Of course not. Barr has a very expansive view of executive power. He saw the Russian collusion investigation as an attack on the presidency as an institution, as actors nominally beholden to it placed a victorious presidential campaign under surveillance and investigated the presidency for years based on insubstantial evidence that was ultimately discredited.

With respect to the bold, Barr made a decision in early spring to actively hide a criminal investigation from public view so as not to impact the election. If he had in reality "weaponized" the DOJ, the election may well have turned out differently. And while the media's coverup of the story was disgraceful, that's exactly what Barr should be doing. It's certainly a more principled view than Comey took, who could never stop thinking about how to spin each subsequent development in his interest.

Wow, I didn't expect such a well constructed and thought provoking viewpoint. I read a little bit about Barr and his perspective on broad/expansive view on executive power (which I couldn't really get behind). However, it is somewhat interesting that he didn't reveal the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation. I guess I can't comment much on it because I don't know enough of the details but from a broad perspective.... it seems like he made an ethical call here by not manipulating an ongoing election cycle.


edit: I guess I will need to recant my original statement that you quoted.

This post was edited by umeshieee on Dec 15 2020 09:54am

Barr appointed Durham as Special Counsel, which could potentially involve investigating President Joe Biden's past behavior. It's also a bizarre move to appoint Durham as SC, when it's unclear to me the reason, although it's reasonable to conclude he wanted to lock Durham in if Biden won, which is completely inappropriate for an outgoing AG to do. The DOJ is investigating Hunter Biden, which could in theory involve investigating President Joe Biden. Barr has held nutty opinions about the Russia investigation since before he became AG, and that's why he's gone to extraordinary lengths to undermine it. Intervening in the Mike Flynn and Roger Stone cases doesn't have much to do with his expansive views on executive power.

Of course, the reality is that four individuals associated with the campaign were initially the ones being investigated. Trump wasn't under investigation until he fired Comey, and the campaign as a whole probably wasn't until Mueller was appointed. The predicate for opening Crossfire Hurricane was never discredited.

Also: https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/12/15/the-claim-that-billy-barr-didnt-release-any-investigative-information-during-the-election-is-false/

It's not bizarre at all, he is appointing Durham special counsel so that he can finish an investigation he started, and which Biden has every reason to undermine. It goes without saying that it is critical that we know that the investigation of a presidential campaign and (later) a sitting president was conducted legally and with due decorum.

Hunter Biden is a degenerate, no one is surprised that he is being investigated for (alleged) criminal acts.

Barr believes that the Russian investigation was conducted on flimsy evidence and continued well past the date that any reasonable suspicion of collusion existed. This was corroborated by the FBI investigators themselves, who wondered why the investigation was still ongoing and never expected to find a "there, there". His concerns are reflected in the facts and evidence of the case. This was never the focus of Horowitz's damning but limited report, which is why Barr felt the need to have Durham investigate more broadly in the first place.

Appointing Durham as Special Counsel as some anticipatory measure against the interference of the next administration is completely absurd. It's a political action, not a legal one. And Biden has no reason to undermine the investigation because he's not a corrupt madman, interfering would be counter productive(something Trump was too stupid to understand), and there's no reason to fear that the investigation is going to reveal wrongdoing by Biden himself.

The Russia investigation has been looked at for longer than it went on. There's been numerous investigations into it... numerous hearings. There were mistakes made, but it was valid, and it found plenty of wrongdoing by Russia, Trump, and his associates.

Barr suspects the same group of people Biden is reinstalling of wrongdoing, why are you surprised that he thinks he needs to protect the investigation? Because "Biden wouldn't do that?".

It's clear at this point that Biden is so out of sorts with respect to his son that he simply can't be rational, or he is covering for him. No one who has even remotely followed Hunter's career thinks he's above anything that he has been accused of.

The Russian investigation was looked at, and Trump and his associates were not involved. That requires us to look at the situation a bit more deeply than "the FBI said it was within their discretion to make a decision", which was the focus of Horowitz's report. We need to understand if those decisions were personally or politically motivated and understand how best to correct those gaps moving forward. It's completely unacceptable that we had a multi-year investigation into a sitting president on false grounds. Either the FBI made a terrible mistake, and needs a dramatic overhaul in procedure, or people made intentional mistakes, and they need to go to jail.

Why is that? I think it's pretty clear that Biden wants to stay far far away from the Justice Department. Being investgated for taxes is pretty minor, all things considered, so it doesn't make sense for a President to pay attention to it even if it's a family member. I don't think a Special Counsel was necessary for the Russia investigation prior to Trump. Trump firing Comey is what forced the SC to step in in the first place.



A SC should be used in extraordinary circumstances. Frankly, I don't care that much that Durham is SC because I don't think the Biden's have much to hide but it is pretty unprecedented for an outgoing AG to do this. I think a lot of this stems from an inherent distrust in the Justice Department and I don't really know how to repair it's reputation. Many people are a lost cause when it comes to institutional trust because they believe in a false equivalence narrative.

Hasn't trump been under tax investigation for 30 years? isn't his daughter under tax investigation right now?

Barr looks golden when you put him next to Sessions.

What group of people?

As per usual, you simply change your standards based on who you're defending. The idea that an outgoing administration would appoint a Special Counsel because they anticipate interference from the incoming administration is completely ridiculous and unjustified. It's a nakedly political act, which is what Barr has become known for.

If you still think the investigation was not properly predicated you're essentially on the intellectual level of a 9/11 truther. It was justified, the FBI would've been negligent not to open it, and Trump's firing of Comey, and his subsequent remarks afterwards to Lester Holt and the Russian ambassador and foreign minister in the White House, was sufficient predication to open an investigation into him.

You, like Barr, and so many other cultists, developed an opinion on the Russia investigation at the start. No amount of evidence... not the Trump tower meeting where Don Jr, Kushner, and Manafort expected to receive dirt on Hillary from Russians, not Papadopoulos blabbering about the Russians having dirt on Hillary, not Manafort handing over internal campaign polling data to a Russian intelligence operative, ever moved you from the opinion you started with. Tribalism and the personality cult overwhelmed the ability to think critically.