Thread by @davidrlurie

For a year, I've been writing about William Barr, perhaps the nation's most dangerous Attorney General since Mitchell Palmer initiated hysteria against immigrants 100 years ago. Barr's attempting to play a similarly nefarious role in dismantling pillars of our justice system. 1/

Trump's nomination of Barr, who formerly served as George H.W. Bush's AG, was greeted with relief by many, who believed he would offer the steadiness of an old "Washington hand." As I wrote at the time, however, his record offered no such assurance. 2/

I found that Barr had bragged about encouraging Bush I to employ mass pardons of government officials to effectively terminate the Iran-Contra investigation after he lost his bid for reelection, and thereby free the President from potential legal peril. 3/ thedailybeast.com/william-barr-m…

Barr also publicly encouraged the DOJ to reopen an inquiry into a debunked conspiracy theory against Hillary Clinton involving sale of US uranium assets to a Russian concern that originated in a Steven Bannon-funded book, "Clinton Cash." 4/

thedailybeast.com/william-barr-m…

Though Barr had no actual knowledge of the facts, he declared the DOJ would be "abdicating its responsibility" if it failed to pursue Trump's 2016 opponent. The DOJ has reportedly continued "investigating" the conspiracy during Barr's tenure. as AG 5/

nytimes.com/2017/11/14/us/…

After Barr's nomination, it also came to light that he had lobbied Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein to order Robert Mueller to stop investigating Trump for obstruction of justice /6
thedailybeast.com/william-barrs-…

Barr had written a secret memo claiming, among other things, that Trump had "illimitable" authority to order the termination of investigations of his own misconduct (or to commence investigations of others). /7

thedailybeast.com/william-barr-m…

Based on this dubious proposition, Barr claimed Trump couldn't be charged with obstruction of justice for firing FBI Director Comey in the midst of the Russia investigation, even if the President had a culpable state-of-mind that could send any other citizen to jail. 8/

I also suggested that, as AG, Barr might try to hide evidence Robert Mueller obtained from Congress by improperly invoking confidentiality provisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence. 9/ thedailybeast.com/trump-is-immun…

But nobody, including Robert Mueller himself, anticipated that Barr would outright lie to the Congress and the nation in an effort to protect the President. But, on March 24, 2019, Barr did just that. 10/

On that day, Barr released a letter declaring that the Russian investigation has resulted in the President's exoneration. Specifically, Barr said that he -- not Mueller -- had concluded that Trump was free of obstruction liability based on the facts Mueller found. 11/

As I wrote that day, Barr's suggestion -- that Trump could not have obstructed justice because Mueller had not found sufficient evidence of the President's culpability for an underlying crime -- was simply at odds with settled law. 12/

slate.com/news-and-polit…

I also expressed suspicion regarding Barr's suggestion Mueller hadn't found sufficient evidence for obstruction charges against Trump, when it was more likely Mueller had not to reached a conclusion on the matter because of a DOJ policy against indicting sitting presidents. 13/

That suspicion proved to be true. Indeed, Mueller was so disturbed by Barr's misrepresentations that he called and wrote the AG asking him to correct the misrepresentations he had made to the nation by immediately sharing Mueller's own summaries of his actual findings. 14/

But Barr's effort to undermine, and frustrate congressional actions in response to, the Mueller report was only beginning. Barr defied a congressional subpoena demanding that he appear before the House Judiciary Committee to explain his conduct respecting the investigation. 15/

Barr's then joined Trump's legal team in a war of attrition directed at denying Congress access to any testimony or evidence that might allow it to substantiate Mueller's findings or review his evidence. 16/

As I anticipated, Barr tried to prevent Congress from obtaining evidence underlying Mueller's report, despite a recent appellate court case in which DOJ agreed Congress is entitled to such materials when investigating potentially impeachable offenses. 17/ thedailybeast.com/mueller-signal…

DOJ also defended Trump's withholding of key witnesses from Congress. DOJ's arguments, including "absolute immunity," were often weak, but succeeded in bottling things up in the courts, long enough it seemed to take the winds out of Congress' sails. 18/

thedailybeast.com/trumps-shamele…

Then came the Ukraine scandal.

Though Barr has assiduously tried to deny it, the AG was a key actor in the the creation of this new chapter in Trump's corruption of the presidency, and also unintentionally opened the door to Congress renewed impeachment investigation. 19/

Trump held his extortionate call with Ukraine's president on July 25, one day after Robert Mueller's congressional testimony. Trump must have been at a moment of high confidence, since it appeared that, with Barr's help, he had entirely skated for his past obstruction. 20/

Barr purports to be "surprised and angry" Trump directed Zelensky to work with him in ginning up dirt on Biden; but his complaint rings hollow, since Barr lobbied for his job by advertising a willingness to use the DOJ as a tool for investigating Trump's political opponents. 21/

Indeed, as I have argued, Barr all but provided a template for the Trump/Giuliani scheme. 22/

thedailybeast.com/attorney-gener…

In addition, while Barr is assiduously seeking to distance himself from what John Bolton has characterized as the Ukraine "drug deal," the AG has been devoting great effort to pursuit of his own strikingly similar pet conspiracy theories. 23/

The AG has been personally pressuring foreign governments for "dirt," including on his own agency, in a reported effort to "prove" that US intelligence agencies schemed against Trump during and after the 2016 election, often with Trump's involvement. 24/

But, as I discuss in this piece, Barr's extraordinary willingness to turn the DOJ into a tool to both protect Trump, and do his dirty work ended up backfiring in a big way in connection with the Ukraine scandal. 25/

thedailybeast.com/william-barr-t…

Barr's DOJ used every tool available to justify withholding the whistleblower's complaint from Congress, in square violation of applicable law. going so far as to commission a bogus opinion from the DOJ's previously respected office of legal counsel to excuse the misconduct. 26/

DOJ's Criminal Division also engaged in a sham of review of Trump's potential culpability, declaring no crime had been committed after attorneys read the memo regarding the Zelensky call and concluded that it alone failed to establish a campaign finance violation. 27/

As it turned out, this time, Barr took his effort to employ DOJ as mechanism to frustrate justice too far. DOJ was unable to prevent Congress from getting the whistleblower's complaint and then from initiating an investigation that now finds Trump on the verge of impeachment. 28/

If Barr had followed correct practices by recusing himself and allowing for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Ukraine scandal, that might well have delayed, or limited, the congressional investigation that now threatens Trump's presidency. 29/

But of course Trump would never have tolerated that happening again. He hired Barr to be his Roy Cohn, and he got what he wanted. 30/30