Barr has defaced every corner of the DOJ, but it will still take Trump's ouster to remove the stains on its reputation he has left on it

A 267-page report released the other day by the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law provided an exhaustive analysis of William Barr’s activities during the less than two years he has been Donald Trump's personal Attorney General, and why an impeachment inquiry should begin immediately. It concluded in part that

Mr. Barr appears to embrace an autocratic view of the power of the executive branch, specifically presidential power, and he views his own extensive authority as flowing from this nearly unbounded view of presidential power. This authoritarian worldview limits the degree to which Mr. Barr regards himself as bound by the rule of law and makes him see himself as entitled to ignore the laws, ethics and historical practices that have helped to ensure that the work of the Department is in line with the values of a democratic nation…

A consistent theme of the Working Group’s findings was that Mr. Barr could not be trusted to represent the work of the department accurately, and that there are consistent problems of veracity in Mr. Barr’s public statements and representations. In numerous different areas, the Working Group found that he distorted both law and facts, placing a spin on his own actions, the actions of the DOJ, or the actions of the president’s political rivals in a way that was not faithful to reality and seemingly motivated by political considerations.

That is nothing particularly new, but Nancy Pelosi has indicated that conducting an impeachment inquiry at this stage will be a moot point if Donald Trump is defeated next month. And Barr doesn’t always “win,” such as in the case of the DOJ’s investigation into alleged “unmasking” of names from redacted intelligence reports of Russian election interference by the Obama administration, allegedly targeting Trump campaign officials so that they could be “leaked” to the press. But U.S. Attorney John Bash’s report found no evidence of wrong-doing, and Barr quickly moved to quash the report from public release, so as not to further anger Trump concerning the report’s “failure” to be a useful tool for his reelection campaign. One suspects that the Durham investigation, which has gone on for over 15 months, is also finding it difficult to justify itself, with its release reportedly to come after the election.  

It is also of interest that Barr himself has taken little interest in the alleged kidnapping plot of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that was foiled by the FBI. Not that anything like this should come as a “shock,” since armed militia members had attempted a “takeover” of the state capitol building last May. The FBI reported that a group of 13 white men, led by members of the “Wolverine Watchmen” militia, were, besides planning on leaving Whitmer tied-up on a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan, also hoping to “swarm the capitol” and start a “violent revolt,” including firebombing police cars and attacking police. Whether or not the plotters were actually “serious” about carrying this out, it is not surprising that Barr would remain mum on it, since Trump has been continuously attacking and threatening Whitmer, and if any such attack occurred, there is no telling what Trump might say about it that would put Barr in a “difficult” position.

That doesn’t mean that Barr isn’t still trying to milk his power for all its worth until the election. We are learning that the Justice Department has put out a memo allowing prosecutors and law enforcement to join forces with Trump’s “army” of poll watchers to harass voters, postal workers and military employees, and is broad enough in its terms to intervene in the election process before the polls close--nothing more nor less than deliberate voter suppression and interference.

And there is also white racial grievance to stoke--particularly when it was so useful in 2016. ICE is stepping up its profile, with billboards in swing-state Pennsylvania of wanted immigration targets, clearly designed to “frighten” undecided voters there. ICE officers are swarming around everywhere, making arrests willy-nilly, including some wearing New York Police Department jackets--obviously with the illegal collusion of the NYPD--tricking people into allowing them into their homes without a warrant and arresting people like a 30-year resident and father of four, instead of focusing on those with criminal records or in the country less than two years as previously claimed. A black U.S. citizen who works as a real estate agent in Boston was briefly detained while jogging by three ICE officers who demanded that he show them that he didn’t have a tattoo they were told one of their targets had.

Showing the DOJ’s “true colors” again, the department announced that it was once again mocking the intent of its Civil Rights Division, by turning it into a center of white grievance. Last week it officially filed a federal lawsuit against Yale University, claiming that it discriminates against white and Asian applicants. Eric Dreiband of the division asserted in the complaint that “All persons who apply for admission to colleges and universities should expect and know that they will be judged by their character, talents, and achievements and not the color of their skin. To do otherwise is to permit our institutions to foster stereotypes, bitterness, and division.”

The complaint goes on to say that “Because Yale claims that its race discrimination is necessary to admit sufficient numbers of racially-favored applicants, mostly Black and Hispanic applicants, Yale signals that racially-favored applicants cannot compete against Asian and White applicants. This kind of race discrimination relies upon and reinforces damaging race-based stereotypes.”

Let’s think about what is being said here. The DOJ is claiming that blacks and Hispanics do not have sufficient “character, talents, and achievements” to be enrolled in Ivy League schools. But it is the DOJ by making those false assertions that is fostering “stereotypes, bitterness, and division.” Yale is not promoting “favoritism,” which is what white and Asian students expect to receive, but an opportunity for the best students in schools that may not have the resources of some other more privileged schools but yet have just as gifted students to attend schools like Yale. These black and Hispanic students also have high GPAs and SATs, and to claim that they are not “good enough” to “compete” is the shibboleth of racists. None of these students are “unqualified’ to attend Yale.

Let’s not forget how Trump has bragged about what a genius he was to get into a lower-tier Ivy League business school--after he paid someone to take his SAT test. In order to maintain the fiction that he is a “very stable genius,” he must denigrate those  he has always regarded as “inferior,” including Barack Obama, who has a law degree from Harvard. It is not black and Hispanic students who think that they have no “character, talents and achievements” and cannot “compete against Asian and white applicants.” They are not the ones who think that their presence in Yale “reinforces damaging race-based stereotypes.” It is the racists in the Trump administration and its DOJ who are perpetuating those myths.

And let’s not be completely ignorant about why this lawsuit was initiated in first place, other than the fact that many Asian students whose families have only been in this country for the past few decades think they have more “civil rights” than blacks who have suffered discrimination for centuries in this country. Whites and Asian-Americans still significantly out-enroll black and Hispanic students at Yale, and Asian students continue to be vastly over-represented. But still 33,700 first-year applicants were rejected in 2020 for admittance at Yale; only 1,578 were accepted. That means that if you denied admittance to every black and Hispanic student, there would still be 33,300 applicants who will be “upset” for not being admitted. Who are they going to blame then? It's selfish, self-serving and discriminatory. 

All of this only exposes the racism deeply embedded in not just the Trump administration for not understanding this reality, but in the grievance society he feeds off of. Trump claims that he is the “best” president for blacks and Hispanics, yet as always, they have to “know their place” first.

So yes, Barr has presided over a Justice Department that has done Trump’s morally and ethically decrepit bidding over a wide rage of issues. He has got to go, but only if Trump goes first. We have to make it so.