In case you missed it on Tuesday night, the United States Department of Justice is now operating as an expensive and elaborate Fox Nation comment section. From CNN:

Attorney General William Barr told lawmakers Wednesday that he will be looking to the "genesis" of the the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into potential ties between members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government began in 2016, saying, "I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal" -- echoing some of the more inflammatory claims lobbed by President Donald Trump for months. "I think spying did occur," Barr said. "The question is whether it was . . . adequately predicated.



Barr's own review of the FBI's counterintelligence work, first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by a US official to CNN, was briefly touched on during his House appropriations hearing, but the attorney general went further during Wednesday's Senate appropriations hearing explaining his reasoning. "For the same reason we're worried about foreign influence in elections, I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal," Barr said. I'm not suggesting those rules were violated but I think it's important to look at. . . I think it's my obligation." He added that he's not launching a full blown investigation to the FBI, and does not view it as a problem that is "endemic" to the FBI, but has in mind some colleagues to help him "pull all this information together, and letting me know if there are some areas that should be looked at."



Barr arrives to testify before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies in the Dirksen Building. Tom Williams Getty Images

Barr went further than that while testifying Thursday before the friendly Republican majority of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. In response to a question from Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, Barr stated flatly that the Obama administration did spy on the Trump campaign.

I think spying did occur, yes. I think spying did occur. The question was whether it was adequately predicated. And I'm not suggesting it wasn't adequately predicated. I need to explore that. I think it’s my obligation. Congress is usually very concerned about intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies staying in their proper lane. I want to make sure that happened. We have a lot of rules about that. I want to say that I've said I'm reviewing this. I haven't set up a team yet, but I have in mind having some colleagues help me pull all this information together and letting me know whether there are some areas that should be looked at. I also want to make clear. This is not launching an investigation of the FBI. Frankly, to the extent there were any issues at the FBI, I do not view it as a problem that's endemic to the FBI. I think there was probably a failure among a group of leaders there at the upper echelon.

And we're off. Even if a photo leaks of the president* taking a paper bag full of rubles from Vladimir Putin outside the Kremlin walls, there will be "another side" in which Republicans can hide for electoral purposes. The squid-ink bazooka is fully loaded and primed. The conservative media apparatus has something to bellow about. William Barr has done his job. He's done the work he's been hired to do—part of which was summarized deftly by Senator Brian Schatz as "giving the cable-news universe something to freak out" over. Meanwhile, his press release will dominate that narrative.

He also emphasized the importance of the big, stupid wall as part of the war on drugs, and specifically on opioids, something of which Republican Senator John Boozman of Arkansas even seemed to find odd, preferring quite logically to talk about opioids from China that arrive through the mail. He also staunchly defended his DOJ's decision not to defend the Affordable Care Act. But the main news was his announcement of his task force as part of Operation Distract And Deflect. And he spent most of the rest of the hearing telling Democratic senators to pound sand.

Welcome to the next two years.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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