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William Barr: Knave or Fool
Count me among the many conservatives conned by Attorney General William Barr. I praised and promoted his public performance more than once. As evidence drips out too late, or conveniently delayed, it appears Barr was an old fool, a duplicitous knave, or both. We see this in the Michael Sussman trial and in 2000 Mules showing the clear smartphone geotracking evidence of illegal ballot harvesting in the critical swing states.
Now the Federalist asks why Barr sat on evidence that showed senior FBI officials lied to senior DOJ officials responsible for legal oversight of the FBI operation.
It is perplexing that no one within the FBI has been held accountable for the many lies told at the March 6 meeting. This fact is all the more perplexing as it was Durham who originally turned over the March 6 notes to Sussmann’s defense team.
Former Attorney General William Barr had earlier turned down the opportunity to charge McCabe with lying during an internal FBI investigation of a leak related to the Hillary Clinton email investigation. McCabe had authorized the leak but lied about it. McCabe later apologized for lying to agents who were investigating the leak.
While Barr claimed it was a judgment call not to prosecute McCabe, his lies must now properly be seen in light of the FBI’s and his own pattern of lies, as documented in the March 6 notes. While the notes were only publicly released last week, they have been available to Barr, Durham and the DOJ for much longer. Yet no action was taken.
Crucially, public release of the notes came after the five-year statute of limitations had lapsed in March of this year. The question is why the DOJ — and Durham in particular — gave the FBI a free pass. The uncomfortable answer may be that, as has been suspected for a while, Durham’s authority is effectively limited to private actors such as Sussmann and Danchenko and does not extend to public officials such as McCabe and Strzok.
Credit to Ricochet member @unsk for making the Knave Barr case back in December 2020, here and here. For a good argument that Barr is an old fool, rather than a knave, see the review by @rodin of Barr’s memoir.
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Published in Politics
I am beginning to be concerned that Durham’s very thorough investigation is going to be so thorough that the statute of limitations will run out before many of the culprits in his investigation are charged for their crimes. Am I being too pessimistic?
Wasn’t Barr leaving the investigation to Durham? I don’t recall the specific details, but this is my recollection.
Everybody at the top benefits from the top down rot that is destroying the country. The question is can there be sufficient folks who go against their own short term interests to actually correct the rot? If not we’ll have to split up again, take chunks of the rotten over populated states and the smaller states and form a new nation. The advantage is that they can keep most of the federal debt, and all of the federal bureaucracy. The original succession was to preserve slavery. In contrast this one would be to leave the slavers in Washington.
Thankfully, my memory and my contempt have no such limitations. (That may or may not serve me well in the GULAG when the time comes. So be it…)
As has been said many other times, on many other posts and comments, “embrace the power of ‘and.'”
I think he just another corrupt guy heading a corrupt institution to more corruption. Perhaps the DOJ knows too many secrets on too many people to ever be reformed. My policy is to assume that anyone of D.C. who is not taking extreme flack from D.C. is part of the problem. I am simply skeptical of everyone else.
It all depends on who’s holding the keys.
Thanks for the mention, @cliffordabrown. The link facilitated my rereading my post. Haven’t had cause (yet) to depart from it. And frustrated as hell that justice does not seem to be in the cards. Karma? I leave that in G-d’s hands. For me it will be enough if our constitution survives.
Barr means well, but I think he’s been a member of the swamp too long, looks to the wrong places for news, goes to the wrong parties, has the wrong friends, etc.
For people like Barr and Justice Roberts the effect their actions have on their wives’ social lives is all important.
Have you read Barr’s book? I did and changed my mind about Russia-gate.
Barr is simply a Deep State Operative.
Trump wanted to fire FBI Director Wray for obvious reasons and Barr threw a hissy fit, threatened to quit and go to the mat for Wray. Enough said .
Many of these Deep State guys ( Like Cocaine Mitch) can say all the right things and then stab you in the back. Barr is one of them.
So what, you’re down to maybe 50% TDS now? It’s an improvement (I guess) but you’re not in the clear yet.
He’s an old fool who still thinks today’s democrats are like Tip O’Neill, or something. He cannot permit himself to see how corrupt and anti-American today’s democrats are. He still has the sensitivities of the gOpE, with a much greater intellect and vision. He did not do a good job of battling these corrupt forces while in his position as AG because he did not understand his, and the country’s, enemy at all.
Please clarify. Are you referring to Bill Barr? Or Andy McCarthy? (Or maybe a certain Ricochet member…)
I guess the AG mention settles it, but I was lost for a minute.
Yes, the AG Barr who likes to play bagpipes to soothe his gOpE sensibilities.
I guess it does apply to a lot of the NT’s too. The well-known one’s here are way behind Bill Barr in losing their Trump derangement.
I believe you are on target with Barr, Roberts, and their social circle.
You can delegate authority, not responsibility. Barr could and should have driven a much more aggressive timetable, resourcing the Russia hoax investigation to produce results by the end of 2019, before the first presidential primaries. 24/7/365.
Barr does not even have the Durham delegation fig leaf in the 2020 election heist.
If that describes doing his best to make sure the DOJ had the back of its people to the point of not merely defending its peoples’ malfeasance but doing so by questionable means (valuing his agency’s image over its integrity, let alone “justice”) then yes, he means well.
Just ask Vicky Weaver.