President Trump pushed Australia’s prime minster to help Attorney General Bill Barr dig up information about the origins of the Mueller investigation that could discredit the probe, multiple news outlets reported Monday.
The opening of that inquiry is now the focus of Barr, and of former U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is conducting a review of how the Trump-Russia investigation began.
That sentence should be slightly changed to read
The opening of that inquiry is now the focus on Barr
Look, I don’t want to get all giddy here because we’ve seen this song and dance before, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say…It’s happening…it’s happening! 
Fucker can’t help himself.
He needs to be gone ASAP.
When does Barr start complaining about spies and traitors? And calling for whistle-blowers to be revealed and people to be fired or and/or put to death?
It’s gonna be a lit night for tweeting.
And so it continues
I bet the WH staff is looking for a place to hide
According to the Times article:
President Trump initiated the discussion in recent weeks with Mr. Morrison explicitly for the purpose of requesting Australia’s help in the Justice Department review of the Russia investigation, according to the two people with knowledge of the discussion. Mr. Barr requested that Mr. Trump speak to Mr. Morrison, one of the people said. It came only weeks after Mr. Trump seemed to make military aid to Ukraine contingent on Mr. Zelensky doing him the “favor” of helping Mr. Barr with his work.
In making the request, Mr. Trump was in effect asking the Australian government to investigate itself. The F.B.I.’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election began after Australian officials told the bureau that the Russian government had made overtures to the Trump campaign about releasing political damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
So this is a RECENT move to have Australia - counter the Mueller probe? I don’t understand why they would go back to the Mueller probe? Why not let it lie (lay)? Unless they’re worried about the unredacted version being released?
It will add to the pile, but it’s not as direct and understandable as the Ukraine call about investigating Biden. It helps establish a pattern of using the DOJ for Trump’s personal gain, but I hope Speaker Pelosi keeps a laser focus on the Ukraine/Biden issue and anything directly related, like the document cover-up and tampering with the whistleblower.
Voters can understand that, and why it’s wrong. Anything involving the Mueller report is a hopeless spaghetti trail as far as explaining it to the general public.
I don’t see the Biden or the misuse of foreign aid angles here – if pressed Barr/Trump can say they were probing the beginnings of the Mueller investigation (which we know means discrediting it). I realize that this is an AG investigation with corrupt intent, but it is an investigation and so this lacks several of the elements that make the call to the Ukraine so damning.
That said, it ended up on the super-secret server? That might indicate that (as we are probably still getting with the Ukraine call) this is a sanitized version of the call, and that one or both of those elements were present, or something new and outrageous. After all, it is almost Tuesday.
“…Barr had asked Trump to discuss the issue with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. U.S. officials reportedly moved a record of the call to the same highly classified system where the now-infamous July 25 Trump-Zelensky call was kept.”
So there are more than one mastercriminal in the extortion/coercion here…
There’s the Criminal-In-Chief + CoverUp General Barr and then there is Pompeo in the Ukraine call too.
So is Pompeo a minion like Guiliani, diGenova & Toensing or is he a mastermind too?
Fast and furious:
I see this as part of an AG investigation more damning to Barr than the previous information, because Barr seems to have requested the call to the Australian PM.
hopefully rudy will end up behind bars when he refuses to show up.
Katy Tur is sitting in for Chuck Todd. Someone said that Giuliani has said he 's not going to cooperate, but he’s a private citizen and can’t hide behind executive privilege.
Throw the book at him!
Yes, but I’d say potentially more damning, since the AG has latitude to investigate. But you are right that it is easy to imagine Trump crossing any one of several lines in a phone call (bribery comes to mind).
This reminds me of all the concerns about him giving a deposition. In a way, these phonecalls are the first time he’s on record – his tweets, campaign rallies, and even press conferences were all treated like they he was playing a character by the press, since he sort of always is. But here he is speaking with foreign leaders and representing the country, and is “on record” in a way that just isn’t working out well for him.
As I predicted, Trump made a HUGE MISTAKE publicly dissing and calling a career CIA agent (the Whistleblower.) a TRAITOR.
Now, the entire agency is leaking like a sieve, determined to take Trump down for his transgression.
Time to heat up that obstruction of justice article, Madame Speaker.