Attorney General William Barr claimed he was “doing the law’s bidding,” and not Donald Trump’s bidding, when he had the Justice Department move to dismiss charges against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Despite that admission of guilt, Barr claimed that “A crime cannot be established here.”
But something else Barr said is far more revealing of his thinking—and of his determination to do anything he can to protect Trump at whatever cost to equal justice. Asked how history would judge his move, Barr answered, “Well, history is written by the winner.” He clearly intends for Team Trump to be writing that history, and dropping charges against Flynn is one step in that process. There are other steps planned.
The Flynn news came out on Thursday. What did Trump do on Thursday? For one thing, he had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling reporters afterward that they had talked about “the Russia hoax,” i.e. the help that Russia gave Trump in the 2016 elections.
“Russia will see this as a huge victory. A sign both of American weakness and of a corrupt judicial system, in which they can continue meddling in our affairs and get away with it,” Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA official who oversaw Russia operations told The Washington Post.
It wasn’t just national security experts who were appalled. Legal experts—including many, many former federal prosecutors—were pretty much lining up to explain to the public how dangerous and unprecedented Barr’s action is. Highlighting what’s really going on here, former federal prosecutor and Duke law professor Samuel Buell told The New York Times that “A pardon would have been a lot more honest.”
Barr is “undercutting the law enforcement officials and prosecutors who investigated the 2016 election and its aftermath,” said Anne Milgram, a former federal prosecutor and New Jersey attorney general, and the effect is like “eating the Justice Department from the inside out.”
That’s the plan: help Trump win the 2020 election and consolidate power going forward by undoing the investigations against him. Trump understands that, telling reporters “Things are falling out now and coming in line showing what a hoax this whole investigation was.” He continued, “It was a total disgrace, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a lot of things happen over the next number of weeks. This is just one piece of a very dishonest puzzle. “
Where Trump says “I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a lot of things happen over the next number of weeks,” remember that Barr has assigned pet U.S. attorneys to look into undoing still other parts of the Trump-Russia investigations, so very literally there are more plans in action to place Trump’s political interests over the rule of law or the concept of justice.