Trump henchman Barr’s legally dubious theory of a president as absolute monarch reveals all we need to know about his actions. Barr didn’t need to even scan the Mueller report. In his job application memo seeking to be hired by Trump as his personal attorney (and not as our nation’s AG), Barr said said he thought the Mueller investigation was, in essence, unlawful, and Trump cannot ever be charged with obstruction of justice. Add on top of it the bizarre DOJ nonbindling rule that a sitting president can’t be criminally indicted, and the conclusion was preordained.
As we say in Chicago, the fix was in from the beginning. It’s why Mueller and McGahn, among others, have to testify under oath before Congress.
I agree completely. I would only add that this motivation is no secret at all.
I doubt you could find a Republican in Congress today who would agree that Nixon was guilty of any crime whatsoever.
Barr is announcing to those who wandered in late that Fascist tyranny is the only “rule of law” he sees fit for America when Republicans “occupy” the White House. When, or if Democrats are ever elected to the office again, all of the old rules will once more apply, but not to worry, as that’s not very likely!
Dallek equated this to the old quote from Richard Nixon, that “when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
Barr is effectively claiming that when the president is the subject of an investigation he is empowered to be the judge of his own guilt or innocence. He himself knows whether he engaged in whatever illegal acts are being investigated, but whether guilty or innocent of those acts, once he tells the investigator he is innocent, he is innocent, based on his own beliefs whether they comport with known or discoverable facts or not, end of story. What Barr is saying here is that the president cannot be investigated by the DOJ, period.
That’s the obvious in-your-face claim, but the claim also takes in much more than a president’s own actions (and we all understand that when Barr says “president”, he means only a Republican president). What Barr is claiming is that the president is now all-seeing and all-knowing, that he can prejudge the outcome of any investigation and make his own determination. Therefore, the DOJ has no reason to exist, unless it is merely to serve as the president’s personal prosecutor.
Barr just granted any Republican president powers that an emperor would envy.
I think you need to add something here… If you’re a Democrat who is not completely bi-partisan. For instance, I believe that the GOP would encourage (or at least not attack too wildly) Joe Manchin if he were to run
