He seems the sort who will follow the law wherever it leads him without worrying over the consequences
By Victor Davis Hanson
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. He came into the office with singular experience and an excellent reputation from past service. As Attorney General he has followed the law to the letter in handling the release redactions and dissemination of the Mueller Report.
So the current progressive effort to demonize Attorney General William Barr is creepy but then again not so strange.
His summaries of the report proved factual. They were not contested by Robert Mueller or his team. His decision not to pursue obstruction" was not just his own but logically followed from the Mueller report that did not find enough evidence to make such a positive recommendation.
His congressional testimony that there was spying" during the 2016 campaign is of course factually undeniable and Barr added the qualifier of being interested in finding whether such surveillance was warranted or not.
As for the charge that Barr a former Bush appointee is Trumps hand-picked" choice how odd given that all attorney generals are presidents hand-picked selections. How could they not be?
It is not as if Barr:
- Has referenced himself in Eric Holders partisan fashion as Trumps wing-man."
- Nor has he ordered surveillance on for example a Fox News reporter or
- Had the communication records of 20 Associated Press journalists seized as happened during the Obama administration in efforts to stop leaks of unwelcome news stories.
- Nor has he been held in contempt of Congress for failure to turn over subpoenaed documents under the cover of a presidential order of executive privilege.
There is no suggestion that Barr has abused the perquisites of the office for example by using a government jet to go to the horse races with his family. He has avoided controversial value judgments about the nature of the American people and polarizing rhetoric.
So more likely the effort to delegitimize the professional Barr is the opening preemptory salvo in the second and quite different round of investigations.
Soon Mr. Barr will be tasked with collating and adjudicating criminal referrals and arguments for indictments coming variously from Inspector General Michael Horowitz possibly special counsel John Huber Devin Nunes the ranking Republican and former chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and perhaps later even from Lindsey Graham Chair of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary along with any conclusions arising from federal attorneys within the Justice Department itself.
In toto these sources may variously present evidence to Barr on matters of lying to federal investigators perjury obstruction of justice conspiracy and abuse of government surveillance and the charges could in ironic fashion involve top-ranking former administrative state investigators during the Obama Administration who for the last two years have been quite prominent as cable news analysts and in their memoirs at least as self-described ethicists.
Add that there will be a completely different sort of news cycle as it intensifies in approach of the 2020 Election.
In such investigations no one has any idea what possible defendants may do or say to federal prosecutors in efforts to lessen their own criminal exposure.
In sum the progressives preventative efforts to destroy Barrs reputation take on a certain sort of sick partisan logic especially as he is neither the sort to recuse himself during cycles of journalistic hysteria nor to appoint a special counsel after the ill-starred odyssey of the Mueller all-stars and dream team. Given his age past tenures reputation and professional demeanor Barr does not seem to be much worried over transient unpopularity partisan criticism political pressure or making tough decisions that might adversely affect his future career.
So the fear is not that Barr broke or will ever break the law but rather just the opposite: He seems the sort who will follow the law wherever it leads him and without worry over the consequences.
That reality is now apparently seen by some as quite scary indeed.
Victor Davis Hanson is currently the Martin & Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush.
