Each investigation of the president and his allies involved highly publicized leaks that led to many headlines and endless discussion on cable TV. Anti-Trump voices stood firmly in support of more and more detailed inquiries.
But now, as Barr looks into how it all started, some voices that were part of that frenzy are changing their tune about the value of investigations. They now express concern about investigations that Barr is politicizing the DOJ to go after perceived political enemies.
"The power to investigate is the power to destroy," a former U.S. attorney, @GregoryBrower, told the Washington Post recently (apparently forgetting Carter Page, Flynn, etc). "The ability to simply point to a pending investigation...can have devastating effects on that person...”
"President Trump appears to be now using [his] power, with an assist from the Justice Department, to exact revenge on some perceived political enemies," said NBC's @ChuckTodd.
The president is "weaponizing the Department of Justice against perceived enemies," said CNN's @AndersonCooper.
Not to be too blunt about it, but where were these voices the last three years?
Where were they when the Steele dossier burst onto the scene in January 2017, with its extremely damaging and unsupported allegations, leaked to undermine the president right as he took office?
Where were they when the Steele dossier burst onto the scene in January 2017, with its extremely damaging and unsupported allegations, leaked to undermine the president right as he took office?
Where were they when the public learned that the FBI, using false information, wiretapped a low-level former Trump foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, giving it entree into some of the campaign's communications?
Where were they when the Justice Department cooked up the idea that @GenFlynn had violated the Logan Act, the 1799 law under which no one has ever been convicted, as a reason to question Flynn?
And where were they when officials bragged about going outside channels to grab a chat with a busy, distracted Flynn, and later used that as the basis for a false statement charge even though investigators did not believe Flynn actually lied?
Somebody was using the Justice Department to go after perceived political enemies. And when they did, the investigations stretched into months, and then years, expanding as time passed.
As @GregoryBrower said, the inquiries had devastating effects on people investigated; just ask Flynn or Page or another former low-level Trump campaign aide, Papadopoulos. They have paid a high price, in both money and reputation, for running afoul of the investigative apparatus.
Also, as Brower also said, the investigations were a potential political benefit for the people orchestrating them. Just ask virtually any Democrat on Capitol Hill.
But none of that was much of a concern to the combination of opposition politicians, resistance and Never Trump activists, and a go-along press that fed the investigation machine since before Trump took office. The targets were figures unpopular with Dems and many in the media.
But now, as Barr seeks to shine a light on how the investigation machine revved up, we suddenly hear concerns about the costs of such probes.
More complaints are sure to come as Barr, and Barr's appointees, investigate the questionable acts of the investigators. Yes, it will be painful for some. But the public deserves to know what happened.
