.
BREAKING: President Trump says Attorney General William Barr is leaving his job, effective "just before Christmas." https://t.co/IFo19C5Ws4
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 14, 2020
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.
Barr’s resignation letter and Trump’s tweet are almost entirely divorced from the reality of what their relationship looked like lately. Trump talked openly about firing him and senior staff never really knew where they stood.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 14, 2020
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…
Attorney General Bill Barr:
Lied to cover for Trump.
Launched political investigations.⁰
Subverted justice and the rule of law.⁰
And violently cracked down on protestors.So good riddance.⁰
Now, the work of restoring a credible and independent justice system must begin.— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 14, 2020
Trump firing Barr to steal the attention away from Biden's electoral college win, a real classic of the genre. Just a few weeks left of this stuff, get it while you can.
— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) December 14, 2020
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:
usual skepticism applies here but as I said before bill barr is ten times smarter than trump, twice as good at playing the ratfuck game, and the last dude in the lineup trump should fuck around with https://t.co/mrIVPiB9E9
— kilgore trout, tiny desk carpenter (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 13, 2020
it’s just such a disastrously bad idea and god all I want for christmas is for trump to give barr the reason he’s been looking for to make himself look like the hero
— kilgore trout, tiny desk carpenter (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 13, 2020
barr has long been the most frightening member of this administration because unlike absolutely everyone else he’s extremely intelligent and knows exactly how the game works at a master craftsman level. please, please fuck with him.
— kilgore trout, tiny desk carpenter (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 13, 2020
Kent
HEY! WE fired him first! Back on November 4.
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?
Kent
@Ian: He did make the Mueller report disappear. I didn’t see that one coming.
Amir Khalid
@Kent:
Can Biden’s AG make the Mueller report reappear?
mrmoshpotato
Just watched Brian Tyler Cohen’s commentary on the Rethuglican traitorous trash antics in Michigan, and holy hell is Stephen Miller’s voice whiny. I look forward to that Nazi’s hanging.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Raven Onthill
Jennifer Epstein, Bloomberg White House Reporter:
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?
TS (the original)
@Winston: Barr probably advised trump that he can’t pardon himself – thus sending trump over the edge.
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.
mrmoshpotato
Oh, he has a face for radio. but not the voice.
ETA – Of course – his face – endlessly punchable. Spencer that Nazi fuckface!
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.
mrmoshpotato
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.
different-church-lady
@mrmoshpotato: He’s still trash, but he’s trash that’s completely turned on Trump. Most of the other trash hasn’t.
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.
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.
Jay
@Amir Khalid:
problem is, the narrative was set. The Media will never admit they can’t read.
Chetan Murthy
@mrmoshpotato:
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.
Winston
It was a good day. I cheered when those 55 electoral votes from Califonia came crashing down on the Trump parade. Yee Haw.
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.
Chetan Murthy
@patrick II:
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.
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.
Jay
@Captain C:
actually, disBarr is so toxic that Opus Dei has denied he’s a member.
Winston
@Chetan Murthy: I think it was the Hoarse Whisperer who predicted Cohen would forever forsake Trump, once Trump fucked him over.
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.
Raven Onthill
@Raven Onthill: …thinking it over, after my first shock, I suspect events will force the Biden administration to action. But I wonder what events, and what kind of action.
Another Scott
@Captain C: Opus Dei said that Barr has never been a member. (Sorry for the naked link.)
https://opusdei.org/en-us/article/statement-regarding-u-s-attorney-general-william-barr/
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott is.
Winston
@Chetan Murthy: I agree, but he wasn’t under impeachment at the time.
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.
Captain C
@Jay: Can’t say I blame them. I bet he kept the
self-torturepenance devices, though, he seems the type.@Another Scott: Perhaps he’s just a wannabe, then.
Winston
@Raven Onthill: Russian intelligence can just get most of this from NYT.
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.
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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@patrick II:
That’s what impeachment is for.
Aleta
Perhaps Trump’s felonious desires wrt pardons were too getting too extreme for Barr to overrule or hide while keeping clear himself.
NotMax
@Raven Onthill
Friedman Unit two-point-oh.
Charlie Brown and the football ploy.
Take yer pick.
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.
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.
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
bjacques
@Captain C: in the world next door, Barr definitely works for the Magisterium.
Jay
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SWMBO:
I can’t, he’s dead. The pardon probably had a lot to do with Ford not getting elected in 1976.
?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.
patrick II
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
If he pardons or promises to pardon them first, he doesn’t get impeached. That’s why Stone and Ryan aren’t talking. That and a crooked AG.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@patrick II: If you’re pardoned for a crime, you can be forced to testify and if you are not truthful you can be charged with perjury.
Immanentize
@patrick II: Who is Ryan?
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Probably Paul Ryan.
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.
Immanentize
@mrmoshpotato: maybe meant “Flynn?”
Immanentize
@Spanky: one more hurdle, January 6 — when Congress receives the vote of the electors. Sorry, I can’t sleep either.
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.
Brachiator
@Aleta:
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.
There would not be any tensions if Barr had actually pursued justice.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Ah maybe.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
Trump was impeached by the House. The Senate failed to convict.
patrick II
@Immanentize:
i meant to say Flynn.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Golly gee whillikers, someone’s up and about early.
Aleta
@Brachiator: “Barr was wary of the tensions and problems that could pop up”
Cause tensions popping up under his command are just not how he rolls.
Jay
@Frankensteinbeck:
DisBarr presented the Mueller Report as 180 degrees away from what it said,
24 hours before it was released.
The Media ran with that, and the “narrative” was set.
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.
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.
Aleta
@NotMax: Heavens to Betsy, I’d better catch some shut eye.
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.
raven
Dolly Parton’s daily schedule: 3 a.m. wake-ups and heels in the kitchen
Kropacetic
That was for a later thing, though, not the Mueller report.
Bill Arnold
@Amir Khalid:
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.
Bill Arnold
@Raven Onthill:
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)
Heywood J.
Soooo…….no $30k Christmas party at daddy’s hotel this year?
glc
I’d like to see Barr’s head photoshopped (belatedly) into the “This is fine” meme.
According to Google it hasn’t been done yet (something quite different comes up: https://twitter.com/LindseyBoylan/status/1275062493979631616/photo/1).
Another Scott
@Bill Arnold:
Krebs:
Um, …
Cheers,
Scott.