Donald Trump and William Barr just handed House Democrats a clear path to impeach them both
What we were witness to today was a masterclass in malfeasance and a disdain for democracy by the head law enforcement officer in the nation and the President himself. It didn’t go unnoticed, as the New York Times promptly exposed it.
Attorney General William Barr has been in communication with the White House regarding the Mueller Report for days now, which has given Team Trump time to coordinate a defense strategy, and the Republican National Committee (RNC) to assemble a “war room” to compose a “counter-report.” No, really. I would say that with this step we’ve descended into banana republic-levels of corruption, but I fear that the actual findings of the Mueller Report will indicate that we already did that sometime around 2016.
Rather amazingly, this development has some serious implications for Barr and Trump, namely unabashed and very public obstruction of justice. Seeing the news that Barr had been prematurely consulting with the White House on the Mueller Report made me seriously wonder if Barr has absolutely lost his mind. It would make some sense that he would risk his already brittle reputation if he had considerable assurance that the existence of the meetings would forever remain secret, but it doesn’t appear that that was even a strong concern of his.
Said plainly, with this achingly stupid stunt, Barr and Trump have teed up unmistakable obstruction charges for congress. If the AG and President have been holding meetings regarding the disclosure of evidence of Trump’s shady dealings with the express intent of giving Trump’s team an opportunity to form an optics strategy, that’s corrupt intent and a crime whether or not the report delineates any underlying Trump crimes. Imagine now if the White House had any say in what was redacted? Executive privilege? My ass. Prepare yourselves for the Barr-Trump Report, not the Mueller Report.
What’s so staggering about this shitbrained charade is this: the actual, unredacted, full-fat Mueller Report is coming at some point regardless of the roadblocks. Barr and Trump are biding futile time and they’re only making their lives after this respite all the worse.
Democracy thrives in snarkiness