The only thing missing from Barr's performance was a MAGA hat
Independent counsel Kenneth Starr and Attorney General William Barr may both be Republican loyalists, but they approached releasing their investigative reports with completely different objectives. Starr released an unvarnished screed directed at President Bill Clinton -- designed to drive him from office. Barr held a press briefing shortly before the report was actually released to make sure President Donald Trump can stay in office.
First, the law. Starr had largely unfettered power -- with no White House or Department of Justice oversight. His report was released without any advance briefings for Clinton's lawyers, and it left no sordid detail out. It was a document that almost begged House Republicans to impeach the President. In fact, Starr specifically and in writing denied Clinton's lawyers' access to the report in advance.
In the aftermath of Starr's overreach, Congress changed the independent counsel law -- requiring future special counsels to report directly to the attorney general, and thus paving the way for today's farce.
In fact, the only thing missing from Barr's performance was the Make America Great Again hat. He acted more as the President's defense attorney than as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. To begin with, Barr said he let the President's personal lawyers see the redacted report on multiple occasions, allowing Barr and the White House to coordinate on their basic legal talking points. And at his press briefing, he went one step further -- defending Trump's actions and saying he was motivated "by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks."
But Barr didn't stop there. While withholding the report from Congress, the media and the American public, he subjected us to a four-page summary of his own conclusions, including his personal sympathy for what the President has had to endure.
While Starr's release delivered a political punch to Clinton, he stuck to the reporting of the facts, as he gathered them. Barr took a different approach -- he cherry picked information from the report to report conclusions that the report itself does not appear to entirely support, such as the complex issue of obstruction (for which Mueller did not draw a conclusion).
Although Starr's rollout was painful to go through, in and of itself, it was fair. Barr's performance, by contrast, is an international embarrassment that will permanently stain our democracy.
So, where does that leave us? While Starr's release hurt the President, it also answered all the outstanding questions about his investigation. Barr, on the other hand, may have helped Trump in the short term -- but may have buried him down the road. After the Starr report was released, reporters had no further investigative questions, leaving only political ones. Barr, however, has created as many questions as the report answers.
Here's one thing to watch: On the day Starr released his report, Clinton's approval rating was at 63%. Shortly after, when the House voted on his impeachment, Clinton's rating soared to 73%. It's hard to see Trump's ratings jumping significantly after Thursday's release, given that questions will linger about how political Barr has become.
Just as the special counsel regulations yielded unintended consequences on Thursday, I think the political power play by Barr may just yield some unintended consequences of its own.
Joe Lockhart, White House press secretary from 1998-2000 in President Bill Clinton's administration, is a CNN political commentator. He co-hosts the podcast "Words Matter."
Barr mansplains away Trump's emotions
In a press conference so obsequious it would impress Kim Jong Un, Attorney General William Barr took great pains to flout the ethical requirements of his profession and instead behave as President Donald Trump's personal attorney, spokesman, and brand manager. There is, Barr said, "substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency." When a reporter asked about the appearance that Barr was protecting the president, "including acknowledging [Trump's] feelings and emotions," Barr responded, "Actually, the statements about his sincere beliefs are recognized in the report."
Men in an emotional tailspin have "sincere beliefs." Women who simply speak from expertise and from the heart are shrill (or, in Trump's take on Hillary Clinton, "She can be kind of sha-riiiiill").
Wild-eyed photos of politically powerful women inevitably illustrate articles about them on right-wing websites (and sometimes even in the mainstream press). Trump is perhaps the most emotionally unbalanced national politician in living memory, tweeting semi-literate all-caps outbursts and frothing up his followers with incoherent tirades. There is great irony in the fact that this extraordinarily emotional president is cast as acting badly because of his "beliefs," not his uncontrollable moods.
Anger isn't just an emotion when women express it, and feelings don't morph into beliefs just because it's men who are expressing them. Nor, of course, is frustration a defense to the alleged commission of a crime.
Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in Washington and the author of the book, "The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness.
The control-F search you should do on the Mueller report
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report is nearly 400 pages long. As a real-world reference point, the Modern Classics version of "To Kill a Mockingbird" runs 384 pages. Even if Attorney General William Barr makes so many color-coded redactions to Mueller's report that it looks like a pack of Skittles exploded, do not expect a standard law enforcement investigative recap. We are about to get hit with a novel-length tome.
Strategies abound for how best to read the report. Here's my suggested first move: use the "find" function. Hit control-F and plug in these five keywords to get a quick sense of how Mueller addresses the most pressing -- and mysterious -- issues raised during his investigation.
Read more here to see the five keywords Honig recommends.
Elie Honig is a former federal and state prosecutor and CNN legal analyst.
Pay attention to this footnote in Barr's letter
Less detailed attention is being paid to Barr's description of the results of the special counsel's investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russian interference in the 2016 election. This includes attempts by the Russian Internet Research Agency "to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord," as well as "the Russian government's efforts to conduct computer hacking operations designed to gather and disseminate information" to influence the election. Yet, hiding in plain sight is a footnote in which Barr explains that he and Mueller are using a definition of coordination that requires proof of an agreement, which is contrary to the law and Federal Election Commission regulations and, more importantly, has been rejected by the Supreme Court. It is also a definition with which Americans should not feel comfortable.
Read more here to understand why this "footnote" is so important.
Larry Noble is the former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission (1987-2000). He is currently a CNN contributor and has served as general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center and executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics.
Before you read the Mueller report: five things to know about what the attorney general has said
... Barr faced relentless questions regarding his handling of the Mueller report at every turn, not to mention the Justice Department's handling of the Trump administration's attempts to destroy the Affordable Care Act. And while he generally stayed cool under fire, he actually revealed quite a few new pieces of information about the national mystery surrounding his intentions with respect to the release of the Mueller report.
Read more here for a defense attorney's takeaways from Barr's statements about the report.
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