This may turn out better than watching a Bishop kick out a stained glass window

WSJ paywall

The attorney general gets attacked because his probe endangers many powerful people.

By Kimberley A. Strassel
BIOGRAPHY
@KIMSTRASSEL
[email protected]
May 2, 2019 6:53 p.m. ET

The only thing uglier than an angry Washington is a fearful Washington. And fear is what’s driving this week’s blitzkrieg of Attorney General William Barr.

Mr. Barr tolerantly sat through hours of Democratic insults at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. His reward for his patience was to be labeled, in the space of a news cycle, a lawbreaking, dishonest, obstructing hack. Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly accused Mr. Barr of lying to Congress, which, she added, is “considered a crime.” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said he will move to hold Mr. Barr in contempt unless the attorney general acquiesces to the unprecedented demand that he submit to cross-examination by committee staff attorneys. James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, lamented that Donald Trump had “eaten” Mr. Barr’s “soul.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren demands the attorney general resign. California Rep. Eric Swalwell wants him impeached.

These attacks aren’t about special counsel Robert Mueller, his report or even the surreal debate over Mr. Barr’s first letter describing the report. The attorney general delivered the transparency Democrats demanded: He quickly released a lightly redacted report, which portrayed the president in a negative light. What do Democrats have to object to?

Some of this is frustration. Democrats foolishly invested two years of political capital in the idea that Mr. Mueller would prove President Trump had colluded with Russia, and Mr. Mueller left them empty-handed. Some of it is personal. Democrats resent that Mr. Barr won’t cower or apologize for doing his job. Some is bitterness that Mr. Barr is performing like a real attorney general, making the call against obstruction-of-justice charges rather than sitting back and letting Democrats have their fun with Mr. Mueller’s obstruction innuendo.

But most of it is likely fear. Mr. Barr made real news in that Senate hearing, and while the press didn’t notice, Democrats did. The attorney general said he’d already assigned people at the Justice Department to assist his investigation of the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. He said his review would be far-reaching—that he was obtaining details from congressional investigations, from the ongoing probe by the department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, and even from Mr. Mueller’s work. Mr. Barr said the investigation wouldn’t focus only on the fall 2016 justifications for secret surveillance warrants against Trump team members but would go back months earlier.

He also said he’d focus on the infamous “dossier” concocted by opposition-research firm Fusion GPS and British former spy Christopher Steele, on which the FBI relied so heavily in its probe. Mr. Barr acknowledged his concern that the dossier itself could be Russian disinformation, a possibility he described as not “entirely speculative.” He also revealed that the department has “multiple criminal leak investigations under way” into the disclosure of classified details about the Trump-Russia investigation.

Do not underestimate how many powerful people in Washington have something to lose from Mr. Barr’s probe. Among them: Former and current leaders of the law-enforcement and intelligence communities. The Democratic Party pooh-bahs who paid a foreign national (Mr. Steele) to collect information from Russians and deliver it to the FBI. The government officials who misused their positions to target a presidential campaign. The leakers. The media. More than reputations are at risk. Revelations could lead to lawsuits, formal disciplinary actions, lost jobs, even criminal prosecution.

The attacks on Mr. Barr are first and foremost an effort to force him out, to prevent this information from coming to light until Democrats can retake the White House in 2020. As a fallback, the coordinated campaign works as a pre-emptive smear, diminishing the credibility of his ultimate findings by priming the public to view him as a partisan.

That’s why Mr. Barr isn’t alone in getting slimed. Natasha Bertrand at Politico last month penned a hit piece on the respected Mr. Horowitz. It’s clear the inspector general is asking the right questions. The Politico article acknowledges he’s homing in on Mr. Steele’s “credibility” and the dossier’s “veracity”—then goes on to provide a defense of Mr. Steele and his dossier, while quoting unnamed sources who deride the “quality” of the Horowitz probe, and (hilariously) claim the long-tenured inspector general is not “well-versed” in core Justice Department functions.

“We have to stop using the criminal-justice process as a political weapon,” Mr. Barr said Wednesday. The line didn’t get much notice, but that worthy goal increasingly looks to be a reason Mr. Barr accepted this unpleasant job. Stopping this abuse requires understanding how it started. The liberal establishment, including journalists friendly with it, doesn’t want that to happen, and so has made it a mission to destroy Mr. Barr. The attorney general seems to know what he’s up against, and remains undeterred. That’s the sort of steely will necessary to right the ship at the Justice Department and the FBI.

And the "steely will" that was lacking in the disappointing tenure of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.

It wouldn't surprise me if they tried to arkancide him.

Barr will die in his sleep.
This time they will remember to remove the pillow.

We'll see...…………..

Until actual heads roll I will remain forever skeptical about ANYTHING government.

Barr's "looking into" file stack just got taller.

Giants are trembling.....I hope

Barr is playing with fire. I hope he burns them all.

It wouldn't shock me if this happened, but should it be the springboard for what needs to be done ?

Here is a deceptive article from the NYTimes trying to cover for the FBI sending spies after Trump and slandering Horowitz.

FBI sends spy to London to meet with Padadopoulos

This right here.

Very few serious adults anywhere in our .gov behemoth.

One can pray  the left goes down

Take all the bad guys and DC will be a pretty quiet place to vacation

The United States government is not going to dismantle the United States government.

I fear for his safety.

I think they had something on sessions so as long as he steered clear of what Barr is now doing, they'd not use it.

Possibly. However think about it for a second. Assuming Barr is legit...he is standing up to the entire swamp. By himself. Can you imagine being him walking into DOJ everyday being surrounded by enemies? Not being able to trust ANYONE. And those are just the worker bees. You have to use them to fight the big boys. Once you go down that road EVERYONE of importance is your enemy forever. If you fail you and your family are in danger of persona non grata for all time at a minimum.

Sessions may have been blackmailed. Entirely possible. Or he may not have been the man for the task at hand.

Sure does read like a recipe for several someones taking a unexpected dirt nap.

The president should give him a security detail if he doesn't have one already.

Sadly, this.

I don't want to "hear" shit. I want to "see" justice served.

doj out of pink slips?

I know it might not be quite that easy, but holy shit, ya gotta start somewhere

from watching the reaction of the dims, I would suppose there are a massive number of puckered assholes in and around dc

I assume Sessions is helping with the 'indict list', that we ought to see any day now?

Barr gives me hope that Justice just might be served to those deserving

I remember not too long ago GD hated Barr.

Glad to see some of you guys are figuring out the truth

That sentiment is still one statement away from being realized again. Every day is an interview and we the mob are quite fickle.

I was openly and vocally skeptical of Barr.

I'll now apologize for it, and eat my words.  I was completely and totally wrong about him.

The fact that Comey said about Barr that "Trump ate his soul" gives me a little bit of hope that Barr has strayed from his GOPe roots.  But like you until things happen I will be skeptical.  Mitch McConnell is up for re-election in 2020 with Trump.  This time around the GOPe can't screw over Trump because it would end up removing their majority leader.

Kim Strassel does excellent work.

Barr absolutely has the people behind this coup shitting their pants.

I'm staying neutral on Sessions, but I am optimistic with Barr. The way he replies to to Congressional Scum_Bags tells me he does not fear them.

I suspect although I have no substance to support it with, that during Barrs previous service he saw/heard/knew the degree of corruption that existed. I believe his return is at least partly an effort to correct or assuage his previous inability or unwillingness to do something about it.

He's in the game for sure, we'll see if he's in it to win very soon.

I don't believe AG Barr is a friend of 2A advocates like 95% of us here, but he may be...useful...to us.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth and all that.

When the dims were reciting their talking points last night on the lame-stream media, you could hear  the fear in their voice.

Be afraid, be VERY afraid.

Burn.
It.
All.

Oh, sure they will... it's right up there in their priorities along with restoration of the 2nd Amendment.

He's not entirely by himself.  Trump is on his side.

The problem draining the swamp is it is like playing chess and some of your own pieces can turn on you.  You have an idea which ones are suspect, but may not know all of them.  Very difficult.  Does anyone really trust Lindsey 2.0?

What is the media going to do when congress reveals that Alexander Downer was an asset sent to make contact with me? The old narrative is about to get obliterated. Read my testimony to Congress. They have it all.

George Papadopoulos  (@GeorgePapa19) May 3, 2019

... MAGA

A lot of people should be going to jail over this.

It all sounds good but history says nothing will come of it.  Both parties are filled with scoundrels and they are so deeply entrenched and regardless of how they act in public, they take care of each other.  They know if one party gets cleaned out it will impact both parties and none of them want to loose their place at the feeding trough.  The NRA leadership is a good example of this.

Everything is up in the air right now until the NSA checks the archives to find dirt on Barr.
They will get back to you.

His performance in front of the Senate hearing should be a pretty good indication that Barr is the right man for the job. I watched it all and the guy did an excellent job.

The Mueller deep state clowns are highly upset they didn't have more to shut Papa-D up with

They tried to frame him with a $10k customs violation.

They were unsuccessful and had to rely on a false statements charge. Idiots.

They won’t kill Barr, but what they will do is pay some classmates from his school to make up some allegations against him. Remember, if you expose a persons real or imaginary character flaw to the public, it negates even their most rock solid logic and evidence.

This use to be true before Trump and twitter came along.

We all know the names of these fuck_tards and I, for one, will not let a day go by without putting their ass on notice that if the government won't take care of them then millions of us will find a way to serve them their well-deserved ass fucking.

I'm a little surprised that Mitch is running again. I guess he must be pretty sure the R's will hold the majority.

I sure hope he's grooming somebody (hopefully a lil less swampy) on all things parliamentary as he is truly a master tactician.

I know a lot of people bitch about him (myself included at times) but we could have done much worse.

Elton John better watch out too.

I'm pretty sure they're gonna have to get rid of Mike Rodgers to turn the NSA.

As I understand it, he is a lot of the reason for the boomerang effect.

There was proof all along. Getting into the meat of the emails showed massive corruption.