I’m sure many of you have seen the shocking news that Trump is going to allow his corrupt stooge William Barr to declassify ANY document he wants to in order to discredit the entire Russian investigation. The ramifications of this could hardly be more serious. Adam Silverman, who has been a consultant to the Pentagon (among many other jobs) and who teaches at West Point, has written a trenchant analysis right here. It is worth quoting at some length:
What this means is that Attorney General Barr can declassify whatever he wants pertaining to this matter whether or not Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates, and his subordinates responsible for declassification at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or Director of Central Intelligence Gina Haspell, and her subordinates responsible for declassification at the Central Intelligence Agency, or the Director of the National Security Agency GEN Paul Nakasone, and his subordinates responsible for declassification at the National Security Agency, or Director Wray, and his subordinates at the Federal Bureau of Investigation agree or disagree with his decisions. And this reality is both important to keep in mind and very, very scary because it is now being reported that Attorney General Barr wants to know about the CIA’s sources in Russia and what they know about the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s interference. [My emphasis]…
Barr is very likely to use this new authority to selectively weaponization the information he declassifies to try to ratfuck the 2020 election. Remember, it was Barr who was leaning on the US Attorney in Little Rock to investigate then Governor Clinton regarding the Whitewater Savings & Loan scam in order to dirty Clinton up in advance of his general election campaign against Barr’s boss, President George H. W. Bush.
As far as I know, NO ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS EVER HAD THIS KIND OF AUTHORITY. If there was any doubt that we are in crisis, that doubt is gone. We already knew that the Republicans, led by the vile criminal Trump, were going to unleash any and all tactics to try to win in 2020, but this frightens and angers the HELL out of me. And take a look at this, from Josh Marshall:
This bullshit is getting truly, truly serious. However strong our response has been so far, we’re gonna have to amp it up. And some interesting information on the hateful right-wing authoritarian Barr, from Newsweek:
This much is known: On Barr’s public financial disclosure report, he admits to working for a law firm that represented Russia’s Alfa Bank and for a company whose co-founders allegedly have long-standing business ties to Russia. What’s more, he received dividends from Vector Group, a holding company with deep financial ties to Russia.
Barr is an Opus Dei religious fanatic as well, one who wants to “impose God’s law” on America. He is an advocate of what I can only call an imperial presidency. In Barr’s warped thinking, a [Republican] president can NEVER be investigated, can NEVER be indicted, can NEVER obstruct justice, and can wield UNLIMITED investigatory power.
In other words, Barr wants a right-wing dictatorship.
And now he has been given the legal weapons to help make that come true.
We need to fight this BIG.
We need to fight this NOW.
I never thought it would really come to this. But Trump wants to use the government to attack his political and legal enemies. And need I add—
It will let Vladimir Putin know about our intel assets in Russia.
Grotesque. That’s how one former intel chief has characterized it. Take a look here:
www.msnbc.com/…
Our enemies are on the move. It’s time for us to be as well.