monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Actually, it's the Obama administration that shattered the rule of law

Indeed, our basic understanding of the rule of law is at risk – not because AG Bill Barr stepped in to prevent an unjust prosecution of General Michael Flynn, but because our institutions under the Obama administration were politicized in ways that should shock the American conscience.

This should be a massive scandal. It should be a massive scandal because, at the very least, it demonstrates the nation's chief law enforcement agencies, prompted by political actors at the very top of the government, racing to bend the rules in order to pursue a case they were convinced they would make: the case that the Trump campaign had conspired with the Russian government.

From the purposefully botched Carter Page Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to the absurdly conjured prosecution of Flynn, the most powerful institutions in American life violated the protocols meant to restrict abuse, firmly secure in their own feelings of moral rectitude.

That's the best-case scenario.

The worst-case scenario is far darker: that by early January 2017, with no evidence of Russian collusion, leaders of the nation's political and law enforcement agencies decided that guilt was irrelevant, and that the Trump administration had to be strangled in the crib. This seems like a major stretch, but in a highly partisan era, such a narrative will have legs.

Meanwhile, blithe in the knowledge that they were on the side of the angels, members of the Obama-era government continue to chide Attorney General Bill Barr for ending a charade of a case. Their incredible inability to see how their conduct looks beyond the echo chamber of sycophantic media sources only undermines their credibility further.

As it turns out, President Obama isn't wrong – at least not entirely. Our basic understanding of the rule of law is at risk, not because Bill Barr stepped in to prevent an unjust prosecution but because our institutions under the Obama administration were politicized in ways that should shock the American conscience.

Absolutely couldn't be the abysmal **** you post, could it?

Sam Harris
@SamHarrisOrg
1h
Someone has found the keys to the masterpiece factory.... Just amazing.
@sarahcpr

Ben Stiller
@RedHourBen
1h
It’s understated perfection.

Paul Waldman
@paulwaldman1
1h
4 Americans died in Benghazi and Republicans mounted EIGHT separate congressional investigations.

They will do everything in their power to make sure there is no investigation of the catastrophic failure that killed this many Americans and destroyed the economy.

Ryan Lizza
@RyanLizza
· 2h
White House officials are reluctant to specify how many dead Americans are too many, but Senator Lindsey Graham offered a number: “The closer you can have it to 120 [thousand deaths], I think you can say you limited the casualties in this war.” https://politico.com/news/2020/05/14/white-house-coronavirus-success-259792

Eric Boehlert
@EricBoehlert
2h
Lindsey Graham couldn’t sleep at night for three years bc 4 Americans died (Benghazi) under Obama

“And don’t forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world,” he added. “But why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases.”

Not that we'd have one more reason to conclude that the GOP is now a totally corrupt and destructive influence on American politics and culture, or anything.

Did Ambassador Yovanovitch, That ‘Star’ Impeachment Witness, Lie Under Oath?

Lying under oath during an impeachment hearing seems like it might be kind of a big deal, don’t you think? Especially when that lie hides evidence exculpatory to the guy being accused?

She also met directly with a representative for Burisma in her embassy office, less than 45 days before Trump took office, a contact she did not mention during her impeachment deposition.

The discussions about Burisma inside Yovanovitch’s embassy were so extensive, in fact, that they filled more than 160 pages of emails, memos and correspondence in fall 2016 alone, according to the State Department records obtained under FOIA by the conservative group Citizens United.