It's Now Attorney General Bill Barr and America vs The Democrat Party

GAME ON !! AND WILLIAM BARR IS THE FIELD MANAGER. As we have been saying on our blog since Bill Barr was confirmed as Attorney General, at last President Trump has a strikingly competent lawyer in place as his AG. Bill Barr has been proving his worth every day since he arrived at the Justice Department. • • • THE ATTACK BEGAN ROUTINELY WITH BARR'S MAY 1 SENATE TESTIMONY. The ProgDems and anti-Trump media began their attack on the credibility of AG Barr with left jabs. Fox News legal guru -- obviously anti-Trump from the beginning -- began the jabbing by saying that the Mueller report demonstrates clear obstruction of justice from President Donald Trump. Napolitano was quickly counter-punched by both Alan Dershowitz and Senator Lindsey Graham, who said : “I like Judge Napolitano, but he’s completely 100 percent wrong.” Senator Graham said not only is there no underlying crime, but that the White House cooperated with all the requests from the Mueller office : “Name one event that Donald Trump engaged in that impeded the Mueller investigation.” President Trump delivered the knock-out blow in a tweet : "Thank you to brilliant and highly respected attorney Alan Dershowitz for destroying the very dumb legal argument of 'Judge' Andrew Napolitano....Ever since Andrew came to my office to ask that I appoint him to the US Supreme Court, and I said NO, he has been very hostile! Also asked for pardon for his friend. A good 'pal' of low ratings Shepard Smith." • With the May 1 appearance of Attorney General Barr before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the ProgDem / anti-Trump attackers abandoned the Mueller report -- they had to realize, even in their irrational state, that they had lost that possible route to trapping and impeaching the President. On May 1, they turned their attention to Attorney General Barr. • In the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the jabs continued. Senator Mazie Hirono, Hawaii's dull-witted Democrat, Hirono ranted at Barr, accusing the attorney general of going out of his way to defend President Trump in his summary of the Mueller report. Hirono followed the Democrat line, objecting to Barr releasing a redacted version of the report and releasing his own summary of the findings as opposed to putting out the summaries written by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller : “From the beginning, you were addressing an audience of one : Donald Trump....You should resign.” BizPAc Review reported Hirono's questioning this way : "Hirono then launched into a bizarre line of questioning where she asked Barr not about any sort of potential criminal behavior by the President, but rather whether he thought it was 'ok' that the President acted in the way he was accused of in the Mueller report. Struggling to answer the biased questions, Barr and Hirono were cut off at one point by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). 'You have slandered this man from top to bottom,' Graham said multiple times to Hirono. The Senator said he would not allow Hirono to ask Barr politically motivated questions that insinuated guilt of any kind on Barr’s part. Graham had previously had a fiery moment during the hearing when he dropped the “f” word. In his opening statement, Graham read texts read texts between disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok and his lover, bureau attorney Lisa Page, in an attempt to show the bias central to the Mueller investigation. 'Just went to the Southern Virginia Walmart, I could smell the Trump support,' read one text. 'Trump is a f*cking idiot, is unable to provide a coherent answer,' read another. Graham then apologized for repeating the profanity. 'Sorry to the kids out there,' the Senator said. Graham later added, 'These are the people who made the decision that Clinton didn’t do anything wrong and a counter-intelligence investigation of the Trump campaign was warranted.' " • Senator Kamala Harris, the California Democrat presidential wannabe, began by asking Barr multiple times if President Trump or anyone at the White House had asked him to open investigations into anyone specific. BizPAc Review quoted the exchange : “ 'Has the President or anyone at the White House asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone?' asked Harris. After struggling with the question, Barr asked if she could repeat it. 'I will repeat it,' she said. 'Has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone, yes or no, please, sir?' As Barr continued struggling with the wording of the question, Harris said, 'Seems you would remember something like that and tell us.' 'But I’m trying to grapple with the word suggest,' Barr quickly replied. 'There have been discussions of matters out there but they have not asked me to open an investigation.' " Fox News noted that : "Harris later strangely questioned why Barr accepted Mueller’s report as fact and did not 'question the underlying evidence' himself. 'We accepted the statements in the report and the characterization of the evidence as true,' Barr said at one point. Harris then tried her best for a 'gotcha' question, but Barr wasn’t having it. The Senator asked Barr how he could say he believes the President to be innocent of obstruction of justice when he did not review the 'underlying evidence' of the Mueller report. 'This is not a mysterious process,' Barr said. He then tried to explain that when a report is done on a criminal investigation, you 'try to accept the characterization of the evidence as true.' Barr went on to try to break down how an investigation works for Harris, but she seemed to put up a brick wall between her and Barr every single time the attorney general opened his mouth. 'I think you’ve made it clear you’ve not looked at the evidence. We can move on,' Harris said. Changing gears, Harris then tried to say Barr has a 'clear bias' and 'conflict of interest' in any investigations into the administration going forward. 'Well, you know, I haven’t been the only decision maker here,' Barr fired back. The attorney general went on to say plenty of 'senior prosecutors' were involved in the process and they 'all agreed' on the final outcome of the Mueller investigation and the decision to not charge the President." • • • PELOSI TRIED TO MAKE UP FOR THE SENATE DEMOCRAT FAILURE TO TRAP BARR. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi actually accused Attorney General Barr of committing a "crime" by what she characterized as "not telling the truth to Congress." • Senator Lindsey Graham was ready for Pelosi; telling her to apologize to Attorney General William Barr for calling him a liar. Following Pelosi's comments in regard to Barr's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman Graham said she was wrong : "...it's an offensive statement. I think she should apologize to the attorney general, or be specific as to how he lied." USA Today posted a clip of Graham's comments : "I think his testimony regarding his interaction with Mr. Mueller about the letter, I believe it. You can almost send a letter to Mr. Mueller, asking him if he takes issue with anything that Mr. [Barr] said about the phone call they had. So, I just think it's over the top. I think it says more about her than it does about Bill Barr. I don't believe he lied one bit....I think what Mr. Barr went through [Wednesday] was unseemly and unnecessary. He did not misrepresent one word of the report. The findings by Mr. Mueller are what Mr. Barr said they were, and if you don't believe me, read the report." • The Justice Department also criticized Speaker Pelosi. TheHill reported that Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said : "Speaker Pelosi's baseless attack on the Attorney General is reckless, irresponsible, and false." • • • IT'S DONE, SAYS THE PRESIDENT. Newsmax reported on Thursday that : "President Donald Trump said on Thursday he did not believe he would allow former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify to committees in Congress, saying McGahn had already spoken to the special counsel on the Russia probe. 'I would say it's done,' Trump told Fox News. 'I've had him testifying already for 30 hours,' Trump said, referring to McGahn's testimony to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team. Trump said allowing McGahn to testify would open the gates for others to be called. He made it clear that he does not plan to cooperate with congressional investigations after allowing many aides to speak to Mueller’s team and providing his investigators with thousands of documents. 'Nobody has ever done what I’ve done. I’ve given total transparency,' Trump said. 'They shouldn’t be looking anymore. This is all -- it’s done.” • Newsmax also reported the President's comment on the Mueller's probe : " 'Even my finances, it must have been looked at -- for $35 million, I assume they looked at my taxes, I assume Mueller looked at my financial statements,' Trump told Fox News. 'For $35 million, and having 20 people, 49 FBI agents, and all of the staff and all of the money they spent, I assume they looked at my taxes, which are fine -- except they are under audit, by the way.' " • Concerning AG Barr's refusal to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, President Trump told Fox News's Catherine Herridge that Attorney General Bill Barr made the right call in deciding not to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. House Democrats had insisted that committee counsel, rather than members of Congress, question Barr. "It's not up to me, it’s up to him," Trump said, referring to Barr's decision not to show up. "And they were going to treat him differently than they’ve treated other people. And of course we’ve been treated differently to start off with. We’ve gone through so many investigations, everybody. And it’s so ridiculous. No obstruction, no nothing -- there’s been no nothing. There’s been no collusion, there never was, they knew that from day one." • Taking another approach to getting a second investigation of the Trump campaign, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler threatened to hold Barr in contempt of Congress if he does not provide a full, unredacted copy of Mueller's report and the underlying evidence, as the panel has requested by a subpoena that had a Wednesday deadline. That could potentially lead to legal steps against the top US law enforcement official. Barr released Mueller's report on April 18, with some parts blacked out to protect sensitive information. [NOTE : AG Barr offered to let key congressional committees read an essentially unredacted full Mueller report, but this far, Democrats have refused the offer.] • According to Fox News, White House legal counsel Emmet Flood said in a letter that President Trump had the right to tell advisors not to testify to congressional panels on the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia inquiry. Flood reiterated President Trump's point to Fox -- that the probe is "done" -- in a letter seen by Reuters, saying Trump's decision to let advisors cooperate when Mueller was conducting his investigation did not extend to congressional oversight investigations now that the inquiry had been completed. Flood also said Mueller's 448-page report suffered from "an extraordinary legal defect" by failing to determine whether Trump had committed the crime of obstruction of justice. • Liberty Headlines wrote on Friday that : "Flood accused Robert Mueller of failing to follow the regulations creating his post and said the special counsel’s report has an “extraordinary legal defect,” in a letter sent to Attorney General William Barr the day after the document’s public release. In the newly disclosed letter dated April 19, Flood scoffed at Mueller’s work as 'part ‘truth commission’ report and part law school exam paper.' He accused the special counsel of writing it with the intent of providing Congress with a 'road map' to take action against the President on obstruction of justice, which Flood called an improper use of Mueller’s position....While a redacted version of Mueller’s full report was already public at the time of the letter, Flood said he was writing the attorney general to record his concerns so Mueller’s report doesn’t set a precedent for future presidents. Flood wrote that Trump wants it known that his decision to allow the release of material in Mueller’s report concerning his time in office doesn’t mean he’s waiving his right to assert privilege in the future for other material, the underlying evidence Mueller collected or for his current or former White House aides to appear before congressional committees. 'We’re fighting all the subpoenas,' Trump told reporters on April 24. 'Look, these aren’t like impartial people,' he said of Democratic lawmakers....[Barr in his Senate testimony] also portrayed Trump as a victim dogged 'by two years of allegations -- by allegations that have now been proven false.' " • • • GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS ADDS IMPORTANCE TO BARR'S "SPYING" STATEMENT. The Washington Times reported on Thursday that : "The FBI used a female informant to try to pry information from a Trump campaign advisor during the 2016 election season, the New York Times reported Thursday, fueling allegations that the Obama administration spied on a political opponent. The woman was deployed to meet with George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the campaign, at a London bar as part of the FBI’s investigation into suspected coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, the newspaper reported. 'There is a word for this in the English language : spying,' said Brad Parscale, President Trump’s campaign manager for the upcoming election. 'For two years, Democrats and their allies in the media have lied to the American people about the Russia collusion hoax, when all along the real scandal was the Obama administration using the Justice Department to spy on a political adversary’s campaign.' Mr. Papadopoulos said Thursday that he is not sure the woman, who gave her name as 'Azra Turk,' was working for the FBI. He figures she was more likely with the CIA, which he said was probably working with Turkish intelligence. He said Ms. Turk’s name, her attractiveness and her poor command of English convinced him she wasn’t the research assistant she claimed to be. 'She was CIA and affiliated with Turkish intel,' he said in a message on Twitter. On Thursday, Papadopoulos told Fox News : "As someone who has worked a lot in the Middle East and Southern Europe on policy issues and energy issues, as I was heavily involved in from 2011-2017, I would notice odd behavior of people I later learned were agents." When asked when he learned Turk was an agent, Papadopoulos replied: "I always had suspicions but the moment Halper was outed a year ago, I knew she was, too." Also on Thursday, Papadopolous tweeted : "@GeorgePapa19 I will make the job easy for America’s reporters. The US/Turkish/Australian/UK intel agencies who targeted me knew I had NO RUSSIA contacts. They were after my work on the east med pipeline that they all wanted to stop. Unfortunately for them, the project was implemented in 2017." • Fox News reported on Thursday that : "In 2014, Papadopoulos, who was involved in energy lobbying, wrote an article asserting that Israel should export natural gas through Cyprus to Europe, and charged that using a pipeline through Turkey was an idea 'bereft of the political realities in the region and does not take into account the potentially devastating impact this option can have on Israel’s strategic relations with EU member Cyprus, and by extension, all of Europe.' Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements in January 2017 to FBI agents concerning his contacts with Russia-linked European professor Joseph Mifsud, and was arrested at Dulles airport that July. In his guilty plea, Papadopoulos acknowledged that in April 2016, Mifsud said Russia had 'dirt' on Trump's presidential-race rival, Hillary Clinton -- several months before emails began leaking from her campaign as part of what authorities call a Russia-led hacking operation. It has long been suggested – in court documents filed by Mueller’s team, by Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the media – that Mifsud was connected to Russian intelligence, though others insist that he more closely associated with Western governments and their intelligence agencies. Mueller's report specifically noted that Papadopoulos was investigated as a potential foreign agent of Israel. 'While the investigation revealed significant ties between Papadopoulos and Israel (and search warrants were obtained in part on that basis), the Office ultimately determined that the evidence was not sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction,' Mueller's team wrote. 'I was actually really impressed and quite frankly shocked that Bob Mueller told the truth about why I was illicitly targeted and it really had nothing to do with Russia,' Papadopoulos told Fox News. 'It had to do with my ties to Israel.' " • The informant operation against Papadopoulos provided no useful information to US intelligence, the NYT reported. Special counsel Robert Mueller's report indicated that operation began after Papadopoulos told an Australian official of "indications from the Russian government that it could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to candidate Clinton." On Twitter, Papadopoulos speculated on an “Obama WH/CIA/FBI” plot, saying “the ultimate goal was to overthrow Trump.” The Washington Times says Papadopoulos was in London at the invitation of Stefan Halper, a Cambridge University professor who was also acting on behalf of the FBI to try to glean information from Papadopoulos, who attracted US investigators’ interest after reportedly telling an Australian diplomat that he learned Russia had compromising information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The day after Azra Turk tried to talk to him at the bar, she and Halper met at what Papadopolous told congressional investigators was “some diplomatic hangout” in London. Their attempts failed to glean any useful information, but Papadopoulos said he sensed things were off : "She never explicitly said, ‘I will sleep with you for this,’ but her mannerisms and her behavior suggested that she was flirtatious, and she was very open to something like that if I ended up providing what she wanted, whatever that was,” he told the House Judiciary Committee in closed-door testimony in October. Papadopoulos told Fox News that he saw Turk three times in London : once over drinks, another over dinner, and then once with Stefan Halper, the Cambridge professor who has been a longtime FBI informant. The Times noted that Turk had apparently been sent to oversee Halper, and possibly to provide cover for Halper in the event Turk needed to testify. • The Washington Times says : "Attorney General William P. Barr has said he is reviewing decisions made by the FBI and the Justice Department during the 2016 campaign. Those include relying on the largely discredited Steele Dossier, a document compiled by a former British spy using information apparently gleaned from Russian sources, to justify a surveillance warrant on Carter Page, another Trump campaign figure. AG Barr said those efforts prove the Obama administration was "spying" on the Trump campaign. He said the question is whether the spying was legal and warranted. Special counsel Mueller found that while both Russia and the Trump campaign believed they would benefit from an election loss by Clinton, there was no basis to conclude that they systematically coordinated their efforts. Democrats have refused to accept those findings as the last word." Senator Feinstein told AG Barr at Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing : “The report outlined substantial evidence that the Trump campaign welcomed, encouraged and expected to benefit electorally from Russia’s interference in the election.” There is very simply NO EVIDENCE to support Feinsteins's assertion. • • • McCONNELL TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE DEMOCRAT BARR FRENZY. BizPac Review reported on Friday that : "While Representative Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., was wiping the chicken grease from his fingers, as part of a stunt he pulled to the delight of the [Democrat] Party’s media allies, portraying Barr as a coward for not agreeing to Democrats trying to change the rules on who can ask him questions, McConnell showed them what winning was all about. For starters, McConnell said Thursday the GOP-controlled Senate will not take up a House bill that would force Trump to keep the US in the Paris climate agreement, as reported by The Hill. 'This futile gesture to handcuff the US economy through the ill-fated Paris deal will go nowhere here in the Senate,' McConnell declared. 'We’re in the business of actually helping middle-class families, not inventing new obstacles to throw in their paths.'....Just as important, if not more so, the Senate confirmed the President’s 100th judicial nominee on Thursday, as they continue to establish balance in the federal judiciary. With two others that followed, to date, Trump has appointed 102 judges to the federal bench -- to include 63 trial judges, 37 appeals judges and two Supreme Court justices. This 'incredible milestone' comes as the Senate sets historic records for appeals court confirmations, threatening to flip two appellate courts to majority Republican control by the end of 2019. All while Senate Democrats do all they can to slow the pace, using the full 30 hours of debate time for judicial nominees. One thing is certain, while Democrats pull of stunts and engage in political theater to chase narratives, social media users noticed all the winning going on across the aisle." • • • DEAR READERS, American Thinker had a lot to say on Friday about the Democrat frenzy over Attorney General Bill Barr. Thomas Lifson wrote : "Democrats and their media lackeys are going all out to assassinate the character of AG Barr, fanning the flames of hysteria. Anna Stark is correct that "The Democrats are worried. They should be," and because the attorney general has vowed to investigate the origins of spying on a presidential campaign and then a president, they desperately want to discredit him. Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal has an excellent take : 'The only thing uglier than an angry Washington is a fearful Washington. And fear is what's driving this week's blitzkrieg of Attorney General William Barr....Do not underestimate how many powerful people in Washington have something to lose from Mr. Barr's probe. Among them: Former and current leaders of the law-enforcement and intelligence communities. The Democratic Party pooh-bahs who paid a foreign national (Mr. Steele) to collect information from Russians and deliver it to the FBI. The government officials who misused their positions to target a presidential campaign. The leakers. The media. More than reputations are at risk. Revelations could lead to lawsuits, formal disciplinary actions, lost jobs, even criminal prosecution. The attacks on Mr. Barr are first and foremost an effort to force him out, to prevent this information from coming to light until Democrats can retake the White House in 2020. As a fallback, the coordinated campaign works as a pre-emptive smear, diminishing the credibility of his ultimate findings by priming the public to view him as a partisan.'....Natasha Bertrand at Politico last month penned a hit piece on the respected Mr. Horowitz. It's clear the inspector general is asking the right questions. The Politico article acknowledges he's homing in on Mr. Steele's 'credibility' and the Dossier's 'veracity' -- then goes on to provide a defense of Mr. Steele and his Dossier, while quoting unnamed sources who deride the 'quality' of the Horowitz probe, and (hilariously) claim the long-tenured inspector general is not 'well-versed' in core Justice Department functions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday made a bogus claim that AG Barr lied to Congress. Even the anti-Trump Washington Post debunks the idea that perjury is at issue in his testimony. But that has not stopped the propagandists, who realize that most of the public will not soberly look at the case....To understand the case being made to low-information voters, nobody is better than comedian Caryn Jackson, who culturally appropriated a Jewish name, Whoopi Goldberg. Yesterday, on The View, addressing an audience primarily made up of women who are at home and watching daytime TV, Jackson claimed that Barr is lying for Trump and, projecting exactly what the Democrats attempted, that there is a coup underway. The basic problem that the Dems have now is that the storyline has become simple and direct : Obama administration officials used the FBI, the NSA, the CIA, and other national security organs to spy on a rival campaign and then undermine an elected president. They desperately want their followers to ignore the evidence that is on its way." • And, American Thinker's Robert Turner wrote on Friday : "Attorney General William Barr, in keeping with commitments made during the confirmation process and in an effort to quickly answer questions in which the public had a profound interest, provided within days of its receipt a synopsis of conclusions reached in the report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Mueller Report was issued following a lengthy investigation into charges that President Donald Trump or associates were involved in criminal collusion or obstruction of justice relative to dealings with certain Russians in an effort to illegally influence a US election. Quoting extensively from Mueller's conclusions, Barr's synopsis explained that there was insufficient evidence to determine that laws had been broken or that conditions necessary to prove obstruction of justice had been met. Within three weeks, Barr had further provided a redacted copy of the Mueller Report for public consumption and a less redacted report for the appropriate congressional committees. The information provided and conclusions found in the redacted report, while not what Democrats or their media co-conspirators had anticipated, conclusively demonstrated the integrity of the initial four-page synopsis for which Mr. Barr had been severely criticized....the spotlight now turns toward a number of investigations that may reveal a far-reaching scandal like no other in US history. Beginning before and continuing long after the 2016 presidential election, it seems likely that crimes of a preferred presidential candidate were overlooked while the campaign of the candidate in disfavor was spied upon without cause and accused of criminal behavior without evidence. It appears that US and foreign intelligence services were politicized to first prevent the election of and then destroy a fairly elected President of the United States. It appears that multiple federal law officials lied to the FISA court to initiate unwarranted spying on American citizens, and it further appears that numerous government officials lied both to law enforcement and to the Congress to cover up crimes and obstruct justice. With the appointment of Attorney General Barr and the conclusion of the Mueller investigation, a page has clearly been turned at the Department of Justice. The inspector general is concluding an investigation into possible abuse of the FISA court and the actions of former FBI director James (higher loyalty) Comey. US attorney John Huber should be concluding his investigation into the FISA request to surveil Carter Page and whether the DOJ and FBI ignored allegations of Hillary Clinton's involvement in the sale of US uranium rights to Uranium One. Attorney General Barr himself has initiated investigations into the underlying evidence presented for spying on a presidential campaign, leaks of classified information, and related crimes. It seems clear that crimes have been committed. It is hard to imagine that there will not be indictments, trials, and convictions (perhaps many convictions). One has to wonder, however, what punishments exacted following convictions for various criminal acts can possibly be commensurate with the damage caused our nation through divisiveness, distrust, and literal hate created or intensified by the ordeal to which it has been subjected....One thing was made abundantly clear by Democrats on the Judiciary Committee: since the President has been cleared of the essential charge, criminal collusion, and is likely immune from further Democrat efforts to destroy him, William Barr has taken Trump's place at the top of the Democrat hit list. It was absolutely necessary that Hillary Clinton be elected president in 2016. It was essential that Clinton control the levers of power to cover up the illegal machinations of the Obama administration. But she lost. Her electoral failure made necessary the destruction of President Trump. Impeachment was the goal, with irreparable disruption of his effectiveness as an alternative. While Trump's enemies came close to success, this also seems to have failed." • I cannot say it better than Robert Turner does : " The clear and present danger now is the unassailable William Barr. All of those things that must remain hidden -- all of the dirty tricks, all of the leaks, all of the criminality -- all is at risk because of William Barr. The Democrats and their sycophants in the media will be vicious in their efforts to destroy him. We have seen evidence of this since the day he released his synopsis of the Mueller Report. It will only grow worse. William Barr, even more than President Trump, may be the most important man in America at this moment in time. His integrity, strength of character, belief in America, and belief in the rule of law are what stand in the breach between the destruction of America as we have known it and its defense and restoration. Never before in my lifetime has our nation or our attorney general faced a greater internal peril than today. If ever an attorney general needed our prayers, that time is now; that attorney general is William Barr." • I can only add -- Yes, pray for Bill Barr. And pray for the President he is determined to protect from the Deep State Democrat cabal.