AG Barr
going to office after explosive Senate testimony
Original story here: WASHINGTON (Wed. April 10, 2019) —
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report hasn’t even been released yet, but AG
William Barr already has plans for another controversial inquiry.
Explosive Part: Barr told Congress today
that he plans to review the conduct of the investigation into the Trump
campaign’s ties to Russia before the 2016 election, saying the probe amounted
to “spying and might have been an abuse of power.”
But,
first this breaking news update: Now by the end of the Senate testimony, and Barr’s explosive
claim: “I think spying on a political
campaign is a big deal.” (Statement during testimony before the Senate
Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee).
(Note: “Spying” is a pejorative term not normally used
to describe domestic counterintelligence
investigations which apparently it was if true).
But when pressed later, Barr
clarified his language, saying that he does not necessarily believe any “improper
surveillance occurred,” adding: “I am saying that I am
concerned about it and I’m looking into it. I want to make sure there was no
unauthorized surveillance.”
Earlier,
Barr’s assertion about the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the
Trump campaign seemed to prejudge his own review of the probe.
Plus, last May,
Trump went so far as to claim that the DOJ “put a spy” in the Trump campaign. However,
there is no evidence to support that assertion. CNN reported that someone who
had “been a source for the FBI and CIA
for years” had assisted the probe, but, contradicting the president, an
informant “was not planted inside the campaign to provide information to
investigators.” (Emphasis added.)
Quick impact from Trump while speaking to
reporters on the South Lawn Wednesday morning, Trump said he welcomed Barr’s
review of the probe, saying: “What I’m most
interested in is getting started, hopefully the attorney general, he mentioned
it yesterday. He’s doing a great job, getting started on going back to the
origins of exactly where this all started. Because
this was an illegal witch hunt and everybody knew it.”
(My note: Excuse me, Mr. Trump: So, you imply that a witch hunt
can also be “legal” – well, okee, dokee, then.)
During hearing,
Barr, a Trump appointee, was asked whether he agreed the investigation was a
“witch hunt” and “illegal.” He said:
“It really depends where you are sitting.”
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Now the rest of this bizarre story
from this administrations AG (William Barr) – call it rightly so: Backpedaling
for it surely is.
Noteworthy
with my emphasis added: Barr’s announcement came on the same day that Trump
described Mueller’s probe as an “attempted coup.”
Trump and his
supporters on Capitol Hill and cable television (namely
FOX) have long complained about alleged anti-Trump bias at the
FBI.
They have increasingly sought to shift the focus, since
Mueller finished his work, over to the actions of the investigators themselves.
Barr
appeared to give credence to those calls saying that while he has “no specific
evidence of wrongdoing by investigators, he has a basis for my concern.” He added that he suspected bad apples at the top of the FBI.
Barr specifically told Senators in a
hearing on Wednesday morning: “I am going to be
reviewing both the genesis and the conduct of intelligence activities directed
at the Trump Campaign during 2016, I think spying did occur. But the question
is whether it was adequately predicated. And I’m not suggesting it wasn’t
adequately predicated, but I need to explore that.”
Barr didn’t offer much in the way of
proof, however, adding: “I have no specific evidence that
I would cite right now. I do have questions about it.”
He thinks there was
“probably a failure” among the top leaders at the FBI during
the campaign, but cautioned that his review of the available
evidence did not amount to an outright investigation of the FBI, and without
naming names, he said that other U.S. government agencies may have been somehow
involved adding: “I’m not talking about the FBI necessarily,
but intelligence agencies more broadly.”
Barr was less certain when it came to weighing in on
whether he agrees with Trump that the entire Mueller probe was a “witch hunt,”
from the start, saying that “depends on where you’re sitting.”
Pressed for his own personal perspective,
he demurred: “It is what it is.”
Barr concluded: “The
top law enforcement officer of the country should not casually suggest that
those under his purview engaged in ‘spying’ on a political campaign.”
Barr’s
letter last month noted that the Mueller report does not “exonerate” Trump, and
Democrats have called to have the full document and underlying evidence
released so Mueller’s findings can be fully scrutinized.
Top Congressional Democrats criticized Barr’s
comments and demanded proof for his explosive allegations:
Rep. Adam Schiff
(D-CA), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said: “The
top law enforcement officer of the country should not casually suggest that
those under his purview engaged in ‘spying’ on a political campaign. This type
of partisan talking point may please Donald Trump, who rails against a ‘deep
state coup,’ but it also strikes another destructive blow to our democratic
institutions.”
The chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has asked for a briefing from the
DOJ about what exactly Barr meant.
Trump’s
supporters in Congress have been clamoring for just such a review for months,
while blasting FBI officials involved in the early days of the probe like Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) have
asserted that officials in the FBI launched a probe of
Trump’s ties to Russia as part of an effort to undermine his campaign, and
later his entire presidency.
Those GOP calls
to investigate the probe’s origins have been heightened since Barr released a
brief four-page letter to Congress last month that said Mueller had not proved
that Trump committed any crimes, either by conspiring with Russian agents or
obstructing justice.
Barr also refused to
answer a direct question while closing about whether Mueller had found
“probable cause” to conclude that Trump may have committed a crime, by saying: “Probable
cause is a very low standard for determining whether you start investigating
something. A lot of things have probable cause.”
Recall that
several former members of Trump’s inner circle were indicted by Mueller’s team
for lying about their ties with Russia, including former NSC Advisor Michael Flynn and Trump’s longtime
attorney and so-called fixer Michael
Cohen.
My 2 cents: Based on this story and FOX-type
pro-Trump berating of the FBI and other agencies that any collusion is there
between Trump and FOX types to totally undermine intelligence and law
enforcement agencies and departments in the country to cause distrust in them
by the public – why? To serve any nefarious ideas that Trump Empire Inc. has in
mind. Will it, or is working already?
Just look and listen. Draw your own conclusion. I see
a clear pattern: Protect and provide cover for Trump, but don’t question or
examine, or look at him and his activities.
Whew boy – folks. We are in serious trouble. Those who
doubt that we are in worse trouble dealing with reality and the truth. That is
the most-concerning of all.
Thanks for stopping by.
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