VIEW from behind the plow

U.S. Attorney General William Barr is the American left’s favorite hate target of the moment. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are furious because he won’t submit to an appearance before their attorneys – not the members themselves but their lawyers. House Democrats are threatening to hold Barr in contempt of Congress because he hasn’t turned over the entire Mueller report, even though he released 92 percent of the entire report to the public and more than 98 percent to Congress. Democrats on the committee want to hold the attorney general in contempt because he refuses to violate a law passed by Congress. Grand jury secrecy has been sacrosanct for centuries – for numerous reasons. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports these five principal reasons for not releasing grand jury documents:

• To prevent the escape of those whose indictment is being considered by the grand jury.

• To ensure the utmost freedom to the grand jury in deliberations, and to prevent persons subject to indictment or their friends from influencing the grand jurors.

• To prevent subornation of perjury or tampering with the witnesses who may testify before the grand jury and later appear at the trial of those indicted by it.

• To encourage free and untrammeled disclosures by persons – witnesses – who have information about the commission of crimes;

• To protect the innocent accused who is exonerated from disclosure of the fact that he has been under investigation, and from the expense of standing trial where there is no probability of guilt.

The left’s fury boils down to this:

There will be no indictments of President Trump for either collusion or the obstruction of justice during the investigation of that non-crime.

Columnist Victor Davis Hanson observed:

Barr recently released a brief summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusions that President Donald Trump did not collude with the Russians to warp the 2016 election.

Barr added that Mueller had not found enough evidence to recommend that Trump be indicted for obstruction of justice for the non-crime of collusion.

The Progressive Left is nothing if not adaptable. Almost immediately, they redirected their anger toward Barr’s summation of the Mueller report.

Rational people could not contest Barr’s summation. (Mueller’s report and Barr’s summation are available on the internet if anyone wants to read them.)

Hanson gets to the heart of the current brouhaha with the following question and answer:

“Did Mueller argue that the possible crimes of John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, Andrew Mc-Cabe, and other former government officials – lying to federal investigators, perjury, obstruction of justice, deceiving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, planting an informant into a political campaign, unmasking and leaking the identities of individuals under surveillance – were only peripheral to his investigation?

“Not really.”

Thus, the reason for the left’s fury is this:

They’re worried sick that several Trump critics – Brennan, Clapper, Comey and McCabe – may be indicted, so they’re seeking to pre-empt them by attacking Barr.

He adds a second reason: the 2020 progressive agenda – whether defined as the Green New Deal, a wealth tax, Medicare for All, or open borders – will not compete well with Trump’s currently booming economy.

Now with the Mueller investigation over after nearly two years, $34 million and a 448-page report, the Left has nothing else to hope for.

It is so over and they still hate, Hate, HATE President Trump.

There will be no indictments of Trump for either collusion or the obstruction of justice during the investigation of that non-crime.

The left’s anger may reach stroke proportions when the Justice Department begins revealing what the left attempted to do unlawfully during the Obama years.

The left had been happily guiding the nation toward a socialist system/dictatorship and a businessman (not a government insider) got elected president in 2016.

True, he’s not a slick lawyer who can manipulate the government secretly to a system rank-and-file citizens don’t approve of, but the rules don’t require that.

It’s just what’s been going on for far too long.

Oh, and neither Barr nor President Trump seem to care that the left hates them. And the left is so-o-o-o angry.