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Speaking to my brilliant colleague today about Barr helped me contextualize his behavior. Barr is clearly both smart & strategic; this is evidenced by the smoke & mirrors trick he pulled w the report's release. And his artful omission that Mueller had reached out about his
misrepresentation of the Special Counsel's findings. But Barr's also made serious blunders too. And its clear that if he read the report, he didn't digest the details. He seemed surprised when confronted w the details of Trump's efforts to get Lewandowski to pressure Sessions.
Barr also needed to be told the specifics of Manafort's activities w Kilimnik. What I saw as corruption (my colleague points out) is actually a product of ideology. By understanding Barr's behavior via an ideological lens, everything he's doing, the smart AND sloppy, makes sense.
That lens is the theory of the unitary executive, which not only drives the way that Barr is conducting his own behavior as AG, but also his treatment of Trump. I won't describe it as Hamiltonian version of executive power bc, to quote my colleague, it would make Hamilton blush.
Like many of his fellow Federalists friends, Barr see NO LIMIT to the power of the presidency. He doesn't need to read the report on Trump's behavior because the report should never have been written and any misconduct it reveals is inconsequential bc to quote Stephen Miller,
"the president's power will not be questioned." Once you understand this about Barr everything we've seen since he took over as AG, the way he whitewashed the investigation's findings, the testimony yesterday, everything makes sense. This is a man on an ideological mission.
And it also illustrates how profoundly dangerous it is for the country to allow him to continue on in his role. His service is to an ideology, not to the Constitution. This is why he is talking to the White House about ongoing criminal investigations involving the president he
oversees. This also underscores how profoundly dangerous it is to have a confirmation process requiring only simple majorities, which are guaranteed to put people like Bill Barr in position of authority that ideologues have no business serving in.
