Oh Noes: Barr Is PERSONALLY Asking Foreign Nations To Aid Investigation Of Russia Collusion Origins

Sarah Lee reporting for RedState

If there’s one thing Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president has guaranteed us it’s a new freakout from left-leaners over pretty much…well…anything it would seem. And at a pace of one new scandalous scandal every few hours.

The newest one came late Monday and attempted to extrapolate mischief from what we already know is the Trump administration’s efforts to solicit help from foreign nations in the DOJ’s investigation into how the Russia collusion investigation began.

Only now, the scandal is personal. Because Barr, according to the Washington Post, is personally directing it.

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.

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.

…

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.

Barr has reportedly flown to Italy with U.S. Attorney John Durham, who heads up the investigation, to make introductions, and we know Trump has talked personally with both Ukrainian and Australian leaders. Apparently Democrats think this is Barr acting on behalf of the executive office and endangering the independence of the DOJ.

Which is absolutely gut-busting hilarious coming from a party that had zero problem with an administration weaponizing the IRS to target conservatives (among other things), and now is alleged to have used the DOJ in a counterintelligence opposition research scheme to take down Trump.

It’s even funnier coming from a media that looked the other way for 8 years while all that was going on.

WaPo helpfully gives us a hint of what Democrats are going to be using to try to make these personal introductions to Durham — which is what the DOJ has said Barr is doing — a scandal.

An executive order governing U.S. intelligence activities states that no intelligence agency “shall participate in or request any person to undertake activities forbidden” by the order, which was issued in 1981.

So look for more mention of that mysterious order in coming news reports.

But I’d be willing to bet Barr, who has spent a great deal of his career in the intelligence community, is aware of that order and isn’t going to be violating it.

Ultimately, with this current Democratic party doing everything they can to subvert the investigation into Russia collusion, that won’t matter much. They’ll still try. Proving any violation, however, will be — as it has been for the last three years — their undoing.

Closing thought:

If the Obama Admin + it’s Frankenstein intelligence apparatus + Hillary Clinton hadn’t involved foreign governments to dig up dirt & spy on @realDonaldTrump then our Attorney General wouldn’t have to ask foreign countries to cooperate in an investigation about their wrongdoing.

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 1, 2019