Attorney General Bill Barr first proved his value to President Donald Trump by pre-spinning the Mueller report to falsely "exonerate" his White House patron of collusion and obstruction.
Weeks after, calling for a review of the Russia probe's origins, Trump gave Barr broad powers to declassify intelligence documents and question various members of the intelligence community, powers Barr proceeded to run with.
Last week the errand boy delivered his biggest favor yet: That Justice Department review reportedly blossomed into a full-on criminal probe; targets for questioning may include former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and ex-CIA director John Brennan, both fierce Trump critics.
We have no objection to a periodic, good-faith review of America's intelligence and federal law-enforcement agencies and actors, given their sometimes dark history. But there's no reason to believe a Barr-initiated investigation will be in good faith.
In his July 25 call, Trump repeatedly urged Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to reach out to Barr and Rudy Giuliani to orchestrate politically motivated investigations. Separately, Barr's DOJ dismissed a CIA official's criminal campaign finance charge referral arising from the Zelensky arm-twisting and tried to block the whistleblower's complaint from getting to Congress.
His business cards say U.S. attorney general. He's actually Trump's hatchet man.
