RUTHFULLY YOURS

“Number one is that I think a lot of the attacks on the FBI are over the top because a decision like this is not made by the FBI,” former Attorney General William Barr told the Bari Weiss podcast on August 25.

“In fact, I don’t think the FBI would push a decision that it’s best to go in and search and obtain those documents after being jerked around for a year and a half. The decision would be made at the Department of Justice, by subordinates of the AG, and ultimately signed off on by the AG. The FBI would be told to go and execute it. I think the idea that the FBI is the problem here is misplaced.”

The former AG was more disturbed by “the constant pandering to outrage” on the right, without discussion of whether the outrage had any merit. The FBI seized Trump’s passports, leaving the impression that the former president had committed a crime and was now a flight risk. FBI agents also rummaged through the closets of Melania Trump, an act of pure intimidation. With Trump attorneys forced outside, the FBI could easily have planted or destroyed information. If that is not cause for outrage, it’s hard to imagine what might qualify.

Weiss brought up the “Russiagate” episode, as the host explained, “the idea that Donald Trump was a compromised agent of Moscow. That there were deep connections between Trump’s people and Russian intelligence. That the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russians, including by hacking Democratic National Committee emails.” Barr was all over it.

“Well, the Russiagate thing, I think, to the extent the FBI was misused was decisions made toward by high-level officials in the FBI,” the former AG said. Everybody Barr knew in Republican and Justice Department circles was advising Trump to fire Comey “before we even knew his role in Russiagate.” Comey had “some of the personality characteristics that can lead people, like J. Edgar Hoover, to run the FBI according to their personal whims. I thought it was dangerous and that he should go.”

On the other hand, the former AG explained, “I don’t think that Chris Wray is that type of leader nor do I think the people around Chris Wray are those types of leaders,” people who might “throw the FBI’s weight around to interfere in the political process.” Barr thinks Wray is “very cautious about that,” but observers have to wonder.

When selected as FBI boss, Wray denied any “spying” had taken place against the Trump campaign. As the world now knows, the FBI did spy on the Trump campaign. In 2018, Wray proclaimed, “I do not believe special counsel Mueller is on a witch hunt.”

Mueller’s “professional investigation,” aided by partisan Democrats, turned up no evidence of collusion with Russia. All told, Christopher Wray doesn’t sound like someone who is “very cautious” about interfering in the political process. Wray is all-in with the Mar-a-Lago raid, and as it turns out, so is William Barr.

“What is the nature of the highly classified information?” Barr wondered. “What is the evidence, if any, of active conceit by the president or those around him in Mar-a-Lago to mislead the government?” Remember, in Barr’s view, Trump had been “jerking around” the FBI for a year and a half, so they had to launch the raid.

Weiss recalled that Barr “had been in the CIA” and worked as attorney general under George H.W. Bush. Weiss did not recall Barr’s defense of the FBI in a case that marked 30 years only days before the interview.

During the Ruby Ridge siege of 1992, the FBI deployed massive military force against a single family. FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shot unarmed Vicki Weaver in the head as she held her infant child. Snipers are trained carefully to “acquire” the target so the killing was not accidental, as FBI boss Louis Freeh claimed in 1995.

Barr spent two weeks organizing former attorney generals to defend Horiuchi, who already had government lawyers working on his behalf. Barr told reporters he was not directly involved in Ruby Ridge but the Washington Post revealed that the DOJ made 20 telephone contacts with the operation, two of them from William Barr. The Weaver family filed a wrongful death lawsuit and the DOJ paid $3 million. When an Idaho county filed criminal charges against Horiuchi, Barr sought immunity for the FBI sniper.

The shoot-without-provocation rules were approved by the FBI’s Larry Potts. When Clinton attorney general Janet Reno nominated Potts for deputy director of the FBI, William Barr told the New York Times Potts was “deliberate and careful” and “I can’t think of enough good things to say about him.” In 2022, Barr has nothing but praise for Christopher Wray, who was all-in with Russiagate.

To all but the willfully blind, the FBI is now the American KGB, and like that organization engaged in “special tasks,” not exactly within the law. The FBI plants evidence (funds planted on Trump associate George Papodopoulos), falsifies evidence (Kevin Clinesmith changing the email about Carter Page), engages in political stagecraft, (the fake Whitmer kidnap plot) and pressures social media platforms to avoid news of Hunter Biden’s laptop, supposedly “Russian disinformation.”

Back in 2020, Attorney General Barr hadn’t seen evidence of voter fraud on a scale that would have affected the outcome of the election. Weiss did not press Barr for details on the audits his DOJ conducted on races that suddenly reversed in favor of Biden.

Barr provided no tallies of the number of illegals who had voted in California, where the “motor voter” program automatically registers illegals to vote. Stuffed ballot boxes, as shown in 2000 Mules, also escaped his notice. No second thoughts about voter fraud, but the former AG and CIA man remained certain about POTUS 45.

“Trump is his own worst enemy,” Barr told Weiss. “He’s incorrigible. He doesn’t take advice from people. I said to him when I first started that I thought he was going to lose the election unless he adjusted a little bit. And if he did adjust, he could go down in history as a great president. He continued to be self-indulgent and petty and turned off key constituencies that ultimately made the difference in the election.”

For the former AG, voter fraud had nothing to do with it. Embattled Americans can thank Barr for providing a moment of clarity.

Donald Trump is not his own worst enemy. Donald Trump’s worst enemies include his own attorney general, members of his own party, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has now crossed the line.

Whatever special tasks the FBI has planned, former attorney general William Barr will be there to back them up, just as he did with FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi. The defender of the deep state can be no friend of the people.