Trump Angry at Barr: Investigations Not Proving What Trump Wants Them to Prove

 

Loser & Lost: If Barr had Any Dignity He Would Resign

Bash's “Unmasking” Investigation Done: Nothing Burger

(Man in the Middle (Durham) Report Pending)

Washington (CNN) — U.S. attorney John Bash that AG Barr tasked to review instances of “unmasking around the 2016 election has completed his probe without bringing any charges” those familiar with that matter told The Washington Post. Related is Barr’s history of the Bash investigation is here, and further reported on here, and updated here.

In this final report, Bash found no evidence of substantive wrongdoing in his investigation, which has concluded without a public report. Bash left his role with the DOJ about a week ago. CNN reached out to the DOJ for comment, and has not received one yet.

Highlights:

·       AG Barr is on thin ice after failing to deliver on two investigations that Trump claimed would uncover evidence of a broad conspiracy against him (from the Obama-Biden-Clinton era).

·       One of those key investigations wrapped up with no criminal charges and no public report (the so-called “Unmasking” scandal by Attorney John Bash).

·       The other investigation (Attorney John Durham FBI probe of Trump 2016 illegally conducted by Obama, et al) will not be finished before November 3, throwing a wrench into Trump's plans to tout its findings to boost his reelection chances.

·       Trump now has refused to say whether he will keep Barr on as AG if he wins the election, telling Newsmax: “I can't comment on that. It's too early. I'm not happy, with all of the evidence I had, I can tell you that. I am not happy.”

·       The statements mark a stunning shift for Barr, whom the president has long praised as one of his most loyal defenders.

I note: Trump is pissed because the results are NOT what he wanted – e.g., not the truth, just what his conspiracy demanded.

The investigation was announced in May after then-acting DNI Richard Grenell declassified a list of names of former Obama administration officials who allegedly had requested the “unmasking the identity of Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.”

Senate Republicans later released the list, which named Obama administration officials who “may have received Flynn's identity in NSA intelligence reports after requests to unmask Americans.”

While American citizens' names are required to be kept secret in intelligence reports, senior officials have the ability to ask for names to be revealed in certain circumstances to better understand the reports.

In the past, some Obama officials have acknowledged requesting that people be identified but have said there were legitimate reasons for the unmasking.

Key points: On its own, the list of names does not prove any wrongdoing that Trump wanted Barr to find on Obama. Unmasking requests are a routine part of intelligence work, and there's no evidence that the requests were made for political purposes. 

The NSA said in its declassified memo disclosing the names that all of the officials had the authority to view the reports and the agency's standard procedures had been followed.

Significant aspect: Despite Trump's repeated efforts to cite unmasking as evidence of wrongdoing by Obama and his administration, the level of unmasking actually increased under the Trump administration.

For example, there were more than 10,000 unmaskings in 2019, and nearly 17,000 in 2018 – that according to the ODNI’s Statistical Transparency reports, and there were 9,529 in 2017, Trump's first year in office.

Comparatively, under Obama, there were about 9,217 unmaskings in 2016 and only 654 in 2015.

My 2 cents: This underscores again the lengths Trump will go and end up mostly being proven false in his efforts to taint Barack Obama’s record in office and that is due to Trump’s raw hated and jealousy of the former president, who by all accounts and standards outshines Trump across many issues and platforms.

The bottom line: Another nothing burger by Trump. Is there any end to this nightmare – hopefully on the night of November 3 or shortly thereafter it will come to a screeching halt in this the most-important and significant election on modern American political history.

Barr acting for Trump keeps drilling wells trying to find dirt and wrongdoings on Obama for Trump to gain political points – for Trump to then to say to the public bragging: “See I told you that that all the time.”

Trouble is, and to date, there ain’t no there, there. All those wells are bone dry and Mr. Obama like Hillary Clinton and her emails repeated drilling are all coming up dry. Shame on Trump and Barr.

Thanks for stopping by.