Attorney General William Barr wasn’t able to get his report on how the world has conspired against Donald Trump in time to blow up Trump’s impeachment. Instead, Barr and his padawan, John Durham, had to settle for taking potshots at an inspector general report that failed to provide any evidence for the labyrinthine nest of entangled conspiracies that Trump has claimed exist. But that doesn’t mean they’ve given up. In fact, their own scheme to prove Trump’s nightmarish vision continues to expand, as Barr and Durham reach out to drag in everyone whom Trump regards as an enemy. Which is almost everyone.
As The New York Times reports, Durham’s latest expansion of scope involves chasing after former CIA Director John Brennan. Which only makes sense, as previous reports have indicated that Brennan’s involvement in the Russia investigation was … nonexistent.
Still, Brennan was critical of Trump after leaving his position, and did appear on television to display his disdain for both Trump’s handling of intelligence and Trump’s intelligence. And Trump has been on the attack against the former CIA director from the moment Brennan first rolled his eyes over Trump’s willingness to accept Vladimir Putin’s version of events over that of the U.S. intelligence community. That alone seems to be sufficient driving force for Durham to demand Brennan’s emails, call records, and all other documents related to his time at the CIA.
In particular, Durham wants to know what Brennan knew about (where is that macro key?) the Steele dossier. According to the Times, Durham wants to know whether Brennan privately “contradicted his public comments” about the information collected by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. How Brennan saying something in public that he didn’t say in private would be an indication of conspiracy, or a crime, or even wrong isn’t clear. But then, it’s not as if Barr and Durham are actually looking for evidence that would hold up to scrutiny in normal circumstances.
How Barr and Durham reacted to the inspector general’s report, and how Republicans from Trump to Fox News treated the report, is probably the best sign of things to come. After the IG produced a report specifically saying that there was no evidence of political bias in FBI actions, Trump and company simply treated the report as if it said what they had claimed all along. Expect that same quality of reasoning to be the heart of the Durham dossier.
In October, the Department of Justice let it be known that the Durham investigation had become “a criminal investigation.” But there have been exactly zero statements about what crimes are being investigated, who may have committed them, or why the department felt it necessary to announce a criminal investigation. What there has been is a round-the-world jaunt in which Barr and Durham have attempted to destroy U.S. intelligence agencies and have deeply damaged relationships with U.S. allies. And when it comes to Barr and criminal investigations, it’s worth noting that Barr blocked any criminal investigations related to Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s actions in Ukraine.
So when it comes to the frequent Republican question, “Why aren’t there any criminal charges mentioned in the impeachment articles?” the answer is: Because William Barr.
If there’s any doubt about the effort to create an all-encompassing, fulfill-every-aspect-of-Trump’s-vindictive-paranoia narrative, Barr appeared on Fox News on Thursday evening to let it be known that Durham “is not just looking at the FBI. He is looking at other agencies.”
So just because the inspector general failed to find the conspiracy that Trump was looking for in the FBI doesn’t mean they won’t find it. After all, the inspector general was looking into the FBI before Barr arrived, and it might have looked pretty odd if he had stopped that effort before launching his own investigation. But there’s no inspector general looking into the CIA. And there’s no one to contradict any conspiracies that Durham and Barr “find.”