emptywheel
@emptywheel

Nope. He did the same stuff in DC, SDNY, EDNY, WDPA.

The lesson of NYT piece is Barr had wild success at manipulating the press and w/exception of NYT, no one is unwinding that.

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1619032837683904512?s=20&t=C6Ic3bfSGqyDTQ2GUpapAA

Humans are famously obsessed with Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. Each year, climbers attempt to summit it. But Everest is about more than human visitors. A diverse set of wildlife lives there. In a scientific first, an elusive wild cat called the Pallas's cat has been discovered on Mount Everest.

Pallas's cat might not have the name recognition of a lion or tiger, but it's an incredibly photogenic animal. The cats are about the size of small domesticated felines and have rounded ears, stocky bodies and a perpetually grumpy expression. They are adapted to cold conditions in Asia.

A team of researchers embarked on a National Geographic expedition to Mount Everest in 2019. During the journey, the team collected Pallas's cat scat samples from two different locations in Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park on the mountain. The samples came from sites at over 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) in elevation.

The team published its findings in the winter 2022 issue of the journal Cat News. "It is phenomenal to discover proof of this rare and remarkable species at the top of the world," biologist Tracie Seimon said in a Wildlife Conservation Society statement on Thursday. Seimon was one of the leaders of the expedition.

https://www.cnet.com/science/biology/scientists-find-elusive-grumpy-looking-cats-living-on-mount-everest/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Both in scale and intent, the Trump classified-documents situation compares poorly with the Biden and Pence ones.
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/25/trump-biden-pence-classified-documents/

https://twitter.com/pbump/status/1618459085967396865?s=20&t=gyObov-Dn-rtb9jfu_2tQQ

Single Malt Justice
It turns out Bill Barr and John Durham were sipping scotch as they burned down Main Justice.

Extraordinary new reporting from the New York Times peels back more layers of corruption, malfeasance, and politicization within the Barr Justice Department. In a groundbreaking story that is focused on Special Counsel John Durham but is really an indictment of Barr, the NYT unveils several previously unreported episodes:

Durham Investigated Trump?!? The most explosive revelation in the NYT piece is that Barr allegedly directed Durham to dramatically expand his brief beyond “investigating the investigators” by opening a financial crimes investigation in the fall of 2019 of President Donald Trump based on a tantalizing tip from Italian authorities. It’s unclear how and to what extent Durham investigated the tip. No charges ever resulted. While it’s unclear what exactly Durham did with the tip, the strong impression left by the story is that the Trump investigation was buried.

Oopsies! The New York Times and other news outlets later misleadingly reported that Durham’s review of the origins of the Trump-Russia probe had turned into a criminal investigation, suggesting that the Durham was zeroing in on the investigators of Trump. In fact, Durham’s criminal probe involved Trump himself. Barr never sought to correct the widespread public misperception:

The news reports, however, were all framed around the erroneous assumption that the criminal investigation must mean Mr. Durham had found evidence of potential crimes by officials involved in the Russia inquiry. Mr. Barr, who weighed in publicly about the Durham inquiry at regular intervals in ways that advanced a pro-Trump narrative, chose in this instance not to clarify what was really happening.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/bill-barr-john-durham-special-counsel-investigation

Bloomberg: “The former president, itching to seal up support early in what remains a key state in the Republican presidential contest, has checked in with Iowa influencers who have stood by him in the past.”

“Senators Chuck Grassley and Governor Kim Reynolds didn’t answer when he telephoned recently, and neither of them are willing to give their party’s former leader their nod this early, according to people familiar with the matter. Nor are Joni Ernst or other top state elected officials.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-26/trump-s-iowa-trouble-top-republicans-hold-off-endorsements?leadSource=uverify%20wall

?w=948

Schiff on McCarthy blocking him from the intelligence committee: "The cardinal sin appears to be that I led the impeachment of his master in Mar-a-Lago."

https://twitter.com/laurellsteven/status/1618294474333130753?s=20&t=DvQtxUQm2fUnING1NeHPBg

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/01/24/why-did-mike-pence-wait-so-long-to-reveal-his-stash-of-classified-documents/