MaddowBlog: Trump, Bill Barr, and the arrival of the worst-case scenario

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-bill-barr-arrival-worst-case-scenario-n1137636

Feb. 17, 2020, 8:00 AM EST

By Steve Benen

After a week in which the politicization of federal law enforcement jolted much of the political world, many are understandably concerned about highly unusual threats to the nation's justice system. Indeed, there's a temptation to imagine a worst-case scenario and wonder whether we're likely to reach it.

But what if those fears are misplaced -- not because the threat will never arrive, but because it's already here? What if the worst-case scenario is not a hazard on the horizon, but rather, the point at which we've already arrived?

What if the justice system we fear might buckle has already been beaten into submission by those who see the rule of law as politically inconvenient?

Donald Trump pressed federal law enforcement to go after Andrew McCabe, the former acting FBI director who authorized investigations into the president's Russia ties. Soon after, the Justice Department did, in fact, target the longtime FBI official, looking in vain for some kind of crime with which to indict him. Prosecutors convened a grand jury, but couldn't find wrongdoing.

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[crazylikafox]

1. So the grand jury refused to indict?

I didn’t realize they had gone as far as a grand jury. Which means they tried to make a case and “the people” told them to go pound sand