Well, I am, for one, not. In fact, there never was a doubt in my mind that William Barr was a super shit, a super shit—to muddy the metaphor—of the very first water, a sentiment I have expressed any number of times, in exuberantly fecal prose.
If there ever were any doubt in anyone’s mind—and there damn well shouldn’t be—it should be thoroughly erased by reading two—two!—excellent articles in the New York Times. The first is How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled, by Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman, and Katie Brenner, which might better be titled “How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Collapsed into Extravagant Tooldom”, as Barr twisted “the law” into a four-, or even five-, dimensional Klein bottle in his obscene effort to “prove” that the FBI’s entirely justified investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s Russia Connection was somehow a criminal enterprise, only to end up fucking himself—which, in a Klein bottle, can easily happen1—while the second is an “Opinion” by David Firestone, Bill Barr’s Image Rehab Is Kaput.
In 2019, Barr, then attorney general, of course, appointed John Durham to head up an investigation into—into nothing, into the entirely specious “theory” that the FBI’s entirely merited investigation into the Trump campaign’s numerous ties—and numerous lies—regarding Russia, an investigation that could, in the hands of an “aggressive” prosecutor, have resulted in charges of solicitation of an illegal campaign contribution by Little Donnie, and, absent Department of Justice rules forbidding indictments of sitting presidents, an indictment of Big Donnie himself for obstruction of justice, was a fraud, a crime in and of itself, an illegal plot against that big fat angel in the Oval Office. Four years later, that stunning waste of the taxpayers’ money came up with precisely bupkis, as any honest person could have told either man—if either knew any. The whole investigation produced two indictments, two immediate acquittals, and several resignations by disgusted staff unwilling to participate in such judicial travesties.
The two Times articles provide a thorough, and thoroughly devastating picture of how wildly Barr and, following his lead, Durham, abused the powers entrusted to them by the people of the United States of America in the interest of serving the will and vanity of their exalted leader, Donald Trump, a man both clearly regarded as the flail of the Lord, a tool in the hands of the Almighty to turn the tide against the army of godless hippies, whores, and homos who, raised up by Satan, had taken command of the heights of American culture. Both Barr and Durham regard themselves as profoundly religious men, Catholics of the old school, real Catholics, Latin liturgy Catholics, and were happy to convince themselves that they were quite literally warriors of Christ, standing sword in hand at Armageddon to smite the heathen. And so they smote.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, when it looked like the Republican Party could not lose the presidency nor win the Congress, right-wing legal double domes like Antonine Scalia—another Latin liturgy Catholic, of course—concocted the notion of the “unitary executive”, the idea that the purpose of the entire executive branch, and everyone one employed within it, is to serve the will of the president. If the president wanted something done, then they should do it. In practice, this meant members of the Justice Department should consider themselves “zealous advocates”, not of the law, not of “justice”, but of the president’s will. If the law could be twisted, if prosecutorial discretion could be abused, to accomplish what the president wished, then it should be done. Nay, it must be done!
Anyone and everyone who got in their way was impugned as corrupt and dishonest. Two innocent men were put through the hell of a federal criminal indictment and trial in a disgusting attempt to justify the unjustifiable—a shameless political witch hunt contrived to cover the crimes of the most bloated, repugnant ass ever to disfigure the pages of America’s history. William Barr is a disgrace to his profession, a disgrace to his office, a disgrace to his party, and a disgrace to his country. Read both articles and sample to what a level “defenders of the faith” can descend in vanity, hypocrisy, self-delusion, and deceit.
Afterwords
If you want more, and you should, a 252-page report from the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Report on the Department of Justice and the Rule of Law Under the Tenure of Attorney General William Barr will give you an earful. And if that isn’t enough, an organization known as the Department of Justice Alumni have been keeping track of what Barr is doing to the administration of justice in the United States—which is to say, he is wrecking it, with his constant pre-judging of investigations, his unscrupulous and false statements about the “dangers” of absentee ballots, and his interference in the criminal cases of Trump cronies Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.
1. A Klein bottle is, among other things, a non-orientable surface, which is a good description of Barr’s investigation, because it never found a damn thing.
Barr served the desires of the creature who surpassed Lord
Voldemort….
Well said. Barr always struck me as a smug, glib, arrogant asshole directed by the double delusion of his religion and his supposedly superior intelligence to ignore the law and basic ethics in his embrace of the unitary executive. His rehabilitation tour doesn’t seem to have worked too well. He continues to be generally reviled, like his compadre, the lower-profile but equally assholeish Mr. Durham. I’m hoping for more blowback, at least sanctions/disbarment.