David Corn: How Bill Barr Is Helping Trump Escape the Russia Scandal

[babylonsister]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/how-bill-barr-is-helping-trump-escape-the-russia-scandal/

How Bill Barr Is Helping Trump Escape the Russia Scandal
The White House would rather have a fight over contempt than betrayal.
David Corn

snip//


An attorney general spinning for a president who might have criminally obstructed justice is important. But, arguably, it is not as important as what has prompted all this hubbub: the Trump-Russia scandal itself.

The Mueller report reaffirms the core elements of what is probably the most consequential political scandal in American history. Russia, it notes, waged a “sweeping and systematic” attack on a US presidential election. And, Mueller notes, Trump and his campaign, while publicly denying this attack was underway, sought to benefit from it. As the report states, during the campaign, Trump called “this whole thing with Russia” a “total deflection” and said that the notion Moscow was intervening in the election was “farfetched” and “ridiculous”—which is precisely what Russia was claiming at the time. Trump’s embrace and promotion of Moscow disinformation was not a crime—but Mueller included it in his narrative.

snip//

With the release of the Mueller report, the fundamental political dynamic has not shifted. The political discourse has not fixated on the original sin of Trump’s presidency—his own act of betrayal. Instead, the outrage has focused on Barr and his efforts to protect Trump from the taint of obstruction. This is hardly insignificant. But a brawl over Barr is more likely to come across to the public as yet another Washington mud-wrestling match—a process matter and turf battle that engages fierce partisans without resonating with those who don’t watch cable news shows. It kicks up a lot of dust. And that dust presents a clear view of what’s at the center of all this.

It’s often said that when it comes to scandals in Washington and elsewhere, the cover-up is worse than the crime. But that’s not always true. While it appears possible that Trump committed a crime (obstruction) to impede an investigation that found no criminal conspiracy between him and Russia, his actions in 2016 remain immensely scurrilous. And this is not just history. Because Trump still cannot acknowledge the Russian attack (and his helpmate role)—after entering the White House he continued to deny Putin intervened and signaled to Russia he didn’t mind its interference—Trump has neglected his most sacred duty as president: to protect the United States. In a recent 90-minute phone call with Putin, he declined to warn the Russian leader about future attacks on the 2020 election. (The FBI says it expects such assaults from Moscow.) And a recent media report noted that Trump’s ousted secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen, had been told not to discuss with Trump efforts to protect US elections from Russian intervention because such talk angers Trump, who believes it undermines the legitimacy of his electoral victory.

Trump is right. The 2016 election was tainted—in part because he helped an adversary influence the election by providing cover for its covert attack. So far, Trump has not had to face any consequences for this misconduct. The release of the Mueller report did provide an opportunity for renewed public consideration of Trump’s mendacious wrongdoing. But Barr has become the bull’s-eye. He is taking arrows for the boss. And so far, it’s working. Trump has eluded perhaps the most damning implication of Mueller’s report: Trump sided with—and assisted—a foreign foe that ambushed American democracy.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Trump is hiding behind his lawyer(s) like he has always done

Democrats need to smoke him out. In the meantime, they should be saying just that.

[SunSeeker]

2. Yup. What Trump did makes Teapot Dome and Watergate seem quaint. nt

[uponit7771]

3. K&R, No reason to think 2020 election will be more free and fair than 2016

[VOX]

4. Hard truth. And it's a BIG concern.

They’re gonna go there again, as sure as I’m writing these words.

[gulliver]

5. Yep, every verbal attack on Barr should include an indirect (and worse) attack on Trump.

Example, "Barr is failing his duty to the Unites States." Fine, that's an attack on Barr.

But try, "Barr is failing his duty to the United States. Trump knowingly and without even the slightest guilt or decency took help from the Russians in 2016. That's the guy Barr is covering for. Barr is trying cover for the inexcusable."