US Attorney Geoffrey Berman had to recuse himself from the Trump-related investigations because of his ties to the President. Supervision was undertaken by the Deputy US Attorney Robert S. Khuzami. But he left the US Attorney’s office in late March of this year. A month earlier, Attorney General Bill Barr was sworn in. So Bill Barr was sworn in about exactly five months ago – which seems to be roughly the time of the last contact between the US Attorney’s office and executives of the Trump Organization....
To be clear, I am not aware of any reporting documenting any interference from US Attorney Berman, Attorney General Barr or anyone at Main Justice. But given the Barr DOJ’s demonstrated record of consistently unethical behavior and more or less open efforts to protect President Trump, this requires some scrutiny.
July 15, 2019
Josh Marshall applies "a hermeneutic of suspicion" to the what seems to be a decision by the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan to close its investigation into the Trump Organization without filing charges.
He comes up with this:
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Okay, maybe I don't need the trouble that could've brought.
The very lack of evidence suggests it must be true.
For pete's sake, that's just stupid.
"the Barr DOJ’s demonstrated record of consistently unethical behavior and more or less open efforts to protect President Trump"
Citation needed.
Two years in.
Put up or shut up.
Love, Bill Barr
Every “journalist” on the left has turned into deranged conspiracy theorists.
given the Barr DOJ’s demonstrated record of consistently unethical behavior...
And we all just KNOW that's true, right?
Examples and evidence be damned.
Well Josh needs to learn the lesson that Comey and Mueller didn’t. If a prosecutor does not find enough evidence to charge, THEN SAY NOTHING. That’s the ethical thing to do.
Presumably, he's referring to the talking point in which Barr "acted more like the president's personal attorney than the attorney general" in describing accurately the Mueller report as not saying what Democrats wanted it to say.
I am not aware of any reporting documenting any interference
But I'm going to write to imply that there was anyway.
If here's anything to make you doubt the future of America, it's Rachel Maddow and Josh Marshall turning into tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists.
Mike
Whinging, as the British say.
Josh Marshall is a complete idiot and jerk. Quoting him is the same to me as you quoting National Enquirer.
He's just... Joshing.
Please post all of John Marshall's complaints about the Obama Attorney Generals bold moves to protect him. There aren't any? Figures.
Josh Marshall and his fellow travelers are in desperate need of a 12 step program.
JackWayne said...
Josh Marshall is a complete idiot and jerk. Quoting him is the same to me as you quoting National Enquirer.
Now be fair. From time to time, the National Enquirer does do actual reporting (e.g., John Edwards' affair).
Ah, Josh Marshall. Back in the day, about 18 years ago, someone recommended Josh Marshall to me as a sane man of the left. Nope.
This is becoming very annoying: the media continuously reporting 'demonstrable' things which have not been demonstrated. Which is then picked up by politicians and personalities, then used as evidence by the media of these demonstrable things.
Why are we even talking about this? What unethical behavior by Barr? I struggled with the highways and byways of the ethics rules for 40 years. Barr hasn't done anything that even comes close to violating the rules, which are routinely weaponized by parties in any controversy.
Marshall is a raving lunatic. And he doesn't know anything anyway.
If Josh Marshall is whining about something, well, that normally means something good is happening for our country, and something bad is happening to the Democrat Party.
Josh Marshall applies "a hermeneutic of suspicion"...
This phrase had me cracking up before I even read any further. Sounds like the patter of an itinerant purveyor of patent medicine.
I'm all agog to behold the mighty explanatory powers unleashed by the application of Josh Marshall's Hermeneutic of Suspicion.
Josh Marshall is a cunt.
Hunter said... "the Barr DOJ’s demonstrated record of consistently unethical behavior and more or less open efforts to protect President Trump" Citation needed.
Not a problem, here you go!
Instead, the top lawman professed his allegiance to the President ...
"I’m still enjoying what I’m doing, there’s still work to be done.
I’m still the President’s wing-man, so I’m there with my boy."
The Attorney General said in an interview on the Tom Joyner radio show.
The AG, who's been held in contempt by the House of Representatives... said;
"I grew up tough in New York City, you know, so if this is the best they’ve got in Washington, I’m ready for it."
https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/04/eric-holder-im-still-the-presidents-wingman-160861
Oh! wait a minute, that was a Different AG
Eric Holder, 2012: I’m Obama’s wingman.
(Crickets)
Barr, 2019: No collusion.
(Hair-On-fire column-writing)
Do I have the history right?
Aside from the general asininity of Josh's "argument, what is this?
"So Bill Barr was sworn in about exactly five months ago"
What is the exactly for? Or even the cancelling-out "about"? Why not say, Bill Barr was sworn in five months ago.?
Don’t you have a bullshit tag?
“hermeneutic of suspicion”—-words that the unwashed have to look up win the argument, just like “penumbra” and “emanation”. To be fair, William Buckley won a few, too.
Bill Barr is an American hero who saw a coup in process and wrote a memo undermining one leg of the coup-in-process. Thank God Trump had the sense to appoint Barr AG. Trump should now run EVERY move by Barr, like we learned during the Census kerfuffle. And he knows how to drain the DOJ and FBI swamps. I’m liking old BB more every day.
Has he stopped going to pornhub for research.
Judging by Josh Marshall record of making claims of records without evidence or citation, I suspect a nothingburger.
“penumbra” and “emanation”
Peering out from the twilight fringe.
Hermeneutic Munster.
Hemannudepics of suspiscwha?
Human stupidity is fractal.
Narr
Leftoids prove it every day
One is right to always be suspicious of the DOJ and FBI. While we need their services (I think) they have a whole lot of power, and power will inevitably be abused. Not everybody has the morals of Peter Parker.
I hope that Bill Barr will be able to really clean house, but if all he does is counter the left's spin, it will be a good dead.
FACT 1: OMB
FACT 2: DoJ fails to prosecute Trump Inc.
Conclusion: DOJ is corrupt. There is no other conclusion you can draw from these two facts.
No doubt many of you are using the incorrect (out of date) logic:
FACT 1: DOJ fails to prosecute
FACT 2: DOJ is not corrupt
Conclusion: Orange Man is not Bad.
But this (false) conclusion only illustrates the fallacy of your logic. Orange man is bad. If I let go of my pen, it falls to the ground. Jesus is the son of God.
Blogger stlcdr said...
"This is becoming very annoying: the media continuously reporting 'demonstrable things which have not been demonstrated. Which is then picked up by politicians and personalities, then used as evidence by the media of these demonstrable things."
That, of course, is how progressive narratives are built.
Is this the SDNY case that was going to ride to the rescue of the Republic? Or just the city attorney?
The things that Jeff Marshall and others of his ilk have done to the language really piss me off. It's gotten to the point where I almost instinctively read "demonstrated record" to mean "facts not in evidence" and "more or less open efforts" to mean "nothing significant to see here, except the author's agenda." Another example is the use of the word "debunked," which, as often as not, actually means "I don't know nor care if it's true or not; we need to kill this before it hurts us some more."
Josh, I mean. I have a good friend named Jeff Marshall, and Jeff is guilty of none of the charges I brought against Josh!
Josh is just pointing out the smoking gub
"Merde putain" is a wonderful French idiom very applicable to both author and article. The phrase is composed of two excellent "bad" words though used extensively in France by all social classes and educational attainment.
Individually, Merde is shit; putain is whore; together "fucking shit." Individually, they describe the author AND the article; together we have a clearer view of the entire endeavor.
Hence, Merde Putain!
Not exonerated.
Well, we have two recent almost data points about the SDNY. They indicted Jeffrey Epstein, and failed to indict Trump, inc. I think though that that may be a good thing. The SDNY USA’s office has been massively corrupt for some time. Dem USA Preet Bharara turned a blind eye to the security fraud that was involved in the Puerto Rican bankruptcy. Pension plans around the country were damaged due to reliance on Wall Street, based on purchased, bogus, credit ratings. Bharara turned a blind eye to that, instead concentrating on jailing prominent critics of Obama like Dnesh D’Sousa for de minimis crimes. Bharara was the only Obama USA across the country who refused to tender his resignation to Trump when requested, and had to be fired, because he thought that he, and his mentor and former boss, Chuck Schumer, thought that they had a deal with Trump to leave him in place so that Bharara could continue to protect Schumer’s primary constituency: Wall Street. And I think that the long belated arrest of supposed hedge fund operator, and long time Dem contributor and Schumer supporter, Jeffrey Epstein, for multiple underaged sex crimes, is strong indication that the SDNY USA’s office is finally getting cleaned up after the corruption during the Obama years.
Think about it for a minute. Marshall thinks that the purpose of the DoJ is to hound a President that he, personally, doesn’t like. Somehow, they have a higher calling than doing the work assigned them by their Constitutionally mandated bosses. The Mueller investigation couldn’t find anything to impeach Trump for, so, maybe the SDNY can do so instead. And if they they don’t, and instead investigate serial pedophiles and security fraud more energetically, they are somehow corrupt.
No, Josh, the corruption is in believing that they should be doing the work that you and Chuck Schumer want them to be doing instead of the work assigned them by their Constitutionally mandated bosses.
According to the collective corrupt left - "it's unethical to work on behalf of the person who beat Hillary."
Presidential Harassment is Obama’s DOJ job. The Trump DOJ is arresting them for Treason, so those attacking false charges are nolle prossed. What did the enemy of the people expect?
Barr DOJ’s demonstrated record of consistently unethical behavior
That's a pretty bold claim without any evidence. If you're gonna accuse an AG of unethical behavoir, you should provide some clear evidence beyond just "He made a decision I didn't agree with".
In truth, there is a sound general principle behind this suspicion.
It has to be a general suspicion of everything, of doings by anyone, however, held consistently.
Everything in "public" affairs really is a conspiracy, by any useful definition.
These decisions are made out of the public view, or their essentials are, dealing with information and judgements and logic and interests unknown to the public.
The most realistic frame is that of conspiracy theory.
An interesting article today by Ron Unz, putting together various books, mainly by Gus Russo, about the influence of the Mafia -
http://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-the-power-of-organized-crime/
Its mainly a general review of various books that put two and two together, from "open source". In a sense it amounts to a neo-Procopius "secret history" of much of US public affairs. It is quite a revelation, for instance, to me anyway, how much influence the Chicago Capone gang had, through its many alumni, over five decades after the death of Capone.
Wait.... There are still people who give a s**t what Josh Marshall thinks about anything?
I am shocked.
Josh Marshall is a partisan tool. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. What makes these people any better than the birthers they so proudly mocked for the last decade?
How dare AG Barr obstruct our unending lawfare!
Most US Presidents for instance, besides Kennedy, who is well known for his mafia connections, since 1945, were at least in part supported by ex-Capone mafiosi, from Truman to Reagan.
Its curious that these things, important as they are, have been ignored. Even Kennedy, even now.
It makes one wonder what is being ignored today.
So this IS the SDNY thing? I couldn't tell from the story.
Yay! and LOL.
Josh is just pointing out the smoking gub
If it is smoking that clearly then everyone should be able to see it. Yet, only leftists have that ability.
C'mon, it's Josh Marshall. He's always slipping on the marbles he's lost & face planting.
@Buwaya,
"An interesting article today by Ron Unz, putting together various books, mainly by Gus Russo, about the influence of the Mafia -"
Russo has written some outstanding stuff about the Mafia -- particularly, "The Outfit". A lotta folks don't fully understand how widespread the Mafia tentacles reached into business, commerce and our culture. RICO laws really put them outta work.
Russo ha also written some interesting and provocative stuff about JFK, although he thinks JFK was killed by a conspiracy orchestrated by Castro's Intelligence service.
Gotta be a pony in here somewhere. Keep digging.
Well, if your premise and rule of interpretation is "suspicion," then everything will always be suspicious. Especially when it is not.
All I can say is, "GET. OVER. IT." OK, "Move On." Don't make me want to say more.
where there's no smoke, there probably was a fire
A liberal friend had offered TPM as is his go to site and I kind of chuckled and he wondered why.I just said google "TPm, Fitzmas" and get back to me on Marshall's prescience after repeatedly bleating about Karl Rove would be frog marched out of the white house in chains.Crimney that was what, 2006? Josh is just a poor man's David Brock with worse hair.
This idea that the SDNY was going to get Trump on a campaign finance violation was always hilarious on its face.
talking points memo.
What a fucking joke.
Josh Marshall says Orange Man Bad.
Who can argue with that geometric logic?
No one expects the Hermeneutic of Suspicion!
I always thought that Masters of Suspicion would be a good name for a punk band.
Barr just might the impetus for the disbarring of a lot of crooked democrat lawyers, and to paraphrase Martha Stewart, that would be a good thing.
Before BARR - SDNY ignoring Jeffrey Epstein, focusing on Trump Organization.
After BARR - SDNY ignoring Trump Organization, focusing on Jeffrey Epstein.
Making America Great Again!
Hermeneutic is a word I have to look up every time. That's because ever use of it I encounter is bullshit, using it in a mistaken or foolish way. It properly refers to interpreting Bible verses. If Marshall is interpreting the Bible to slam Barr then he is being hermeneutical. Otherwise he is being high-falutin and ignorant.
Carol: "So this IS the SDNY thing? I couldn't tell from the story."
Looks like Inga will have to come up with another new "you don't know what (insert lunatic lefty silver bullet person/group to destroy Trump here) knows!!
The previous 17 were getting old anyway.
I think the optics of going after the Trump Foundation without going after the Clinton Foundation were discouraging.
Riggght ... and the upper echelons of the FBI under Comey were the epitome of upstanding public service with absolutely no bias against Trump. Do you think maybe, just maybe, the investigation ended because there wasn't enough evidence to support a crime? If ANY crimes at all were committed by the Trump organization, wouldn't charges have been filed immediately? Josh Marshall - wanting crimes to be found against the Trump organization and evidence of actual crimes being committed by the Trump organization are two different things.
Josh should just admit he's using a hermenutic of politics on this one. This outcome isn't politically beneficial so he suspects foul play is at work. It's a great way to avoid dealing with reality when any news that hurts Trump is gospel truth while any news that helps Trump has to be a dirty deed.
The truth is rarely so black and white as that, but the media are primarily story tellers, not truth seekers, and it doesn't make for a good story if the orange man isn't all bad all the time.
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