Thread by @HoarseWisperer

I imagine William Barr will get the worst sleep of his life tonight.

He’s now wholly implicated as corruptly obstructing justice.

If I’m him, I’m thinking I can either cut and run - let the summaries fly and abandon obstructing full release - or go all-in on full cover-up.

1/

Realistically, Barr now knows he has lost control of the situation. The dual leaks to the NYT and WaPo means he can’t dictate the timeline or narrative.

The next leak could come anytime and be about anything. It would be designed to ratchet up the heat on him personally.

2/

Barr would be smart enough to know that.

He knows he is the focus of the pressure.

A smart person would now feign helpfulness and say “While I had planned on releasing the full report with summaries, public interest is best served by speeding release of the summaries.”

3/

Criminals tend to dig faster when first caught already up to their ass in a hole of their own making though.

A halfway answer would be to provide Congress with an update saying the report is a week away from releasable.

4/

However, with his “lulling letter” from last week (the “it was a non-summary summary” one) failing to keep the Mueller team at bay, trying that again would be unwise.

So, it’s a quick surrender and let the report fly free - or - go nose down in a desperate, futile spiral.

5/

I dunno. Just for fun, I’d lay the odds at:

Releases Mueller’s full summaries quickly: 3:1
Tries to buy time until next wk: 4:1
Stonewalls in full, digs in: 5:1
Trump sends crazy jag ordering nothing be released: 5:1
Barr cracks under pressure and goes full White Bronco: 7:1
6/6