Bill Barr’s day of reckoning
So it turns out that Bill Barr deliberately mischaracterized the Mueller Report and lied about it to Congress, the public, and the courts in the process. Who would have figured that? Or better yet, who didn’t?
The sad fact is that Barr, at least temporarily, succeeded in muddying the waters surrounding the Mueller Report’s findings and gave Trump an opening to claim he was vindicated (“NO COLLUSION”) and turn the tables on the investigators, alleging that their investigation was all a big “Russia hoax.” His sycophantic stooges in Congress amplified the Trump/Barr lies.
Now, as Trump would say, Barr got caught. Moreover, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is handling a FOIA case that seeks release of DOJ documents, has found that Barr’s DOJ lawyers flat-out lied to the Court about a memo that gave a pretext of legal cover for a decision Barr had already made – not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice. Not surprisingly, Judge Jackson is not happy about it. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the sin of a lawyer lying directly to a judge, even Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis – as fast and loose as they are with facts and legal principles in their public discourse – refrained from doing so when asked in court if they were alleging fraud in the specific cases they were arguing.
Perhaps Barr would be wise to brush up on some legal precedents at this point, specifically the precedent of a former Attorney General going to prison for crimes he committed while in office. John Mitchell is resting a little easier, wherever he is, knowing that he will no longer be considered the absolute worst Attorney General in U.S. history.