So now Barr is poised to launch yet another probe (yes, an inspector general probe into the matter already exists!) into investigating Trump's investigators. Legitimizing Trump's thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory not just once, but twice, and dragging it into the public arena with no supporting evidence is an all-out attack on the rule of law. And just to be clear, the rule of law is what separates actual democracies from other types of regimes. Voting itself does not a democracy make. As House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff noted, Barr is "doing what we urge emerging democracies not to do, and that is, seek to prosecute your political opponents after you win an election.”
In fact Schiff made several insightful points regarding Barr's recklessness to the Washington Post's Greg Sargent. “The post-Watergate reforms are being dismantled, one by one," he said. "The Trump precedent after only two years is that you can fire the FBI director who is running an investigation in which you may be implicated as president. ... You can hire an attorney general who has applied for the job by telling you why he thinks the case against you is bogus. ... That new attorney general can then selectively edit the work of an independent or special prosecutor, and allow the Congress and the public to see only parts of it. And that new attorney general can also initiate inquiries into the president’s political opponents.”
Barr is now presiding over the total breakdown of an imperfect institution that has nonetheless kept the country from devolving in a lawless regime. Trump always longed for a Justice Department that was dedicated to doing his, and only his, bidding. Barr is delivering on that desire.
