“Terrible implications for our democracy if DOJ is saying that the solicitation of opposition research by a candidate from foreign governments is totally legal and totally cool.”
White House critics said Wednesday that Attorney General William Barr should be impeached following news that the Justice Department declined to investigate President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
In late August, according to the Washington Post, intelligence officials referred Trump’s call with Zelensky to the Justice Department as a possible campaign finance violation.
A White House memo (pdf) on the call released Wednesday confirmed reports that Trump asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and offered Barr’s services. …
William Barr’s role is about to get a lot more scrutiny
By Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
September 25 at 1:40 PM
The news about the impeachment inquiry of President Trump and all the misdeeds that brought it about is coming so fast that it’s easy to overlook critical aspects of the story, particularly on a day when the White House itself released its own smoking gun showing the president engaging in eminently impeachable conduct.
But believe it or not, there’s even more going on.
We now have the readout of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and, as damning as it is, we still await the whistleblower complaint that put us on the road to impeachment, which Trump administration is withholding from Congress.
Which brings us to one William P. Barr, the attorney general of the United States and someone who has proven that there are almost no lengths he will not go to in order to protect President Trump. …
Justice Dept.’s Dismissal of Ukraine Call Raises New Questions About Barr
By Katie Benner
Published Sept. 25, 2019 Updated Sept. 26, 2019, 9:55 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — At the end of August, when two top intelligence officials asked a Justice Department lawyer whether a whistle-blower’s complaint should be forwarded to Congress, they were told no, Attorney General William P. Barr and his department could handle the criminal referral against the president of the United States.
About four weeks later, the department rendered its judgment: President Trump had not violated campaign finance laws when he urged Ukraine’s president to work with Mr. Barr to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The very same evidence, a reconstructed transcript of a July call between Mr. Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, has whipped Washington into an impeachment crisis in a matter of days.
The sharply different responses to the call’s reconstruction, released by the White House on Wednesday, has helped further the perception that Mr. Trump regards Mr. Barr not as the nation’s highest law enforcement officer but as his political ally and legal protector. …
If it could just happen, yes, get that Dept of Injustice out of here. But meanwhile, we just let the real culprit skate? The Dotard is effectively flaunting his ability to use his office to collude with a foreign leader to get made up negative political research to use against a political opponent. He expects to get away with it. If he does, it is just another solidifying block in his quest to become a Dictator. He has managed to be above the law, so far, and if he can use his cronies and his corrupt power, and the Republicans who fear him, to get away with such a straightforward obvious abuse of his power, then he is well on his way to becoming an established Dictator of the United States (DOTUS).
With this latest abuse, the Dems had no choice but to say they are formally beginning an Impeachment Inquiry on the aspiring DOTUS. An impeachment on him for this latest offense should be carried out as immediately an efficiently as possible. Then when submitted to a trial in the Senate, the Repubs who are going to keep him in office to become our DOTUS, will, at least, have to go on record with their vote.
But William Barr isthe sorriest excuse for an Attorney General, in a long long time.
And Guiliani? No one knows what to make of his freaky butt. The Acting Intelligence Director that was questioned by Congress today, answered a question by saying “… I am not aware or unaware…” of Giuliani’s clearance level. (How can one be “not aware” and also “not unaware”?) Trumpian officials take doublespeak to a whole new level in their urge to cover their asses.
