If anybody could intuitively grasp Trump’s ambition for how a justice system should operate, it is Putin. jonathanchait writes
Photo: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images In December 2016, President Obama announced punishing economic sanctions against Russia in retaliation for its email thefts and other actions taken to help elect Donald Trump. The purpose of the sanctions was to let Russia know that its election operation, which had been undertaken with Trump’s encouragement, would not be rewarded.
Now that the special counsel that prosecuted Flynn is gone, and the Department of Justice now in the hands of Trump loyalist William Barr, the department has abandoned its own prosecution. The rationale for forgiving Flynn’s lies is that the FBI had no reason to talk to Flynn in the first place.
But the basis for the investigation is obvious. Flynn had previously been paid tens of thousands of dollars by Russia, was now holding covert discussions with the country that had helped his campaign win the election, and was at the time of the interview publicly lying to the public and other members of the Trump administration about the call — a lie that exposed him to Russian blackmail.
Barr’s approach toward the Mueller investigation has been to turn the presumption of guilt upside down. Having failed to establish to the high standards of a court that Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy, Barr has publicly misrepresented the Mueller report as vindication, distorting its contents to the point that even its taciturn author protested.
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