Barr gives Trump 3 Mueller investigation probes for his 2020 campaign

Every lawyer has had to deal with difficult clients. There’s always someone who is demanding, wants unreasonable things, refuses to follow your advice and then blames you when things go wrong. Lawyers have to spend a lot of time and effort trying to keep these clients happy, or at least calm. By all accounts, Donald Trump has always been the client from hell, even before he was president.

Trump is not Attorney General William Barr's client. The United States of America is his client. Nonetheless, in his short career in the Trump administration, Barr has gone out of his way to mollify the president on multiple occasions. A case in point is his appointment of John Durham, a longtime Department of Justice attorney and currently the chief federal prosecutor for Connecticut, to investigate the origins of what eventually became the Mueller investigation, and related FBI surveillance activities.

The first thing to keep in mind is that this is the third investigation into this “issue.” The first is being overseen by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Justice. The OIG regularly investigates how DOJ business is being conducted. While it investigates allegations of wrongdoing, it also makes recommendations about how to improve processes and policies within the DOJ. It’s not at all uncommon for the OIG to do such an investigation in the aftermath of a particularly controversial or high-stakes probe. The office did one, for example, on the Clinton email investigation.

Jeff Sessions launched the second investigation back in March 2018, while he was attorney general, for the same reason Barr launched the third one just a few days ago: to try to keep Trump happy. Sessions appointed John Huber, the top federal prosecutor for Utah, to conduct more or less the same investigation Durham has just been handed.

Political theater based on conspiracy theories

These serial, overlapping investigations are troubling if for no other reason than they give the impression that they are meant to provide a narrative and make sure it continues until the 2020 election. It’s hard to justify launching a third investigation before you’ve gotten the results of the first two — unless your goal is to keep the investigations running rather than to conclude them.

The second thing to remember is that these investigations are largely political theater. This is where I should explain to you exactly what the “issue” is that's being investigated. I’m not going to do that because you can’t explain half-baked conspiracy theories and it’s dangerous to try. Instead, I’m going to hand you a few useful tools that will help you cut your way through the fog of hysteria being pushed by Trump and his surrogates. 

Rule 1: Anytime someone feels the need to use the phrase “Hillary’s email” in connection with the origins of the Mueller investigation, you can stop listening. This is pure whataboutism in its most ridiculous form.

Rule 2: Follow the rule of “Yes. And so?” Assume, for the sake of argument, that the allegations being made were true. Would it invalidate any of the conclusions of the Mueller investigation? Special counsel Mueller uncovered a massive Russian attack on the 2016 elections. It was, without question, a deadly serious conspiracy, even if the Trump campaign wasn’t technically part of it. Mueller exposed this plot and filed over 30 criminal indictments regarding it. If he had not conducted his investigation, we wouldn’t know about any of it and we would be utterly defenseless when the Russians try to do it all again in 2020. Certainly, Trump would never have organized such a thorough investigation into Russia’s interference himself. He doesn’t even want to admit that it happened.

It's the FBI's job to investigate

However the FBI was alerted to Russia’s attack on our democracy, the agency was duty-bound to investigate when it caught wind of it. That’s not “spying,” as Barr called it, that’s a counterintelligence investigation. Once the FBI had uncovered evidence that the Russians were actively attempting to infiltrate an American presidential campaign, would you really expect them to look the other way?

Rule 3: No harm, no foul. The general complaint underlying all these theories seems to be that the FBI was out to “get” Trump and prevent him from becoming president, by fair means or foul. And yet, the FBI kept an incredibly tight lid on its investigation, and none of the extremely damaging allegations it had uncovered became public until after the election — and this includes the now-famous “Steele dossier.” It’s nonsense to suggest there was some enormous plot to dig up dirt on Trump but then only release that information after the election was over.

The Department of Justice and the FBI are fiercely dedicated to defending America and providing scrupulous and apolitical justice. That’s their job. As everyone working at those organizations is human, sometimes they make mistakes. And if they do, the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General will investigate and bring those mistakes to light. That’s their job.

But there is no point in launching multiple investigations into the same issue, and certainly not until the OIG has completed the one it is doing. Starting an investigation just for the purpose of suggesting that there’s something to investigate — which is what Barr has done — is a dangerous step toward turning the Department of Justice into a political tool. When it comes to Barr’s investigation into the origins of the Mueller investigation, where there’s smoke, there’s mirrors. Don’t fall for it.