THE LETTER OF THE LAW

Good attorneys quickly learn to never ask a question to which they do not know the answer. Few would accuse Jerrold Nadler of being a good attorney. As far as I can tell, he never actually practiced law at all. The attached letter to Nadler from Attorney General William Barr is devastating for Democrats and it demolishes the so-called impeachment hearings before they begin. Nadler ASKED Barr for information which he probably now regrets receiving:

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6145811/2019-6-10-DOJ-Review-of-Intelligence-Activities.pdf

The only real question is whether Nadler is bright enough to realize he is in serious trouble.

The letter says that: “It is now well established that, in 2016, the U.S. government and others undertook certain intelligence-gathering and investigative steps directed at persons associated with the Trump campaign.”

What is not established is whether or not these activities were justified. We already know that the Mueller investigation found zero evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. If there is no evidence now, there was no evidence then.

Barr said his investigation includes a “collaborative, ongoing effort between the Departments’s Review Team and the intelligence community as well as certain foreign actors.

He has assigned this to John Durham:

“The Review is being conducted primarily in the Washington, D.C. area by Mr. Durham and a number of U.S. Attorney’s office personal and other Department employees. The Department has made existing office space in Washington available for this work. Mr. Durham’s Review will be funded out of the U.S. Attorney’s Salaries and Expenses appropriation.”

In the meantime, Nadler is embarrassing himself by calling John Dean who was publicly humiliated by the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. These hearings are a joke. They have zero evidence, since everything is already published in the Mueller report. They can neither add to nor detract from that. They have less than nothing and they don’t have enough resources to investigate anything.

In the meantime, John Durham has a staff of U.S. Attorney’s office personal at his beck and call. The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) is there to prosecute criminal cases on behalf of the United States government. It is not there to make political points.  It is not investigating Donald Trump. It is not investigating any of his associates. It is investigating the people who ordered the investigation of Donald Trump and his campaign.

The only question is whether there is some justification for doing this. Since there is zero evidence that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, or anyone else, there is unlikely to be such justification. Think about this. A lot of people are still harping about the totally discredited Russia Dossier. There is a reason for that. They apparently have nothing else.

When you combine this with the bone chilling comment that this is a collaborative effort between our intelligence community and “foreign actors” this is a very serious investigation. Add in the fact that he is including activities by civilians (Hillary Clinton was a civilian in 2016) and this becomes even more significant.

We are very close on this. It sure looks like Barr is setting the stage for indictments. Barr would never has disclosed this information unless he already had almost everything he needed. Think about any TV show you have watched about law enforcement. When they show up with a search warrant, the end is near.

The DOJ almost never comments on an ongoing investigation. Perhaps Barr did so this time because he wanted to send a message. Part of that message is to let people know that the window to “let’s make a deal” is closing rapidly. Those people not already singing like canaries are probably seeking legal counsel with voice coach training.

There is always the potential that this will all end with nothing. That has certainly happened many times before. But, there is increasing evidence that this is headed in a different direction. Here are some clues with regard to what is really happening. Watch for people who start screaming loud accusations about anyone and everyone other than themselves. That may signal a desperate attempt to change the subject. Then watch for these same people to suddenly go strangely silent. That often results after competent legal counsel has warned them to shut up. They say it is often darkest just before dawn. When people are in serious legal jeopardy, it is often most silent when they are sitting at home, terrified, waiting for a very big legal hammer to drop.

TDM