Leaving a Land Mine to Navigate Around

For John, BLUF:  Attorney General william Barr is a very smart lawyer and it seems he has left a problem for a possible incoming Biden Administration.  A Special Counsel, not easily fired.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Making John Durham a special counsel will cause problems for Biden

Here is the sub-headline:

Now Democrats' Trump administration arguments will come back to haunt them.

From USA Today, by Professor Jonathan Turley, 2 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus eight:

Attorney General Bill Barr made two important evidentiary decisions yesterday that delivered body blows to both President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden.&Nbsp; First, Barr declared that the Justice Department has not found evidence of systemic fraud in the election.&Nbsp; Second, he declared that there was sufficient evidence to appoint United States Attorney John Durham as a Special Counsel on the origins of the Russia probe.  The move confirmed that, in a chaotic and spinning political galaxy, Bill Barr remains the one fixed and immovable object.

By appointing Durham as a Special Counsel, Barr contradicted news reports before the election that Durham was frustrated and found nothing of significance despite Barr’s pressure.  Some of us expressed doubts over those reports since Durham asked for this investigation to be upgraded to a criminal matter, secured the criminal plea of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, and asked recently for over a thousand pages of classified intelligence material.

Under the Justice Department regulations, Barr had to find (and Durham apparently agreed) that there is need for additional criminal investigation and “[t]hat investigation or prosecution of that person or matter by a United States Attorney's Office or litigating Division of the Department of Justice would present a conflict of interest for the Department or other extraordinary circumstances.”  He must also find the appointment in the public interest.

Notably, the investigation of Clinesmith is effectively completed.  So, what is the criminal investigation and what is the conflict?

Developing conflicts

Presumably, the conflict is not in the current administration since it would have required an earlier appointment.  The conflict would seem to be found in the upcoming Biden administration.

Some conflicts developing seem obvious as Biden turns to a host of former Obama officials for positions, including the possible selection of Sally Yates as Attorney General.  Yates was directly involved in the Russian investigation and signed off on the controversial surveillance of Trump associate Carter Page.  She now says that she would never have signed the application if she knew what she knows today.

Durham is now authorized to investigate anyone who may have “violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III.”  The list of the names of people falling within that mandate is a who’s who of Washington from Hillary Clinton to James Comey to . . . yes . . . Joe Biden.

Bizarrely, reports have claimed that Trump was irate at the move as a “smokescreen” to delay the release of the report.  That ignores not just the legal but political significance of the action.  From a political perspective, the move is so elegantly lethal that it would make Machiavelli green with envy.

Yes, this could be a problem for a Biden Administration.  It could also be a problem for Democrats in Congress, and perhaps for the Main Stream Media.

I need to curb my enthusiasim for this future show, before I fall into sin.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

Securing John Durham

For John, BLUF:  The US Attorney General took action, back in October, to ensure the Durham Probe would continue, regardless of who was Sworn in on 20 January.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

John Durham Appointed as Special Counsel to Keep Obamagate Investigation Active

From PJ Media, by Mr Matt Margolis, 1 December 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

Attorney General Bill Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as special counsel to continue investigating Obamagate and the illicit origins of the Russia probe.  “On May 13, 2019, I directed John Durham, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, to investigate certain intelligence and law-enforcement activities surrounding the 2016 presidential election,”  Barr wrote in a letter to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.  “Although I had expected Mr. Durham to complete his work by the summer of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as additional information he uncovered, prevented him from doing so.”

Barr reveals in his letter that he appointed Durham as a special counsel prior to the election, on October 19, to ensure that regardless of the outcome, that the investigation would be able to continue.  “In advance of the presidential election, I decided to appoint Mr. Durham as a Special Counsel to provide him and his team with the assurance that they could complete their work, without regard to the outcome of the election,” Barr continued.  Durham has had “the powers and authority of a Special Counsel” since that time.

This is a status different from being a Prosecutor or a Special Prosecutor.  Mr John Durham is now a "Special Counsel".  The removal of a Special Counsel has certain special safeguards.

The letter from Attorney General Barr to the Senate and House Committee Leadership is here.  The lettere farom Attorney General Barr, to Mr John Durham, appointing him, is here.

I like this move by Attorney General Bill Barr.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Getting Justice in Trump's DC

For John, BLUF:  Justice, viewed through a partisan lens, is not justice.  Further, the proliferation of laws means that Federal Prosecutors can go after an accused six ways from Sunday, more often than not, forcing a plea deal  Look what they are doing to Actress Lori Laughlin for asking for her right to a trial by a jury of her peers.  Yes, she did wrong and deserves punishment, but this kind of bullying is wrong.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Sidney Powell:  FBI Agents Manipulated Flynn 302 File

From The David J Harris Show, by Reporter Rich Welsh, 25 October 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Sidney Powell, General Michael Flynn’s new attorney, filed a 37-page motion on Thursday that alleges that FBI agents manipulated the official 302 records of the former national security adviser’s 2017 interview with now fired and disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok. That manipulation of the records was what led to the general being charged with lying to FBI investigators.

The motion is requesting that the government produce all evidence as it relates to Flynn asking the court to “dismiss the entire prosecution for outrageous government misconduct” and hold the prosecutors in contempt.

Lawyer Sidney Powell was the person who Rescued Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) from his corruption conviction by showing that the Department of Justice prosecutors had acted unethically, withholding exculpatory evidence, violating the Brady Rule.

The "302" is the fOrm the FBI uses to formalize an interviewer's notes.  It is the formal record of the FBI Agent's interview of someone who they talked to.  No, they don't use the modern tape recorder or the even more modern video recorder.

I would like Attorney General Barr, or the US Congress, to drag the FBI into the late Twentieth Century by mandating the use of electronic recording devices in formal settings.

It is interesting to me that the Federal Judge who picked up the Flynn case when the previous judge stepped aside, is Judge Emmet G Sullivan, who took over the Senator Stevens case and brought justice to Senator Stevens and a rebuke to DoJ.

And,it would be nice if the Congress passed legislation removing Qualified Immunity protections from Federal Prosecutors and Law Enforcement personnel who abuse their positions to abuse the innocent.  And then DoJ starting enforcing it, recognizing that even some of its own sin from time to time.I wouldn’t,even mind if they later took back their now chastened employees.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff
small>

Shredding Our Norms

For John, BLUF:  Trust in a process, once lost, may be hard to regain.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Barr:  "Resisting A Democratically Elected President" Is Destroying Our Norms And Institutions, Not Trump

From Real Clear Politics, by Mr Tim Hains, 31 May 2019.  Based on 31 May Interview of Attorney General William Barr by CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford.

Here is a key excerpt:

In an interview aired Friday on “CBS This Morning,” Attorney General William Barr explains why he opened an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation.  He doesn’t say what the evidence is, but Barr tells CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford that there is evidence that makes him believe senior government officials may have acted improperly to authorize surveillance of President Trump’s 2016 campaign.  He says that led to “spying” on the campaign.

He said the hyper-politicized nature of politics today is a danger to longstanding institutions and he took the job of attorney general because he is at the end of his career. . . .

“One of the ironies today is that people are saying it is President Trump who is shredding our institutions.  I really see no evidence of that.  From my perspective, the idea of ‘resisting’ a Democratically elected president and basically throwing everything at him, and really changing the norms on the grounds that we have to stop this president.  That’s where the shredding of our norms and institutions is occurring,” Barr said.

The inability of Democrats to accept the outcome of the 2016 election, resisting in various ways, including talking of Impeachment, trying to subvert the Electoral College, or characterizing the President as a liar, will not end well.  It could cost them the election in 2020.  It could lead to a tit-for-tat retaliation against a Democrat President.  It could lead to the unraveling of the ties that band together this very diverse nation.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Ego v Humility

For John, BLUF:  This looks like people who abrogate to themselves the authority to do things for which they would condemn others.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

AG Barr is an Absolute BALLER

From The Ace of Spades, 31 May 2019.

At InstaPundit Mr Ed Driscoll declares this as the Quote of the Day.  This is from Attorney General William Barr being interviewed by CBS’s Jan Crawford:

I’m amused by people who make a living disclosing classified information including the names of intelligence operative wringing their hands about whether I can handle classified information….  Sometimes people can convince themselves that what they’re doing is in the higher interest, the better good.  They don’t realize that what they’re doing is really antithetical to the democratic system that we have.  They start viewing themselves as the guardians of the people that are more informed and insensitive than everybody else.  They can– in their own mind, they can have those kinds of motives.  And sometimes they can look at evidence and facts through a biased prism that they themselves don’t realize.

Would this include former FBI Director James Comey?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff