Unlike so many other ‘Swamp Critters’ we see in DC, Bill Barr didn’t need this job as a capstone on his career. He’d already DONE this job some time ago. He’s here for other reasons.
Having seen the FBI earn the contempt and general distrust of the public after what happened under the leadership of Comey and his contemporaries, he is trying to restore the trust and respect of that institution.
That requires a complete assessment of what has gone wrong until now, including the political power-brokering of public servants who are supposed to be politically neutral… but haven’t been.
The Page-Strzok text messages and the differences in how Hillary’s investigation and Trump’s were handled went a long way to exposing just how entrenched these political biases might be.
Now we are already hearing reports that at least some aspects of the IG report are not lining up with Barr’s assessment of the facts known to date.
People familiar with the matter told The Post that Barr said he does not agree with the report’s finding that the FBI had enough intelligence to initiate an investigation into the Trump campaign in July 2016.
The long-awaited report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to be made public in a week. But a draft is being discussed behind the scenes, and the attorney general reportedly is not persuaded that the FBI investigation was justified.
The draft report is now being finalized and shown to the witnesses and offices investigated by Horowitz.
People familiar with the matter told the newspaper that Barr believes information from other agencies such as the CIA could change Horowitz’s finding that the investigation was warranted.
…Horowitz reportedly criticizes some FBI employees and surveillance tactics in his report but does not agree with the president’s depiction of the investigation as a witch hunt.
Source: The Hill
Let’s look at what can account for that.
On a really basic level, they are not privy to the same scope of information, with Horowitz being limited, as an IG, into which sources he can draw his information from.
Barr, on the other hand, has direct knowledge of other information beyond the scope of Horowitz, which might include information Durham has discovered and almost certainly would include information he has gleaned through meeting with foreign counterparts on questions about the origins of the surveilling of a Presidential campaign, as well as information from other agencies.
What else might account for the differences?
For one thing, some are already suspecting that Horowitz might have some personal motivation to minimize the damage his report might have on the Democrat party.
His past treatment of the Hillary case, for example:
https://twitter.com/BuckSexton/status/1201699640812417029
Or Comey, for that matter:
We shall see if this latest leak is accurate. But this is why I don’t raise expectations about this IG or his coming reports. He’s an Obama appointee. And he went pretty soft on Comey. I hope I’m wrong. But we will know very soon. https://t.co/RMZqF5dPLf
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 27, 2019
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