Attorney General William Barr sat down for an interview on CBS a couple of days ago. Mr. Barr was, as usual, sensible and forthright, and made clear once again that he is interested in the truth about the Russia investigation, and that what he’s seen so far gives him reason to have serious concerns about abuses of government power.
Writing at New York Magazine, however, Jonathan Chait called the interview “terrifying”; he sees Mr. Barr not as an adversary of institutional corruption, but as an accomplice. His account begins:
After the legal Establishment had granted him the benefit of the doubt, Attorney General William Barr has shocked his erstwhile supporters with his aggressive and frequently dishonest interventions on behalf of President Trump. The spectacle of an esteemed lawyer abetting his would-be strongman boss’s every authoritarian instinct has left Barr’s critics grasping for explanations. Some have seized on the darker threads of his history in the Reagan and Bush administrations, when he misled the public about a secret Department of Justice memo and helped cover up the Iran-Contra scandal.
But Barr’s long, detailed interview with Jan Crawford suggests the rot goes much deeper than a simple mania for untrammeled Executive power. Barr has drunk deep from the Fox News worldview of Trumpian paranoia.
It is hard to convey how far over the edge Barr has gone without reading the entire interview, which lasted an hour.
Quite so. You should read the entire interview, and then decide for yourself just who has gone “over the edge”, and who hasn’t. The video and transcript are here.
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Honorable Sirs Senator Boozman, Senator Cotton, Congressman Crawford:
Your staffs may confirm I emailed your office twice this past month with my concerns post Mueller Report. As my outgoing emails are not in my account I must depend on your office responses to me for determining date — Senator Boozman responded 5/16 and again 5/24, Senator Cotton’s office phoned me the next morning as well as emailed response 5/25. Congressman Crawford’s response is not present in my email though I may have deleted those. I thank you Sirs for your attentions.
This morning 6/1, I read a transcript of an interview of AG Barr conducted by CBS’ Jan Crawford. To describe my reaction after reading as “reassuring” would be something of an understatement. To read such words from a person working out of DC, aloof and perfectly distant from the current atmosphere of hyper-partisanship honestly Sirs, I find myself amazed. So refreshing.
However. There was still one matter I was unable to take comfort in and that one area concerns: in reviewing the actions undertaken by ‘leaders’ in both FBI and CIA, the investigators may well not have the authorities “to compel testimony” from those who are now in the category of being “former.” Further, media reports indicate ‘foreign actors’ [Steele for one] advises us to “take a hike.”
In the House I doubt much can be done about that but where the Senate is concerned, I have some confidence something could be done about “persuading reluctant actors” to get over themselves. Insofar as House members retain freedom of action I would recommend to continue releasing transcripts as well as referrals to the AG. Extend on my behalf to Mr. Barr “Thanks from Arkansas.”
Respectfully,
JK
If Mr. Chait is to be understood, the Establishment is not amused by anyone in authority actually investigating THEM. It isn’t done. Clearly Mr. Barr is defective and has lost his “reasonableness”.