Trump spent months trying to convince the public that there was a genuine controversy surrounding Obama-era “unmaskings,” at one point describing it as a “massive” scandal. The president’s political allies played along: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has been an aggressive proponent of the story, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) went so far as to suggest earlier this year that the matter is “bigger than Watergate.”
The rhetoric never really made any sense, and the latest reporting from the Washington Post indicates that the manufactured scandal has effectively evaporated into nothing.
The federal prosecutor appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr to review whether Obama-era officials improperly requested the identities of individuals whose names were redacted in intelligence documents has completed his work without finding any substantive wrongdoing, according to people familiar with the matter.
For those who might need a refresher, Barr’s office announced on Fox News in May that the attorney general had appointed John Bash, the U.S. attorney in the Western District of Texas, to examine “unmasking” practices, specifically within the previous administration.
And …
Now that John Bash’s probe has apparently exonerated the Democratic administration, Trump might be tempted to turn his attention to Connecticut U.S. attorney John Durham’s investigation into the Russia scandal probe, but that’s not working out well for the president, either. Multiple reports this week have said there will be no pre-election action in the Durham probe, and Trump himself conceded at a campaign event on Monday that these efforts will have to wait until after Election Day.
So here’s the thing. While I generally don’t take The Daily Kos contributors too seriously, I have to admit that I was fascinated by this Andy Schmookler entry that suggests AG William Barr may be … slinking off into the night. Abandoning ship.
And, you know, ever since AG Barr declared he was self-quarantining, I can’t say I’ve heard anything from him at all.
Now, he could be ill, or preparing some replacement October Surprise – hurry, hurry, AG, I need a laugh! – but let’s stipulate Schmookler’s idea. This is where it gets interesting, because it’s reasonable to them assume that Barr was taken in by Trump. Convinced by the propaganda that the Dems are evil and conniving – that is, propaganda from his own side – AG Barr has, on the one hand, come up empty time after time after time, while interfering in prosecutions to get Trump cronies spared from punishment, which all may prove Barr is just another magical thinker, gullible and, well, gulled[2].
And quite possibly a highly toxic witness against Trump, if Trump is so foolish as to remain within the long hand of the law after his term is completed. If Barr is feeling, well, used.
I’m not sure I’d put any money on the above scenario being true, but it remains fascinating.
1 Sessions is now panhandling in Athens, AL, having lost a primary run for his old Senatorial seat to Tommy Tuberville, whose main qualification for the Senate is that he was a college football coach. Oh, kidding, kidding – about only one of those items-of-disgrace.
