Donald Trump is on the verge of being impeached for shaking down a foreign power for political dirt, but that isn’t stopping his attorney general from actively pressuring American allies in similarly disturbing shakedowns.
As former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum pointed out on Tuesday, Barr “is putting pressure on allied governments … to join him in fabricating accounts disparaging their own people, their own diplomats, their own intelligence services, to confect a story whereby Donald Trump is the victim of the investigation into his connections to Russia.”
In other words, Barr – at the direction of Trump – is pressuring foreign powers to throw their own intelligence communities under the bus in order to confirm Trump’s already-debunked conspiracy theories.
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Former Bush speechwriter David Frum reveals what he believes is the most disturbing thing attorney general Bill Barr is doing to protect Trump. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/LxEG4VKdpA
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) December 4, 2019
Frum said:
Because Trump doesn’t care about any of the policy stuff, he cares about the crazy stuff. Probably the most disturbing thing that Barr is up to is this crazy investigation he is doing, which is also in its own way a replay of the Ukraine problem because he is putting pressure on allied governments, not only Italy but also Australia and others, to join him in fabricating accounts disparaging their own people, their own diplomats, their own intelligence services, to confect a story whereby Donald Trump is the victim of the investigation into his connections to Russia rather than, as we all know, the perpetrator.
Barr’s own IG report debunks Trump’s conspiracy theories
The globetrotting attorney general is jetting around the globe trying to build a case to back up the president’s conspiracy theories, but Barr’s own inspector general report has concluded that there was, in fact, sufficient evidence to investigate the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped Barr, who sees himself as Trump’s personal henchman, not as the nation’s top law enforcement leader.
Instead of accepting his own Justice Department’s IG report, Barr is trashing it and continuing his bogus efforts to coax U.S. allies into backing up the president’s debunked conspiracy theories.
With the nation’s attention fixed on the Ukraine scandal, it’s easy to forget that Bill Barr – as we speak – is running similar pressure campaigns all around the globe.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.