President Trump rewarded the fawning loyalty of his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, not just by firing him but by then mocking everything from his manhood to his intelligence to boot. All this simply because Sessions forfeited his ability to rig the Justice Department’s Russia probe to suit Trump’s agenda. And Trump couldn’t care less that Sessions did so because Department regulations required him to recuse himself.
Meanwhile, his current attorney general, William Barr, has shown Trump such fawning loyalty, it must make even Sessions cringe with embarrassment … for Barr. More to the point, though, it behooves Barr to read the writing on the wall, and act to preserve what little remains of his professional integrity and self-respect.
After all, from day one of his presidency to this day, Trump has been telling the world that former President Obama headed a conspiracy to spy on his campaign, which amounted to treason:
These people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. And that includes Obama, it includes Biden.
(Fox News, October 8, 2020)
This is why he is bound to be even more disappointed in Barr for failing to prosecute the alleged conspirators – even on trumped-up charges – than he was in Sessions for recusing himself before even attempting to do as Trump demanded.
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.
The revelation that U.S. Attorney John Bash, who left the department last week, had concluded his review without criminal charges or any public report will rankle President Trump at a moment when he is particularly upset at the Justice Department. The department has so far declined to release the results of Bash’s work, though people familiar with his findings say they would likely disappoint conservatives who have tried to paint the ‘unmasking’ of names — a common practice in government to help understand classified documents — as a political conspiracy.
(The Washington Post, October 13, 2020)
As it happens, I called on Barr to resign in a commentary on October 9. I based that call on the way Trump was threatening him to prosecute Obama and others. But now that it’s clear he can’t deliver, Barr really has no choice but to do so.
Except that I also advised Barr that he might find a little redemption in staying on just to foil Trump’s declared intent to steal this presidential election from Joe Biden. Because Barr would be ideally positioned to bar any use of the courts and Justice Department to legitimize Trump’s pretextual and preemptive claims of ballot fraud.
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