Barr's Italian vacations

Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of possible connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

  

On its face, that seems ourageous. Not that I'm a fan of US intelligence agencies, but this does not seem like a legal, much less ethical, job for the US Attorney General.

Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries.

At the very least.

But the high-level Justice Department focus on intelligence operatives’ conduct is likely to cheer Trump and other conservatives for whom “investigate the investigators” has become a rallying cry. Barr has voiced his own concerns, telling lawmakers in April that he believed “spying did occur” when it came to the U.S. investigation of the Trump campaign.

By whom? If it's the FBI, that's what they do. If by spying he means CIA or other spies that are (ostensibly) limited to foreign spying, that's a different matter. If he means foreign spies who may have then given information to the Clinton campaign, then it's going to be hard to justify Trump campaign use of foreign intelligence against Biden.  Does he mean foreign spies giving info to the FBI? To the CIA?

The direct involvement of the nation’s top law enforcement official shows the priority Barr places on the investigation being conducted by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, who has been assigned the sensitive task of reviewing U.S. intelligence work surrounding the 2016 election and its aftermath.

Is John Durham a Trump soldier? Probably rhetorical.

The attorney general’s active role also underscores the degree to which a nearly three-year-old election still consumes significant resources and attention inside the federal government.

Which is absolutely astounding considering the fact that TRUMP WON!

Current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials expressed frustration and alarm Monday that the head of the Justice Department was taking such a direct role in reexamining what they view as conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of misconduct.

Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general traveled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian government officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.

He had to go personally? He couldn't send a letter? Or make a phone call? Nothing suspicious here.

It was not Barr’s first trip to Italy to meet intelligence officials, the person said.

Italian vacations on the taxpayers dime in assistance to the president's abuse of power. Well done, Bill.

Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said: “Mr. Durham is gathering information from numerous sources, including a number of foreign countries. At Attorney General Barr’s request, the President has contacted other countries to ask them to introduce the Attorney General and Mr. Durham to appropriate officials.”

[...]

Trump still complains frequently that those involved in the investigation of his campaign should be charged with crimes, asserting that the FBI search for possible election-season collusion between Russia and Trump campaign officials was a witch hunt spurred by agents and bureaucrats opposed to Trump becoming president.

Stalinesque.

“Even if one questions, as a threshold matter, the propriety of conducting a re-investigation of the Justice Department’s own prior investigation of Russia’s interference, the appointment of John Durham — a seasoned, nonpartisan prosecutor — provided some reason to believe that it would be handled in a professional, nonpartisan manner,” [David Laufman, a former Justice Department official who was involved in the early stages of the Russia probe] said. “But if the attorney general is essentially running this investigation, that entire premise is out the window.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: