Corruption Barr None

How the US is Further Sinking into the Mire

The Trump administration’s relentless assault on America’s people and its constitutional democracy continues unabated. In fact, if anything, it is accelerating. From Russian electoral interference, to attempted Ukrainian chicanery, to unchecked police brutality, to a pandemic that has completely exposed Trump for the incompetent fool that he is, the U.S. is seemingly sinking deeper into the mire of cronyism, corruption and brazen, unapologetic inequity.

Today we learned that a prosecutor in the Roger Stone case, Aaron Zelinsky, is to tell Congress that the Department of Justice (DOJ) put “heavy pressure” on the prosecution to “cut Stone a break” when it came to his sentencing.

Further, that Stone “was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the president.” [1]

The Department of Justice if of course headed up by Trump puppet, Attorney General William Barr. AG Barr takes the somehow near impossible plaudit of making the previous AG, Jeff Sessions, seem to be a man of integrity and committed to some semblance of constitutional governance and justice.

Stone received only 40 months prison-time, way below what was expected - something in the region of at least eight years when comparable offenders were sentenced (you will recall that Stone was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering.)

Trump and Stone go back years. A long time conservative political consultant, Stone was part of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign team. A loathsome individual at the best of times, Stone was particularly renowned for spreading lies and conspiracy theories about political rivals. He especially prided himself on his viciousness.

So now we have the latest scandal – that Barr put pressure on the DOJ to put pressure on the prosecution team to go easy on Stone when it came to sentencing. Should we though be surprised? No. This is the Trump presidency that we are talking about here. And who does Barr answer to?

That he’s not supposed to in accordance with every constitutional and legal principle that this country has been built upon for the last 250 years? That’s right, Donald J. Trump.

Every aspect of American democracy and its legal system is under mortal threat from the toxicity emanating from the present occupier of the Oval Office. Elections have been stolen with foreign help; profit has been spun by the president on the back of his office; and justice has been politically weaponized like never before. It is safe to say that the Founding Fathers, imperfect men as they were, will be spinning in their graves like jet turbines on steroids.

Trump is now at a point in time where he simply doesn’t even care to pretend that he isn’t corrupt, venal and amoral. Yet still his faithful lap it up, despite the fact that Trump represents a real and present threat to American democracy like nothing before.

Can we expect anything from Trump’s GOP to stop this rot, if it’s not too late already? Absolutely not. They have been paralyzed by Trump ever since he swept to the Republican nomination in 2016. Bar one or two voices of dissent, today’s Republican party has become an invertebrate tool of Trump, whose only concern is their own electoral survival. Just like Trump. Just like Barr.

They don’t give a damn about the American people, only their own vested interests and those of the rich, powerful and billionaire classes.

As much as Trump is trying his best to erode American democracy, he is, by extension through Barr, looking to also pervert the legal system in this country to something akin to that that you would find in a tin-pot dictatorship. Barr has no commitment whatsoever to the fundamental principle of equitable justice – that all are equal before the law. And Trump knows that and uses Barr, and the DOJ, as an extension of his malevolent and nefarious designs.

Trump has always thought of the legal system in this country to be something of a play-thing for the rich, running endless civil law-suits. His threats to sue became as wearisome as his shrill refrains of “you’re fired” and then “make America great again.” Now he’s taken his disdain for the legal system to new heights.

Just as Trump is the worst president that the US has ever had by a long stretch, so Barr will forever be known as the worst, toadying AG the country has ever had and how he has helped to pull us all further down into the Trump mire.