Cake and Emoluments

Barring Barr:  More than 1100 former Justice Department  prosecutors and officials who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations are now calling for Attorney General Barr to step down.  Apparently they aren’t buying Barr’s complaint about Trump’s incessant tweeting making it impossible for him to do his job because they, like most of the rest of us, have figured out that Barr is only upset about the tweeting not about helping Trump chip away at justice nor about undermining the conclusions of the Russia investigation.  To that end, we learned over the weekend that in addition to requesting a lighter sentence for Trump’s long term crony Roger Stone, the self-professed political dirty trickster who was convicted for lying about conversations he had with Trump about WikiLeaks, Barr was also behind the recommendation that former national security advisor Michael Flynn receive the lightest sentence possible.  Additionally, it was also revealed that Barr has now “tasked” Jeffrey Jensen, the US Attorney from St Louis, to reexamine the political motives behind several of the Justice Department’s high profile cases, including most notably the Flynn case.  Apparently investigating anything and everything to do with the Russia investigation is all the rage in Barr’s Justice Department.  Late Friday we also learned that despite Barr’s best efforts to make Trump happy, the Justice Department has finally given up on trying to convict former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe for his “lack of candor.” To be clear, Barr and company tried hard to indict McCabe, they just couldn’t get a grand jury willing to go along with them; it’s fair to assume that the reason that we and McCabe are learning about all this now has a lot to do with Barr trying to make it seem like he doesn’t always do what Trump wants him to do. Note to Barr – no one’s buying it, least of all Trump who is apparently furious that he can’t seem to get McCabe thrown into a prison cell.  

Though neither Barr nor Trump care much about that letter asking for Barr’s resignation, nor about the outrage being expressed by various Democratic politicians and some newspapers like the Boston Globe whose editorial “Barr Must Go” says it all, they probably aren’t all that pleased that the letter also calls for current staff at the Justice Department to report any and all wrong doings to their inspector general, or at least to the inspector general while he is still employed.  It’s not a stretch to assume that the very enraged and emboldened post impeachment Trump will fire the guy as soon as he gets an opening to do so.  Keep an eye on Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy too, his days could be numbered as late last week he said that he has no plans to investigate either of the Vindman twins despite Trump’s insistence that they should be punished for Alexander’s truth telling.  In addition, neither Trump nor Barr can be all that pleased that while Barr has established a special channel for Rudy Giuliani to provide him with dubious “evidence” about the Biden’s Ukraine “corruption,” the US attorneys in the Southern District of New York are ramping up their investigation into Giuliani’s not so legal shenanigans. Despite its well-earned reputation for acting like an independent “sovereign state” the SDNY reports to Barr, so at some point their efforts could lead to some very public fireworks.  As to the Roger Stone case, his lawyers are now requesting a new trial, citing a juror’s history of anti-Trump sentiment as proof that Stone’s trial was unfair.  Presiding Judge Amy Jackson Berman doesn’t appear all that amused by that or about last week’s dueling sentencing memos so she’s now scheduled an emergency all hands on deck conference call for tomorrow to get to the bottom of the mess. 

Food Fight:  The circular firing squad also known as the Democratic primary continues.  Everyone is going after billionaire former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, dredging up anything and everything he’s ever said about race and women and since he said a lot of things he probably shouldn’t have, there’s a lot there to unpack.  The crowd is also going after each other.  Neither Amy Klobuchar nor Tom Steyer, that other rich guy who seems to be gaining some traction with voters in South Carolina, could name the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during an interview with Telemundo, an embarrassing gaffe, especially for Klobuchar who really should’ve been able to answer that softball question.  Pete Buttigieg, who could because he seems to know everything and Spanish is one of his zillion languages, jumped on that but focused more on attacking the economics of Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All health plan and on beating back that icon of probity Rush Limbaugh’s slimy comments about his relationship with his husband.  As to Bernie, a very chagrined Joe Biden called on him to condemn the “vicious, malicious, misogynistic” rhetoric coming from some of his supporters and to do more to stamp it out, after some of Bernie’s supporters personally attacked the leaders of the Culinary Workers Union for their disdain for Medicare for All.   And so it goes.

Et Cetera:  Trump is once again seeking to redirect billions of dollars allocated to the military, including $1.5 billion originally allocated for buying equipment for National Guard and Reserve units, such as trucks, generators and spare parts, as well as fighter jets and ships, to wall funding which begs the question, why does Congress keep increasing military funding if Trump believes that the money isn’t really needed for military expenditures? Maybe a focus on things like pandemics would be more helpful right about now or climate concerns or really needed infrastructure? Trump continues to rely on his excuse that there is an “emergency” at the border, when the only emergency is that he needs to show more “wall” progress in the run up to the election.  For his part Trump had a very busy day yesterday, in addition to his usual hate tweeting, he took a lap at the Daytona 500, leaving before the race started to get back to Washington to attend Stephen Miller’s wedding, yes that Stephen Miller, at, where else, the Trump International Hotel. Cake and emoluments for some.