UPDATED: Barr Has A Responsibility To Act

On Fox this morning President Trump called on AG Barr to "act and act fast":

"This is major corruption and this has to be known about before the election," said Trump in an interview on "Fox & Friends." "We have got to get the attorney general to act. He’s got to act and he’s got to act fast, he's got to appoint somebody" the president added.

When asked how his campaign is going, he replied "It's just going very well," adding of Biden: "I think he’s imploding, you look at all that corruption in his family, tremendous corruption."

 

I'm personally opposed to "appoint[ing] somebody." Investigating criminality is what we have a Department of Justice for, and there's no need to "appoint somebody"--there's an appointee, confirmed by the US Senate, already in place. Trump is just repeating what the House GOP has said. That's fine for political effect, but not as policy--we've seen enough of the abuses involved in special counsels and special prosecutors.

However, as in so much involved with the "resistance" coup efforts against our constitutional order, we're in uncharted waters here.

If this were a matter simply of allegations, ginning up an investigation would seem to be an abuse--just like Crossfire Hurricane was. Sauce for the goose and for the gander as well!

But this doesn't appear to be a case of simply politically motivated allegations in the heat of a campaign--although these events are unfolding in that context. There are several differences:

1. The evidence that we've seen, as provided by the NYPost as well as, now, by other seemingly credible sources, present a strong prima facie case of gross corruption--influence peddling, money laundering, etc.

2. We also know that the FBI and a US Attorney's office have had the same material for at least nine months and--since the material was obtained via grand jury subpoena--had (and may still have) an investigation opened that took that material seriously.

 

In such circumstances my view is that the American people deserve at least this: They deserve to know what the status of the investigation is. Is it open, or has it been declined and closed, and on what grounds? The evidence as we have seen it is compelling and clearly points to a presidential candidate of a major party being completely compromised by our two major strategic rivals: China and Russia. The American people deserve to know about this, since it goes well beyond mere allegation.

There's a third factor that arises at this point:

3. While Rudy Giuliani and others have attempted to make these serious issues public on a timely basis--based on when they gained access to the information--the openly anti-Trump social media giants and other MSM outlets have imposed an unprecedented news blackout on the entire story. This is reminiscent of an op-ed that appeared in the WSJ back in July: Democracy Dies in Darkness, but Don’t Blame Trump--His enemies warned there would be an all-out assault on freedom of speech. Then they launched one. Moreover, the subjects of the allegations, and above all the candidate Joe Biden himself, have refused to deny the allegations and have not been required by the so-called media watchdogs to even address these serious issues. Instead, Biden and his media supporters are attempting to slip this past the American people with the aid of a news blackout.

In this situation my view is that AG Barr should step up and address the status of the investigation of the Biden Crime Family in a public statement. Given that the FBI and DoJ have had access to much of the same material that Giuliani's team has made available, such a statement would not be simply shooting one's mouth off--it would be backed by, presumably, nine months of investigation or a considered decision not to pursue the case. 

All this might be unprecedented, but the totality of the circumstances--and above all the attempted news blackout are also unprecedented. There would be a great outcry from the Left, but It's a duty Barr owes to the American people, whose constitutional order is threatened. Our order depends upon public discussion of all issues that crucially affect that order, and Barr is the one who's in the position to defend that order. In that context, President Trump's call for action is both reasonable as well as timely made. It's time to act. 

UPDATE 1: Commenter Gray, below, says: "Joe diGenova for SC." As it happens, I listened this morning to diGenova's WMAL segment from yesterday. Joe isn't any more of a fan of Special Counsels than I am--and he's far from alone in his views on that score. However, he offered a number of interesting observations.

First of all, Joe's wrath remains focused on waste-of-space FBI Director Chris Wray. Joe: "We all recommended against him [Wray]." "We?" The hosts then ask, Well, why did Trump appoint Wray? And Joe says what I've been saying all along: Because Chris Christie--friend and confidante of Trump--said, Wray's the guy. Joe went on to say that Trump, not being a DC insider, relies on advice and gets bad advice all the time. "Happens every day." Joe is convinced that Wray has both know about the Biden Crime Family evidence and has concealed it for many months. So just keep that in mind. Anyone who thinks Barr has complete control over DoJ is simply wrong. Barr has had to put up not only with Obama holdovers but also with bad Trump appointments.

Second, Joe clearly remains a Barr supporter. His question is, Was this case hidden from Barr? Joe's suspicion is that information about this case was somehow intercepted within DoJ before it could get to Barr. I'm in no position to offer an opinion, but Barr does have the information now, and that remains the main point. It it was hidden from him by Wray, by persons within DoJ, then all the more reason to act. And to point a finger at those who kept the information from him.

UPDATE 2: SIdney Powell on with Lou Dobbs last night got this exactly right:

It's imperative that action be taken on this now. The president and the country have a right to know how long that laptop has been in the possession of the FBI and whether Attorney General Barr was told about what was on it. This has got to be handled and handled right now. The American people have an absolute right to know what is going on here.

 

Trust in the key federal institutions for ensuring justice in our land is at stake--DoJ and the FBI. Beyond that, trust in AG Bill Barr's own willingness and ability to restore trust in those institutions is also at stake.