Obstructors of Justice

 "It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office—deliberately abusing the public trust without consequence."

-- Judge Lawrence Walsh, Iran/contra special counsel

If anyone deserves to face obstruction of justice charges in this saga over special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report, it may just be the guy now in charge of it all.

The longer U.S. Attorney General William Barr deprives Congress of their constutional duty to review Mueller's crucial report on Russia's interference into the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, the greater the chance of our con man "President" escaping justice.

In case you may have missed it, AG Barr is the same guy who, in his first attorney general stint helped cover-up for Republican President George H.W. Bush and others in the "Iran-contra Affair," as well as "Iraqgate" in 1992.

That's why President Donald Trump, of course, picked Barr for the attorney general job. Like virtually every member of Trump's administrative team, Barr is the worst possible person for the job.

"Cover-up General"

New York Times writer William Safire in 1992 labeled Barr as the “Coverup-General Barr” after Barr devised a plan to bury evidence of Bush’s involvement in “Iraqgate” and “Iran-Contra,” according published reports.

In December of 1992 -- during his first attorney general stint, under Bush -- Barr intervened on his boss's behalf to defang special counsel Judge Lawrence Walsh's six-year, $47 million investigation into the Iran/contra Affair.

Walsh's probe was on the verge of exposing incriminating files of Caspar Weinberger, President Reagan's indicted former defense secretary -- and President Bush's diary that implicated the former Reagan vice president in illegal weapons sales to terrorist state sponsor Iran and illicitly funding Nicaraguan rebels.

But before special counsel Walsh, a fellow Republican, could lower the boom on five more ex-Reagan administration officials and spotlight his revealing diary in the final weeks of his presidency, Bush turned to his AG Barr for help.

Barr then suggested the President Bush pardon Weinberger and the five others to make it all go away. So Bush did.

Pardon Me?

 "I favored the broadest pardon authority," Barr said years later. "There were some people just arguing just for Weinberger. I said, 'No — in for a penny, in for a pound.' "
At the time, Walsh condemed Bush's pardon of Weinberger, saying it, "undermines the principle that no man is above the law. It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office—deliberately abusing the public trust without consequence."

Just a couple months earlier, Barr refused to appoint an independent special counsel to investigate reports that the Bush administration illegally funded billions of dollars in nuclear weapons to Saddam Hussein.

The administration of newly elected President Bill Clinton, who campaigned on nailing culprits in the purported illegal weapons funding for Iraq, never brought charges in Iraqgate.

Barr Letter Auditions For AG

This past June, Barr sent an unsolicited letter to Trump's White House lawyers arguing that the President's firing of FBI Director James Comey -- the original lead Russia meddling investigator -- did not constitute obstruction of justice.

Then he got the AG job thanks to Trump's nomination and the complicit Republican majority Senate.

Most of us know that our once-prized American ideals of truth and justice are under attack like never before.

If the Mueller report is buried or eviscerated of crucial findings before Congress reviews it, so will go our American ideals -- and our America.

If a Mueller report cover-up succeeds, what's to protect the numerous other state and federal investigations into Trump, his family and close associates' myriad disdeeds?

Other Trump Probes Jeopardized? 

Those other probes into mob money laundering, fraud, presidential profiteering, campaign finance violations and more, in theory, could be shutdown by this increasingly authoritarian president and his loyalist co-conspirators.

In some form, this is all going to come down to "We the people" speaking out and taking civil action -- through protests, marches, letters and calls to our representatives -- to defend our country.

Don't placate yourself into thinking the worse couldn't happen here. Adolph Hitler's incremental, but persistant eroding of Germany's Democratic norms, caught Germans off guard.

They didn't see the "Reichstag fire" coming, which Hitler used to consolidate his power early in 1933. 

And they didn't see the "Night of The Long Knives" coming just more than a year later in the summer of 1934.
In a matter of days, Hitler had several potential political rivals executed.

Any citizen outrage then, was too late.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/25/trump-russia-william-barr-republican-spear-catcher

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB365/

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/26/has-cover-general-william-barr-struck-again

More Questions

Now that Attorney General William Barr this evening released his initial summary on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe it's clear the investigation wasn't the "witch hunt" the President labeled it.

But it remains unclear, despite what  President Donald Trump is predictably claiming, whether Trump committed obstruction of justice.

From Barr's summary on Mueller's report:

"The special counsel states that "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

Key words: ".. does not exonerate him."

It's far from a "total and complete exoneration" as the President labels the probe.

More questions than answers.

But the truth is out there and myriad investigations into this President  continue.

Mueller's Report Is The First Word

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in our 2016 elections, whatever it says, isn't the final word on Trump malfeasance.

It's just the first.

The special counsel's work, completed yesterday and turned over to Attorney General William Barr, has already fed numerous other ongoing state and congressional investigations into the President's demonstrable myriad misdeeds.

Meanwhile, don't expect any earth-shattering revelations from AG Barr on Trump's bad behavior.

Barr is the same guy who obstructed justice for President George H. W. Bush and others in Iraqgate and the Iran-Contra Affair.

That's why President Trump picked him for the job.

Who knows what's in the Mueller report. Barr is reviewing. Chances are it doesn't clear Trump of any Russian collusion or obstruction, but doesn't nail the President as guilty either.

Hang on. It's going to get even louder and messier. Trump will declare vindication and his brainwashed base will predictably follow suit.

The Democrats will push hard for Mueller's full report, as they should. After years of Trump chaos, the people deserve and need to see the whole truth, not simple soundbite summaries from Trump's inside fixer, Barr.

In the meantime, stay vigilant. It's just as important for "we the people" to make sure our representatives stick to the task of getting some concrete answers to long-burning questions -- and ensure "justice for all."