William Barr just blew it
The Feds at the SDNY rather aggressively pursued the Donald Trump – Michael Cohen campaign finance fraud investigation, to the point that they accused Trump of being “Individual 1” in the criminal conspiracy, even as they put Cohen in prison. Now suddenly the SDNY says the investigation is over, and no additional charges are being brought at this time. This has William Barr’s fingerprints all over it – but if so, he may have just blown it.
It very much appears that William Barr used his position as Attorney General to force the SDNY to bring an end to its Trump-Cohen probe, because the SDNY was taking this case seriously, and no one but Barr was in a position to forcibly tell the SDNY otherwise. But if Barr thought that shutting down the probe would protect Donald Trump by sweeping the whole thing under the rug, the opposite is about to happen tomorrow.
The federal judge in the case has ruled that because the Trump-Cohen probe is ending with no additional charges being brought, the entirety of the probe’s findings must be made public tomorrow. In other words, we’re now just hours from getting the full scoop on what role Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, and other members of the Trump Organization played in the criminal scandal. This will help to boost House Democrats’ impeachment case significantly.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner appeared on MSNBC this afternoon and explained that the Feds like to bring all conspiracy charges at once, in order to maximize the odds of landing convictions. Because the Feds at the SDNY can’t bring federal charges against Donald Trump until he’s no longer in office, they were likely planning to wait until that time before bringing conspiracy charges against anyone involved. In such case, the details of the probe could conceivably have remained under wraps until that time. If Barr forced the probe to be shut down, he’s unwittingly responsible for the fact that the dirt on Trump is about to be released tomorrow.
