Should William Barr Be Impeached?

Yesterday, I wrote here about the possibility of impeaching William Barr. My thought at the time was to use that threat in case Barr’s redactions were another phase of Barr’s obstructive operations to protect Trump from the rule of law. And the threat could be used as part of an ultimatum to Barr, demanding that he give the relevant committees in the Congress a completely unredacted report, which they are surely entitled to.

But so far, I’ve not seen anyone suggesting that the redaction was dishonest in that way. (Did I miss something?) As far as I can tell, after his disgraceful news conference yesterday morning — spinning away dishonestly BEFORE the Report’s release — Barr may have gotten himself out of the way.

And my thought yesterday was that if indeed Barr has ceased to be an obstacle to the proper playing out of the process for which the Mueller Report was intended, it would be best to just leave behind the issue of Barr and his corruption.

Now I’m wondering: in view of all the ways that Barr has served a lawless President and impeded the rule of law over the four weeks since the Mueller Report landed on his desk, should the Democrats contemplate the impeachment of this Attorney General anyway?

Would that serve as an appropriate means to begin the process of re-establishing the rule of law, a fitting start of a process leading up to the President? Or would it be a distraction from the clearly more urgent task of dealing with a President whose contempt for the law and the Constitution is now well laid-out in the Report itself?

I was impressed last night with how strongly former federal prosecutor John Flannery spoke (on MSNBC) about the need to “get rid” of this Attorney General. Flannery spoke of an Attorney General who “Sells his oath of office,” saying flat out, “This is a guy who shouldn’t be in that office.” To Flannery’s way of thinking, “if we don’t get rid of him [Barr],””It’s shame on us.”

And as the means removing Barr, Flannery mentions the possibility of impeaching him. (He also mentions the Congress “ask[ing] for his removal,” and/or passing “a House resolution to get rid of him.”

So, should Congress go after Barr — whose conduct surely should disqualify him from being America’s top law enforcement officer — or should it let Barr’s” high crimes and misdemeanors” pass so as not to distract from the President who has so grossly violated his presidential responsibility to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed?”