Russiagate: Barr Killed It

Well, the reviews are still coming in and both sides agree that Barr walked away unscathed, leaving the Democrats on the committee tearing their hair in rage. Althouse, who read the Atlantic, "House Democrats have been waiting for more than a year to grill Attorney General Bill Barr, a man they’ve accused of all manner of professional misconduct..."

"Today they finally had their chance, as Barr testified, at long last, before the House Judiciary Committee. For Trump and Barr’s toughest critics, however, it was a frustrating experience....

Also the NYT:

Scrolling to the lower portion of the NYT homepage, I do find an article: "Barr Clashes With House Democrats, Defending Responses to Protests and Russia Inquiry/The deployment of federal agents to confront protesters and rioters and attacks on the Russia investigation highlighted a contentious hearing." The news is that Barr clashed with Democrats and the hearing was contentious — not that the Democrats clashed with Barr or that anyone in particular was contentious. The Democrats get cover as the squander the opportunity to investigate and appropriate the occasion to make political speeches

WaPoo whines that Democrats seek to shame Barr over politics at the Justice Department

Lawmakers spent months seeking Barr’s testimony on a host of issues related to the Trump administration’s interactions with the Justice Department. With the attorney general finally seated at the witness table, Democrats mostly made speeches or talked over him as he attempted to answer their questions, seemingly squandering any chance of getting new information or an admission out of him.

“This is a hearing; I thought I was the one who was supposed to be heard,” Barr said in exasperation.

Slate (a dull gray rock), Democrats Finally Had Their Chance to Grill Bill Barr. They Blew It. Marty Johnson on Da Hill, Democratic attorneys criticize House Judiciary Democrats' questioning of Barr

Cortney O'Brien at Town Hall, Watch: Barr Laughs at PA Lawmaker Who Doesn't Even Know What Policy She's Asking Him About and Ace, Democrat AWFL Karens: AG Barr Mansplained to Us and Manspread All Over the Capitol

Nothing says "strong, empowered woman" like whining like a little girl for Daddy to come protect you literally every fucking five minutes.

These smelly bitches did nothing but attack this man yesterday and then refuse to let him respond -- but now they're out there whining petulantly that The Bad Man Laughed At Us and "Talked Over Us" While We Were Group-Defaming Him.

Inject this clip of Barr laughing straight into my veins pic.twitter.com/MapMq9cyf5

— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) July 28, 2020

Michael Goodwin at NYPo, AG Barr destroys Jerry Nadler in another House Democrat testimony disaster: Goodwin, "He came, he saw, he ate their lunch. Bill Barr, denied a meal break, feasted instead on a gaggle of Democratic amateurs."  Andy McCarthy at NR, Democrats Make Mockery of Barr ‘Hearing’

Especially at the beginning of the hearing, Barr easily parried the hostile questions — soliloquies with question-marks at the end. He picked apart their misstatements and disingenuous premises, and answered with aplomb. Democrats thus dropped the threadbare pretense that this was a hearing. In the main, the rest of the afternoon was devoted to raging, mock-anguished perorations about how Trump is a dictator and how Barr is helping him destroy our democracy.
. . .
What happened on Capitol Hill Tuesday was a debacle to despair over because Democrats do not act this way because they are preternaturally rude. They act this way because their voters expect and demand that they act this way.

Roger Kimball, Da Spec, The bewildering bombardment of Bill Barr "His would-be inquisitors in the Democratic party have succumbed to a virus far more toxic than the Wuhan flu."

I assume that Barr’s Democratic questioners huddled beforehand to work out an obfuscating strategy, because nearly all of them bombarded him accusations masquerading as questions and then, when he attempted to answer, rudely interrupted him and informed him that they were ‘reclaiming’ their time. It all seemed like a comic skit until you realized that these malevolent clowns are the people we have elected to govern us. Hank ‘Guam’ Johnson, Eric Swalwell, Pramila Jayapal, David Cicilline, Zoe Lofgren, Steve Cohen: I am not sure who gave the most despicable performance on Tuesday. They are all horrible people.'

Fred Lucas at Da Signal has 6 Big Takeaways From the Attorney General’s Capitol Hill Testimony. Not to be outdone, Matt Margolis at PJ Media has The Top Ten Epic Moments During the House Judiciary Committee Hearing With AG Barr, with video clips!

CNS News reports that AG Barr: U.S. Attorney John Bash to Probe Unmasking and Margo Cleveland at Da Fed thinks Barr’s Testimony May Have Revealed Another Obama-Biden Scandal

While in late May Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec had revealed during an interview with Fox New’s Sean Hannity that Barr had assigned Bash the job of investigating the unmasking, Barr’s testimony added an interesting new texture to that prior announcement. Given Grennell’s declassification of the list of Flynn’s unmaskers from November 8, 2016 to January 31, 2017, one might have reasonably assumed any investigation would be limited to the propriety of those unmasking requests.

But when Jordan asked for clarification that Bash was investigating the unmasking requests during the presidential transition period, Barr responded that the Texas U.S. attorney’s investigation was “actually” focused on “a much longer period of time.”

This response, coupled with Barr’s comment that some of the requests “do not readily appear to have been in the line of normal business,” suggests the possibility of another brewing Obama-Biden scandal—separate and apart from SpyGate. Barr’s comment seems also to confirm Jordan’s concern that several individuals in the Treasury Department sought to unmask Flynn.

“For what possible reason could the Treasury Department need to unmask Flynn?” Jordan left unsaid. Likewise, the extensive unmasking by Obama United Nations Ambassador Samantha Powers, or those working for her, suggests the Obama administration cared little for the civil liberties of those whose conversations were innocently caught in the surveillance of foreign targets.

From quillette, a liberal strayed from climate and energy orthodoxy reports similar treatment at the hands of Democrat congresscritters. I Was Invited to Testify on Energy Policy. Then Democrats Didn’t Let Me Speak

What, exactly, had I said that was so dangerous as to lead Democrats to engage in character assassination and undermine liberal democratic norms? Nothing I hadn’t already said last January when I testified before Congress about climate change and energy.

Back then, I testified that climate change is real but isn’t the end of the world nor even our most important environmental problem. I pointed to the inherent physical reasons renewables can’t power a high energy industrial civilization. And I noted that cheap and abundant natural gas and nuclear, not industrial solar and wind, have been the big drivers of emissions reductions.

I further made the case that climate change was distracting us from a far greater and more urgent threat, which is the global domination of nuclear energy by China and Russia, which could be disastrous for US interests and the future of liberalism and democracy around the world.

Alex Nitzberg at JTN, Congressman: DOJ could pursue treason charges over Russia probe misconduct, and Sens. Johnson, Grassley accuse Democrats of 'disinformation' about their foreign interference probe  while Ashe Schow at Da Wire reports Former Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett Wants To Move On From Origins Of Trump-Russia Investigation: ‘It Was Four Years Ago’. I'll bet she does.

Da Wire, GOP Senators Investigating Biden’s Family Accuse Democrats Of ‘Disinformation Campaign’ "Not only is that an apparent classified leak, but that allegation is false and you know it..."

The senators’ letter, sent Tuesday to Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), begins by asserting that a July 16 letter asking once more for a member briefing from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and relevant members of the Intelligence Community (IC) flew in the face of the FBI advising “all of us during a March 2020 staff briefing that there was nothing to preclude the continuation of our investigation.” Johnson and Grassley note that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had heard months ago that the FBI and intelligence agencies “did not have any additional information to provide.”

Grassley and Johnson then point out that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also wrote a letter asking for an FBI briefing; Grassley and Johnson assert that news reports regarding the classified part of that letter indicated that it falsely accused the GOP senators of obtaining information from foreign nationals about former Vice President Joe Biden.

Not only is that an apparent classified leak, but that allegation is false and you know it because we told you it was false right after those reports were published. Yet, as with your repeated public requests for a member briefing that seem designed to suggest that we are somehow denying members access to briefings and relevant intelligence, Democrats and Mr. Biden’s campaign prefer to knowingly repeat false information so the liberal media will keep reporting on it. Continuing to repeat false information, including apparently classified information, will not make the allegations true. In fact, it is the very definition of a disinformation campaign—the same conduct you are falsely accusing us of participating in.

Ace finds Salty Rivers of Hot Shame Run Down the Fat Traitor's Cheeks of John Brennan when he reads at WaEx,

... as John Brennan learns that he is no longer permitted to access classified information.Former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of President Trump, found out he had been blocked from accessing his classified notes and records while working on his new memoir.

He writes in his forthcoming book, Undaunted: My Fight Against America�s Enemies, at Home and Abroad, that after months of "haggling" he discovered the CIA was abiding by the directive Trump gave in August 2018 "that purportedly forbids anyone in the intelligence community from sharing classified information with me."

The White House confirmed the directive was being enforced, which is news considering the New York Times reported in May of last year that the president never revoked Brennan's security clearance.

"The President has constitutional authority to control access to classified information, which he exercised here in view of Mr. Brennan's erratic behavior and the President�s belief that access to classified information should be solely for the benefit of the government and the American people," White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

Brennan, who acknowledges he is in the "crosshairs" of the criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, claimed he asked the CIA for his official records including his personal notes and any classified CIA documents that he had signed, but the agency denied his request.

Good. Hopefully he will end up in prison.