Andrew C. McCarthy: Do Republicans see the strategy to discredit the Barr investigation?
That’s the question asked by Andrew C. McCarthy here:
Democrats and their media friends are attempting to paint the Barr investigation, in the public mind, as a corrupt extension of a down-and-dirty Trump 2020 political campaign…
Virtually all mainstream-media reporting and Democratic commentary on the conversation now fits this pattern. It is noted that Trump, immediately after the “quid pro quo” set-up — “I would like you to do us a favor though” — invoked the attorney general, the nation’s top federal law-enforcement official. Studiously omitted is the context of this invocation: a wholly appropriate request by the president, to the head of state of a country in possession of relevant evidence, for cooperation with a legitimate investigation being conducted by our country’s Justice Department.
Instead, the coverage skips a few hundred words. It cuts directly to Trump’s suggestion that Zelensky look into whether there was any impropriety in former vice president Biden’s having purportedly “stopped the prosecution” that might have arisen out of a Ukrainian investigation involving his son.
The strategy here is obvious. The Democrats and their note-takers would like the public to believe that Barr’s investigation is an adjunct of the Trump 2020 campaign — and a grossly improper one at that. The misimpression they seek to create is that Barr is putting the nation’s law-enforcement powers in the service of Trump’s reelection campaign, in the absence of any public interest. The hope is that this will delegitimize not only any information that emerges from Ukraine but the whole of the Justice Department’s investigation of intelligence and law-enforcement abuses of power attendant to the 2016 election.
I think that might actually be one of the main motives for the “whistleblower” brouhaha and the impeachment inquiry as a whole. The timing suggests it, as well.
And to answer McCarthy’s question: I believe that Republicans are quite aware of this. We often call Republicans “the stupid party,” but I don’t think they are as stupid as that.
What’s more, the attempt to discredit Barr began at the time he was appointed. Prior to that time he was one of those highly-respected guys who are supposedly objective and accepted by both sides. But once he was chosen by Trump he became objectionable, and the vote was along party lines. For example:
All 12 Republicans on the panel voted for Barr, while all 10 Democrats voted against him…
In their opposition, Democrats cited a memo Barr wrote last year to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein before he was nominated objecting to the obstruction aspect of the Mueller probe as “fatally misconceived” and said, “Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the President submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction.”
Barr argued that Trump asking former FBI director James Comey to let go of the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and later firing Comey were within his powers as head of the executive branch.
On Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary committee, called the memo “disqualifying,” saying Barr’s theory would leave the President “above the law in most respects.” She also criticized Barr for not committing to publicly releasing Mueller’s findings.
In May, this is what was being talked about:
…[A]s Trump-administration officials continue to defy House subpoenas related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Democrats in control of the chamber could turn to an even blunter weapon in their arsenal: arrest…
Democrats would have three options to force Barr’s hand: They could refer the matter to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., who would decide whether to launch a criminal prosecution of his own boss, the attorney general. Democrats could turn to the courts to enforce the subpoena. Or they could take matters into their own hands and call their sergeant at arms. Raskin himself [he is a Democrat, a House member who is on the Judiciary Committee, and a former constitutional law professor] brought up the arrest option when I asked him how far this confrontation could go, even as he acknowledged that not many members of the House were aware of that particular congressional power, much less supported its use.
Obviously, it never happened. But the idea that Barr is a law-defying Trump partisan has been the mode of attack from the start, and this latest is just another form of the same.
More from McCarthy today:
Trump opponents do not like Barr’s investigation of the genesis and conduct of the Russia investigation. It is, nonetheless, a proper exercise of the Justice Department’s lawful authority. Indeed, contrary to the Mueller investigation, there are no questions about the propriety of the prosecutor’s assignment. John Durham, the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut assigned by Barr, is not a special counsel brought in from outside. He is an in-house Justice Department lawyer, authorized to examine potential law violations. There is no question, moreover, that the attorney general has the authority to investigate possible malfeasance or misfeasance by the Justice Department — if nothing else, for the purpose of preventing its repetition by improving internal guidelines or even asking Congress for curative legislation.
It is a commonplace for our government to seek assistance from foreign governments in ongoing federal investigations. In fact, Washington and Kyiv entered a mutual legal assistance treaty in 1998. In approving this U.S.–Ukraine “MLAT” in 2000, the Senate noted that the original purpose of such treaties was “to permit the United States to obtain evidence from foreign jurisdictions in a form admissible in American courts.” As chief executive, it is not at all unusual for a president to encourage another country’s assistance in Justice Department investigations.
McCarthy goes on to criticize the Biden portion of the phone call as “foolish” and “unseemly” but no grounds for impeachment. He goes on to add:
Still, the Biden portion of the conversation did not happen in isolation. It had a context. It was a subordinate strand of a perfectly appropriate executive-branch request for assistance in a completely legitimate Justice Department investigation into government misconduct that is potentially serious.
Democrats and their media friends are attempting to bleach away that context and paint the Barr investigation, in the public mind, as a corrupt extension of a down-and-dirty Trump 2020 political campaign. Republicans are not going to respond effectively unless they grasp this strategy.
I think they grasp that strategy full well. But they still might not be able to respond effectively for the simple reason that they have to somehow cut through the fog of media lies and/or obfuscation on the issue. The example he gives earlier in his piece – of how the MSM pretends that the “favor” Trump asked about was in relation to Biden whereas it was actually related to the investigation of the 2016 election interference – is a good example of the ways in which the MSM will distort its reportage in an attempt to obscure any message the GOP might want to get to the public.
[NOTE: More here.]
Neo’s “Bill Barr” tag has 5 or so entries, the first of which is from April 10, 2019 and entitled “Investigating the Investigators”. So yeah, we’ve seen this Democrat panic coming from way off. They’ll flail but it won’t end well for ’em.
“If you’re getting flak, it means that you are over the target.”
JFM: Yes!
We briefly turned the TV on this afternoon and caught some of Trump’s pressor with the Finnish President (or PM?). Then Shep the Dem Smith came on and completely lied about what Trump said in the phone call. I tuned out but he may have said something about Barr. So it is not just the MSM but FOX too.
LYNN HARGROVE:
Smith is always like that, the complete MSM line. That’s not new or different for him.
Lee Smith [who has a new book about to appear], twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/LeeSmithDC/status/1179445062855462912
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/donald-trump-impeachment-president-called-boris-johnson-for-help-to-discredit-mueller-inquiry-jlkztnfpx
Fred Fleitz, twitter thread:
https://mobile.twitter.com/FredFleitz/status/1179497518075383808
“1/ The NYT confirmed what I said last week: Schiff knew about the CIA whistleblower in advance — way in advance. Before he even filed his complaint. This is a much bigger scandal that people realize. At a minimum, Schiff should recuse himself from this impeachment inquiry.”
“5/ Schiff talked about the Ukraine issue throughout the month of August. The contents of the complaint leaked before it was presented to Congress. There is zero chance in mind mine that Schiff’s HPSCI lawyers were not working hand and glove with the WB and his lawyers.”
“6/ And here’s the kicker (@Susan_Hennessey & @MiekeEoyang pay attention): under @HouseIntelComm rules, any classified info brought to the committee from outside sources MUST BE SHARED WITH BOTH SIDES. Schiff broke committee rules by not telling committee GOP members about this.”
“7/ This is a very serious violation of
@HouseIntelComm rules. Why did Schiff do this, especially when he was using this information to score political points throughout the month of August? The reason is clear: it was part of the latest Dem ploy to take down @realDonaldTrump”
The lies of Dems, and the Deep State. It’s terrible.
And scary, that so many folk believe so many lies.
Barr really needs to be getting indictments out there, and noting the crimes.
I was hoping Trump would get McCarthy as a Special Prosecutor against the FBI.
Sean Davis, twitter thread: https://mobile.twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1179493367836807169
Rep. Devin Nunes, twitter:https://mobile.twitter.com/RepDevinNunes/status/1179478204735787009
Rep. Elise Stefanik on twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/EliseStefanik/status/1179493285901062144
“He should immediately step down as chair.”
Chance of that happening? About as likely, I’d say, as his Republican committee colleagues taking him into the streets of D.C. and summarily gutting him like a fish. Or, 0 percent chance.
They skipped over FOUR HUNDRED PLUS words of the phone call transcript so as to get the meaning they wanted. Isn’t there some rule to cover that total falsehood? The television media are using PUBLIC airwaves to spew this BS. Surely, there is some penalty for this.
Schiff’s ‘parody’ lies were meant to be told in the absence of the call manuscript, which Trump promptly made public. Schiff didn’t call an audible and rolled with his nonsense anyway.
The left lies, bends reality to their sacred truths, relies on an asleep at the wheel public, and seeks the one ring to rule as the master. But they don’t stop there. They want you, all of your children, and grandchildern enslaved and/dead.
They will have a Main Street war on their hands in red states and riots and looting in blue metro areas, the military will not come to the rescue (some idiot’s desire to nuke gun owners not withstanding), and they will lose.
Orange man bad has made the left reveal their agenda. Thanks to Trump for unmasking their hatred.
“Do Republicans see the strategy to discredit the Barr investigation?”
.
Don’t know about ‘Republicans’,
but I can pretty much guarantee the Trumpster sees it.
I have one brother who is essentially a sociopath. What I learned while growing up around him is that normal people need to stop worrying what the sociopath thinks or feels about something.
If you know what’s right then do it, no matter how much the other person screams. Because none of their tantrums are authentic anyway.
Matt_SE is correct. However, it is still true that most people are inclined to be generous and considerate of others’ feelings (which is good), and I think most people don’t deal with enough sociopaths to recognize them (which is good), so we don’t realize thatwe can dismiss the sociopaths instead of worrying about their feelings (and that is bad).
Non-Twitter post on Schiff’s meddling in whistleblower complaints.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/whistleblower-tipped-off-schiff-before-filing-official-complaint-report/
Look, the Barr investigation is about whether or not the investigation into Trump in 2016 was influenced by politics. If Barr were to find that Obama’s personal attorney and campaign surrogate was intimately involved in the 2016 investigation, particularly in a quasi-governmental role, then it would be game-over. Barr would do a victory dance.
So that’s why the Biden investigation, if there even is one, is over. It’s been hopelessly compromised, even if Biden & Son committed the underlying offense.
But what about the Barr investigation itself? If McCarthy is right, and Trump is indeed referring to this in his fist ask, then it looks like its over too…though the evidence here doesn’t come from that phone call.
From today’s Press Conference:
If Andy is right, the Barr investigation is all but over.
“…whether or not the investigation into Trump in 2016 was influenced by politics.”
That is so absurd! I mean, there really are no words!!
Everyone knows that the investigation into Trump was influenced by the desire to improve the lives of all of America’s citizens, uphold the Constitution and make the world a better place.
(Just like—coincidently!—the ACA, the JCPOA, “Fast and Furious”, the very special treatment provided to Sharyl Attkisson and James Risen, and the IRS ensuring that the “right people” get “extra special attention”—i.e., for the good of the country…which is something that Trump and his supporters, for some oddly PERVERSE and inexplicable reason, don’t seem to be able to comprehend….)
The GOP has smartened up considerably since the Tea Party rebellion and subsequent developments which pressures RINOs and other affiliated swamp creatures to act on their words instead of constantly defaulting to prevent defense and still ending up Charlie Browning to Lucy Leftie.