Bill Barr: "Without Any Basis"

The second part of Laura Ingraham's very important interview with AG Bill Barr played last night--AG William Barr on the Russia investigation: 'There's something far more troubling here'.

Here are what I think are the important points we can take from what Barr said.

First of all, it seems apparent that the Durham investigation has completed most of its evidence gathering--whether documentary or through interviews. That doesn't mean the investigation is finished. There is also the question of putting together a prosecutive case, and that will probably involve complicated negotiations with the lawyers for the persons being investigated. That, in turn, could lead to further substantive investigation. But the bottom line is that at this point Barr appears confident that he knows what happened and, most likely, who was behind it. As Barr says, this is a "sprawling" case.

Second, Barr several times refers to things that "they" did.  Not things that "were done." So, multiple human perpetrators. That points toward the strong likelihood that a conspiracy case is being pursued that will encompass an attempt to "sabotage the presidency." As Barr says, this is a "sprawling" case. And this case is very much focused on developing a criminal prosecution of the conspirators.

Third, Barr says that, while Durham's "primary focus" is not on preparing a report, a report will "probably" result from Durham's investigation. That's important. IMO, the American people deserve a report that lays out the narrative of how a group of highly placed federal government operatives conspired to "sabotage the presidency." Such a report would be unusual coming from a prosecutor, but this is an unusual case that goes to the heart of our constitutional order. The American people deserve to have a report that they can read and readily understand, rather than having to glean the narrative from complicated testimony, court proceedings, and documents written in bureacratic language and, possibly, released without full context. The release of the Papadopoulos interview is a down payment, as are no doubt the firings of corrupt Deep State operatives such as Dan Coats, Michael Atkinson, and others.

Fourth, there is a twofold key in what Barr tells. He tells us that Crossfire Hurricane--"this investigation of [Trump's] campaign"--was inititated "without any basis." That means that Crossfire Hurricane was initiated without proper predication and was an unlawful investigation. I think we will see confirmed what we've always known, that Crossfire Hurricane was initiated for the purpose of developing a narrative that could derail and sabotage a presidential election. But, that baseless investigation nevertheless served as the predication for what Barr says he has found "even more concerning": "... what happened after the campaign--a whole pattern of events while [Trump] was president ... to sabotage the presidency."

From this I think we can readily gather why this Durham investigation is so "sprawling." What happened after the campaign? The attempt to frame Michael Flynn and to sabotage the presidency through the frame job on Flynn, at the very inception of the administration, to tar it as "colluding" with Russia, rather than conducting foreign policy. The continued renewals of the Carter Page FISA, known to be fraudulent, which implicate the highest levels of the FBI and of DoJ--McCabe, Comey, Yates, Boente, Rosenstein, and many more. The bogus Intelligence Community Assessment, the development of which we're told Durham has spent so much time examinging.

And lastly but far from least, the entire Mueller Witchhunt--which, as framed by Rod Rosenstein, purported to be a continuation of the baseless FBI investigation, Crossfire Hurricane. The release of the Papadopoulos transcript not only is a dagger in the heart of the predication for Crossfire Hurricane and the Carter Page FISA, a dagger in the heart of the FBI's role in the conspiracy. It is also a dagger that, along with the final FISA renewal, we may learn is directed at Team Mueller through its pursuit of George Papadopoulos.

And no doubt there is much more to come.

One skeptical note: I have reservations about how Barr thinks he can institute "safeguards" for FISA that would be effective--without substantive statutory changes. Because FISA is such a wrenching of our constitutional order--involving technologies far beyond the imaginings of the Framers--"reforming" FISA will necessarily be a far more complicated matter, IMO, than tweaking guidelines.

Enjoy!


LAURA: John Brennan has come out *smashing* the President's firing of Inspector General Michael Atkinson.

BARR: I think the President did the right thing in removing Atkinson. From the vantage point of the Department of Justice, [Atkinson] had interpreted his statute [the law defining IG powers]--which is a fairly narrow statute--which gave him jurisdiction over wrongdoing by *intelligence* people, and tried to turn it into a commission to explore anything in the government and immediately report it to Congress without letting the Executive Branch look at it and determine whether there was any problem. He was *told* this in a letter from the Department of Justice and he is *obliged* to follow the interpretation of the Department of Justice, and he ignored it. So I think the President was correct in firing him.

LAURA: It's the second Inspector General he's fired since the beginning of this pandemic, and of course that's used to say, 'Well the President just doesn't want a watchdog.'

BARR: I think that's true. I think he wants *responsible* watchdogs.

LAURA: What can you tell us about the state of John Durham's investigation? People have been waiting for the final report on what happened with this. What can you tell us?

BARR: Well, I think a report may be--and probably *will* be--a byproduct of his [Durham's] activity, but his primary focus isn't to prepare a report. He is looking to bring to justice people whose abuses he can show were criminal violations, and that's what the focus is on. And, as you know, being a lawyer yourself, building these cases--especially the *sprawling* case we have between us that went on for two or three years here--it takes some time. It takes some time to build the case. So he's diligently pursuing it. My own view is that the evidence shows that we're not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness. There's something far more troubling here and we're going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.

LAURA: The President is very frustrated. I think you, obviously, you know that, about Andrew McCabe. He [Trump] believes that people like McCabe and others just were basically able to flout laws and, so far, with impunity ...

BARR: I think the President has every right to be frustrated because I think what happened to him was one of the greatest travesties in American history. Without any basis they started this investigation of his campaign. And even more concerning, actually, is what happened after the campaign--a whole pattern of events while he was president ... to sabotage the presidency ... or at least have the effect of sabotaging the presidency.

LAURA: Will FISA abuses really be prevented going forward, given what happened here, where FISA judges are not given critical pieces of information [like the just released exculpatory transcript of the FBI CHS talking with George Papadopoulos]--material facts about the evidence that informed the government's OKing the surveillance of American citizens?

BARR: You know, I think it's possible to put in a regime that would make it possible to make it very hard either to *willfully* circumvent FISA or to do so sloppily without due regard for the rights of the American person involved, and also to make it very clear that any misconduct *will* be discovered--and discovered *very* promptly. So I do think we can put in safeguards that will enable us to go forward with this important tool. I think it's very sad--and the people who abused FISA have a lot to answer for--because this was an important tool to protect the American people. They abused it. They undercut public confidence in FISA, but also the FBI as an institution, and we have to rebuild that.