Bill Barr basically openly embraced the President’s discredited claim that the Obama administration “spied” on his campaign. He later seemed to partly backtracked and then tried to suggest that by “spying” he might just mean court approved surveillance as part of a counter-intelligence investigation. But that’s really just caviling. He’s embracing the President’s conspiracy theories and pushing ahead with what can only be called a retributive new investigation of the origins of the Russia probe.

What’s clear is that Barr used the word “spying” with the full knowledge that that would be interpreted as illicit surveillance of a US political campaign by the US government. He then got cute and said that “spying” is okay if it’s done through proper law enforcement and intelligence procedures. This is all BS. He knows the meaning of the word. He particularly knows its meaning in this political context. This is meant to back up Trump’s claims that the Russia probe was in fact a dirty trick and “treason” as the President put it this morning.

Here are the headlines the President wanted and got …

Barr is the pure Trump agenda – both cover-up and weaponizing the DOJ against the President’s political opponents – just with a fancy resume and solid GOP legal credentials.