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Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

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You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

How stupid are these people?

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Be a wild strawberry.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

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Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Late Night Open Thread: Bill Barr Shows Himself Out

Late Night Open Thread: Bill Barr Shows Himself Out

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Late Night Open Thread: Bill Barr Shows Himself Out

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
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From what I can tell, the last few weeks have been an elaborate dance between Barr’s desire not to have his reputation (further) besmirched by being around when the Oval Office Occupant is finally packed off, and Trump’s natural instincts to ‘punish’ anyone he perceives as insufficiently loyal… or anyone who happens to be around when Trump needs an object on which to vent his rage. Neither party could risk giving the other an excuse to — shall we say — release the kraken.

From Politico:

… The cordial tone of Trump’s tweet on Monday afternoon announcing Barr’s exit was in marked contrast to the president’s public scolding of the attorney general in recent weeks. In Trump’s telling, Barr had failed to make public a financial crimes investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter that was ongoing before the election and failed to muster the Justice Department in support of Trump’s legal campaign to upend the election results.

Rather than echo those complaints, and earlier ones about Barr’s refusal to indict the president’s political adversaries, Trump’s announcement praised the attorney general’s record and suggested nothing was amiss.

“Just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House,” Trump tweeted. “Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!”

In a two-page letter that Trump also tweeted out, the attorney general didn’t explicitly say he was resigning, but said he would “spend the next week wrapping up a few remaining matters important to the Administration and depart on Dec. 23.”

Trump had grown so frustrated with Barr that he was considering firing him, but had not decided by Friday whether to do so, a friend of the president’s said. Trump remained angry about the attorney general’s remarks that the Justice Department had found no evidence of major election fraud, the associate added…

If ‘Ever Lower’ Barr was hoping for a burst of holiday comity from his soon-to-be-former coworkers, he’s a disappointed man tonight…

I retain hope that neither Trump nor Barr has the temperament required not to blow up each others’ flimsy rationales on their way out. Note the dates on the following tweets:

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  2. 2.

    Ian

    Methinks Kilgore Trout gives the Barr too much credit.  If this dude was half as good as KT thinks, shouldn’t he have had some decent legal victories to show for it?

  6. 6.

    Winston

    I always get a funny feeling about dominionists like Barr and Evangelical extremists and the Dominion vote tabulator machines and the rebels insisting they can be programmed to fix elections. Projection, ya know. But they didn’t fix them enough. Hahahahaha. Congrats to Biden, Harris and the millions of dems that came out to support them.

  7. 7.

    Kent

    @Amir Khalid: So we can impeach Trump again?

    Honestly I think putting him in prison for tax evasion is more fitting.  Like Al Capone.  We don’t need Mueller for that.  We have Trump’s tax returns.

  8. 8.

    West of the Rockies

    @mrmoshpotato:

    He certainly won’t literally hang, but his career in federal government is over.  Maybe he can get a radio gig (he has the face for it), but he is so toxic (how toxic is he?), he is so toxic that his mouth is a superfund site.

  9. 9.

    different-church-lady

    @Ian: Like nearly every other shameless toady who volunteers to be a satellite of Gas Giant Trump, Barr will go down licking the spittle to the very end. Michael Cohen’s the only one so far to break out of the cult.

  10. 10.

    Winston

    @Kent: If we could impeach him now and drag it out till 1/20/21, it would prevent him from making any pardons, because under the constitution; No pardons during impeachment.

  11. 11.

    Raven Onthill

    Jennifer Epstein, Bloomberg White House Reporter:

    Biden says that 7 Senate Republicans, “mostly senior,” have called him tonight. He spoke to “one of the most senior members” who expressed a willingness to work on China and infrastructure. It’s going to take 6-8 months but GOP will work w him, “you’re going to be surprised.” – Tweet

    If anyone can do this, Biden can – he has a truly amazing ability to get people on his side – but I think the chance is long past. The Senate Republicans strung out Obama for eight years, and supported Trump without qualms for another four. I have trouble believing any return is possible.

    So…is Biden or Harris going to end up like Lincoln? Backed into fighting?

  13. 13.

    CaseyL

    @Winston: I’m not sure that would stop him handing out pardons like Halloween candy – laws are only as good as their enforcement, and who does the enforcing?

    I do like the idea of impeaching the Squalid One again, just as a parting gift. But maybe start after Jan 5, so avoid making a second impeachment part of the Georgia Senate runoff.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    @West of the Rockies: Maybe he can get a radio gig (he has the face for it)

    Oh, he has a face for radio. but not the voice.

    ETA – Of course – his face – endlessly punchable.  Spencer that Nazi fuckface!

  15. 15.

    different-church-lady

    @Raven Onthill: When you think about it, what strategic benefit does Biden get at this point by going negative on the other side of the aisle? Beating on them won’t make them obstruct him any less, that’s for sure. So make high-road noises and let them prove him wrong, as long as he doesn’t compromise anything along the way.

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    @different-church-lady: Michael Cohen’s the only one so far to break out of the cult.

    I don’t think Cohen broke out.  I think he weighed his options.

    Who sees the light after being a mobster fixer shitbag for so long?  I think he’s still trash.

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    @Kent:

    The unredacted version needs to be publicly available for all to see. That would be a public good even if no more prosecutions take place.

  19. 19.

    Captain C

    @Ian: Barr is a coverup artist and fixer (and Republican Party and Opus Dei hack).  Anything else is probably well out of his wheelhouse.

  21. 21.

    Chetan Murthy

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I think he’s still trash.

    All evidence is that he was heavily involved with Russian mobsters in Brooklyn.  He owned a piece of a social club that was a known mob hangout.  When he pleaded-out, he refused to snitch on his mobster contacts, only doing so on KKKaiser Quisling — that’s why he did time, where others who snitched on Putinfelcher did not.  So yeah, he’s a patriot.  But he’s still not a clean, upstanding citizen.  He’s still a mobster.

  22. 22.

    Winston

    It was a good day. I cheered when those 55 electoral votes from Califonia came crashing down on the Trump parade. Yee Haw.

  23. 23.

    patrick II

    @Kent: 
    Tax returns are probably the surest thing, so I guess it is the smartest way to go. But I would like to get some of the people who have involved in various conspiracies with him and I think the only way to do that is to go after him on those. If Trump can’t self-pardon, he can’t pardon those who conspired in a crime with him. If he gives a guy a gun to go shoot someone on 5th ave., he can’t turn around and pardon him.
    None of this has been tried in court, but it needs to be or it will happen again.

  24. 24.

    Chetan Murthy

    @patrick II:

    If Trump can’t self-pardon, he can’t pardon those who conspired in a crime with him.

    I would like to believe you’re right, but I fear that horse left the barn with Poppy Bush’s pardoning his Iran-Contra co-conspirators.

  25. 25.

    Raven Onthill

    @different-church-lady: What he gets is the ability to act quickly and decisively. The first 100 days of a Presidency are usually when the biggest initiatives are undertaken. If he waits eight months, the Senate will go into recess in the summer and nothing will get done until next fall. Meantime, COVID will still be ripping through the USA and we will see unemployment and business failures the likes of which we have not seen since the 1930s.
    This a nightmare. I hope it doesn’t come true. Possibly, just possibly, the Republicans will lose the Senate. Possibly Biden is only saying this as a matter of PR. But I don’t believe it. He sees himself as a uniter.

  28. 28.

    Anya

    @Kent: Most of the burying was done by Rosenstein or at the very least without his assist Barr would not have succeeded.

    @Ian: I think Barr is a religious nutter who wanted Trump in place for the court packing so he was willing to protect him.

  32. 32.

    Raven Onthill

    Meantime, reportedly five Federal agencies have been cracked by Russian intelligence. Not sure what the goal is, or how it is going to matter. Sometimes I think Russia spies just because it likes spying. At least, under Biden, I expect counterintelligence will begin to operate again. Maybe some of the moles can be rooted out, and some of the plots revealed. Because there are plots; no-one puts this kind of effort into intelligence without planning to use it.

  35. 35.

    Anya

    I don’t think Barr wrote that letter. It looks like something Stephen Miller would write. Barr left early and him and Trump probably parted in very bad terms, not because Barr is principled but because he’s smart enough to know not to waste energy on the election stuff. Pretty soon Barr will utilize the New York Times to rehabilitate his image. We can expect the Javanka’s usual “a source familiar with Barr’s thinking” anonymously sourced pieces that paint him as someone who fought for justice and the American way… blah, blah, blah.

  36. 36.

    patrick II

    @Chetan Murthy:

    The right to pardon co-conspirators was not put to test at trial. With the current Supreme Court makeup, I really have little hope.  But the country cannot continue as a democracy if the president has the right to conspire with others to commit crimes for him, and then be able to pardon those who carried them out.  Sooner or later that will have to be worked out.

  37. 37.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @patrick II:

    But the country cannot continue as a democracy if the president has the right to conspire with others to commit crimes for him, and then be able to pardon those who carried them out.

    That’s what impeachment is for.

  38. 38.

    Aleta

    Perhaps Trump’s felonious desires wrt pardons were too getting too extreme for Barr to overrule or hide while keeping clear himself.

  40. 40.

    SWMBO

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Tell that to Gerald Ford.  This entire lawless Republican bullshit started when he pardoned Nixon “for the good of the country”.  “When the President does it, it’s not illegal.”  Yeah.  A lot of this flows from Nixon skating and not going to trial.

  41. 41.

    patrick II

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You need to make the Stones and Ryans and others have a little fear too.  Pardoning everyone around him makes the President very difficult to prosecute.  Stone and Ryan know way more than they are saying. And you can throw Mnuchin and DeJoy in that pile if you want.  Pardons make them fearless and unwilling to testify in trade.  If they don’t testify it makes it difficult to impeach a president that is smarter than Trump.  Besides, they belong in jail.

  42. 42.

    Aleta

    @Anya:  Like this NYT reporter  (Same for all stories, sometimes working w/ Haeberman and others)

    Dec 1 and Dec 2,  The Justice Department is investigating a potential bribery scheme for a Trump pardon  “according to a person familiar with the inquiry”
    Dec 2, Trump Has Discussed With Advisers Pardons for His 3 Eldest Children and Giuliani “according to two people briefed on the matter”
    Dec 3 and Dec 4, Trump Associates Said to Have Been Scrutinized in Suspected Pardon Scheme
    Dec 6 and Dec 7, Barr Is Said to Be Weighing Whether to Leave Before Trump’s Term Ends “according to three people familiar with his thinking”
    Dec 10,  Barr is said to be planning to stay on as attorney general until the end of Trump’s term “according to a person told of his decision.”
    Dec 10 and Dec 13, Barr Plans to Finish Term Despite Wanting to Leave Early

    Barr has told others he plans to remain in his post through the end of the Trump administration, setting aside his deliberations about stepping down by the end of the year, according to a person told of his decision.

    Mr. Barr had been weighing whether to leave this month. But President Trump — already angry with the attorney general’s refusal to help overturn the election — was said to be irritated with Mr. Barr’s contemplation of an early departure, according to the person.

    People close to Mr. Barr said that he wanted to step down because he felt as if he had accomplished the work he set out to complete and that his plans were unrelated to Mr. Trump’s push to overturn the election and recent public complaints about Mr. Barr.

    Mr. Barr was wary of the tensions and problems that could pop up when one administration handed off to the next, the people said.

  46. 46.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @patrick II: The one limit on the Presidential pardon is “In cases of impeachment”.  The writers of the Constitution viewed impeachment as the control on a corrupt President and “in cases of impeachment” was the guardrail to prevent pardoning co-conspirators.

  51. 51.

    Spanky

    Biden & Harris have cleared the last hurdle before taking office, and here I am still waking up at 3:00. This has got to stop. No notion of falling back asleep for the last hour and unlikely to get there before 5:00. Blech.

  54. 54.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kent:

    Barr had very little to do with the Mueller Report sinking.  It died for the same reason Trump will disappear – it didn’t deliver.  Liberals wanted it to get Trump arrested.  The media wanted something cool and flashy.  What everyone got was a technical document laying out connections that should have gotten Trump impeached, but everyone knew McConnell the traitor  and his Senate would have none of it.  It wasn’t even worth doing it as a political statement over a document most people wouldn’t understand.

    Note the lack of Barr in any of that.  The Mueller report was a failure of Barr’s.  The biggest scandal it spawned was him lying about it.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @Aleta:

    People close to Mr. Barr said that he wanted to step down because he felt as if he had accomplished the work he set out to complete…

    What work was that? Certainly not to serve his country. Barr did little more than serve as Trump’s lickspittle. This is some seriously crappy reporting.

    Mr. Barr was wary of the tensions and problems that could pop up when one administration handed off to the next, the people said.

    There would not be any tensions if Barr had actually pursued justice.

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    What everyone got was a technical document laying out connections that should have gotten Trump impeached

    Trump was impeached by the House. The Senate failed to convict.

  62. 62.

    Cermet

    @patrick II: The pardon power is absoult and essentially zero chance the inferior court will say otherwise. The slave holding elite that help write much of that outdate paper made sure that the person (they knew would often be one of their class) holding the office had that king level power. The ass-wipe Rump will self pardon himself, family members and everyone that he knows has the goods on him. Fact – just not gonna change without changing that slave based constitution. He will take a big hit on taxes but absoulty not goona be jail – just back taxes and penalties.

  63. 63.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Barr was an active participant in an attempt to destroy America as we know it, and for that, there is no pit deep enough, no fire hot enough, no perdition long enough for him.

    Forgive me for being unforgiving, but it’s been a hell of a week this morning for the spread-to-the-winds K family here. Mom woke up dizzy and unable to get out of bed (doctor said it was an inner-ear problem that’ll pass in a few days, inconsistent with symptoms of COVID; she got tested anyway as a precaution), and my brother, who’s still on an island isolating, lost heat in the house and got bit behind the ear by a centipede at four AM.

    Fbeeping 2020.

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    I read in Politico that republican leaders are a little chafed over trump’s fundraising for the Georgia Senate runoffs. The money trump raises goes to trump’s own PAC. Fine print says that 25% might go to the RNC.                               While there is skepticism that direct contributions to candidates may be wasted by the political industrial complex, the actual campaigns get more favorable treatment as to cost and placement from TV and radio stations. I think that is why Stacey Abrams appealed for direct contributions to Raphael Warnock’s campaign.

  67. 67.

    Kropacetic

    @Brachiator:

    What everyone got was a technical document laying out connections that should have gotten Trump impeached

    Trump was impeached by the House. The Senate failed to convict.

    That was for a later thing, though, not the Mueller report.

  68. 68.

    Bill Arnold

    @Amir Khalid:

    Can Biden’s AG make the Mueller report reappear?

    The redactions covering up Trump and Trump administration and Trump associates malfeasance can be uncovered.
    And should be. There are names and actions under those black bars that were redacted for coverup reasons, not national security or other legitimate reasons. How much is unclear, but a pass over the document and a re-release should be done.

  69. 69.

    Bill Arnold

    @Raven Onthill:

    Meantime, reportedly five Federal agencies have been cracked by Russian intelligence.

    I have so far seen no evidence that these intrusions are Russian. The public technical reports are very careful to say that the actor is so far unknown. Not sure why WaPo is going with Russia-did-it.
    Dark Halo Leverages SolarWinds Compromise to Breach Organizations (December 14, 2020, by Damien Cash, Matthew Meltzer, Sean Koessel, Steven Adair, Thomas Lancaster, Volexity Threat Research)
    Highly Evasive Attacker Leverages SolarWinds Supply Chain to Compromise Multiple Global Victims With SUNBURST Backdoor (December 13, 2020 | by FireEye)

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @Bill Arnold:

    Krebs:

    The breach at SolarWinds could well turn into an existential event for the company, depending on how customers react and how SolarWinds is able to weather the lawsuits that will almost certainly ensue.

    “The lawsuits are coming, and I hope they have a good general counsel,” said James Lewis, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Now that the government is telling people to turn off [the SolarWinds] software, the question is will anyone turn it back on?”

    According to its SEC filing, total revenue from the Orion products across all customers — including those who may have had an installation of the Orion products that contained the malicious update — was approximately $343 million, or roughly 45 percent of the firm’s total revenue. SolarWinds’ stock price has fallen 25 percent since news of the breach first broke.

    Some of the legal and regulatory fallout may hinge on what SolarWinds knew or should have known about the incident, when, and how it responded. For example, Vinoth Kumar, a cybersecurity “bug hunter” who has earned cash bounties and recognition from multiple companies for reporting security flaws in their products and services, posted on Twitter that he notified SolarWinds in November 2019 that the company’s software download website was protected by a simple password that was published in the clear on SolarWinds’ code repository at Github.

    Um, …

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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