It’s long been common knowledge that Donald Trump values loyalty above all else.
With that in mind, it makes sense that political betting sites are taking action on Attorney General Bill Barr’s future in what remains of the Trump administration.
This week, we learned that Barr has known about two federal investigations into Hunter Biden for months and worked diligently to hide that information both from Republicans in Congress and the American public ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
While the media and Democratic officials were dishonestly labeling stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop as “Russian disinformation,” Trump’s top law enforcement official stayed silent, which — while arguably the correct course of action for an Attorney General — was never a luxury afforded the current President during political career.
Every investigation into the Trump family was rife with leaks to the media, usually painting his situation as worse than what would eventually transpire. So, –rightly or wrongly – it’s understandable that this Hunter Biden story must feel like an enormous betrayal to Donald Trump.
Will Bill Barr Get Fired or Resign in 2020?
- Matchup Odds
- No-300
- Yes+200
“One investigation became public this week after federal investigators served a subpoena on Hunter Biden. The subpoena sought detailed financial information in connection with a criminal tax investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, according to people familiar with the matter.
“Federal prosecutors in Manhattan had also been looking at Hunter Biden’s business and financial dealings, as part of a broader criminal investigation that two people familiar with the matter described as an international financial investigation that had been going on for at least a year. Hunter Biden is implicated in that investigation but was never a specific target for criminal prosecution, the people said. They declined to provide details on the substance of the probe.”
On Wednesday, Hunter made an official announcement regarding the investigations.
“I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors,” reads Biden’s statement.
The president-elect’s transition team followed it up with a press release of their own, in which Biden’s father dismissed the allegations as more “vicious personal attacks” against his 50-year-old son.
Meanwhile, the collection of probes appears to be about much more than mere tax issues.
Investigators are looking into potential money laundering as well as what the Senate Finance, Homeland Security, and Governmental Affairs committees’ 87-page report calls “criminal financial, counterintelligence and extortion concerns.”
After writing off the initial story for having “all the hallmarks of Russian disinfo” a little over a month ago; this week, CNN reports “at least one of the matters investigators have examined is a 2017 gift of a 2.8-carat diamond that Hunter Biden received” from an executive at a state-backed Chinese energy firm.
What we care about on this page is whether the bombshell news will affect William Barr’s employment status.
No Plan to Resign
Recently, some have speculated that Barr may resign after making comments that the DOJ hadn’t found evidence of voter fraud that would overturn the election result, which enraged the President.
If Trump was angry before, one could only imagine how livid he is that his Attorney General sat on information that may have swung the race in the incumbent’s favor!
However, on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that “Attorney General William Barr plans to remain in his post and won’t step down early unless President Donald Trump asks him to leave.”
Will this latest “slap in the face” be enough to motivate Donald Trump to fire AG Barr if he isn’t willing to exit on his own?
Barr Did His Job; the Media Did Not
It’s important to separate what was probably President Trump’s expectation for Bill Barr from his actual duties as Attorney General. Despite the likely feelings of betrayal, Justice Department guidelines instruct against any investigatory actions that might disrupt an election.
You wouldn’t want incumbents’ AGs launching public investigations and leaking all the juicy (and probably manufactured) details to the public every election year.
However, in a functioning democracy, the ownness to cover this extremely newsworthy story is supposed to fall on the media. That didn’t happen.
In fact, they did just the opposite.
The President was right to be frustrated on Thursday night when he tweeted:
Make no mistake; the public deserved to know the details of these investigations before Election Day.
Now, they’ve elected someone likely to be embroiled in scandals and congressional investigations for their entire first term. The Democratic Party may have been forced to nominate a less corrupt candidate had journalists done their jobs sooner.
What’s worse is media outlets didn’t just ignore the Hunter Biden story; along with the social media giants, they actively worked to discredit and bury it. They didn’t even make an honest effort to find the truth; they just made baseless claims that the entire story was Russian propaganda.
- Slate: “The New York Post’s controversial ‘scoop’ involves some shady behavior.”
- Politico: “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”
- NPR: “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions. And quite frankly, that’s where we ended up, this was … a politically driven event, and we decided to treat it that way.”
- The Washington Post: “The real problem here is this is a useless question from a journalistic perspective. It won’t inform people or hold Biden accountable in any meaningful way. Large parts of the story are invented/unconfirmed/highly dubious. What is learned by placing the work of denying them on Biden?” Wrote Greg Sargent, in response to CBS’ Bo Erickson daring to ask Joe Biden to comment on the laptop story.
- CNN published an article titled “The Anatomy of the New York Post’s Dubious Hunter Biden Story,” which celebrated the fact that “the media world has largely ignored the Post’s Hunter Biden story.”
- CNN reporter Brian Stelter claimed: “this is a classic example of the right-wing media machine.”
- David Frum tweeted: “The people on the far right and far left who publicized the obviously bogus New York Post story were not dupes. They were accomplices.”
- Twitter and Facebook blocked links to the NY Post article and banned users from sharing and discussing the allegations.
Now we know every one of the sources named above was who was spreading disinformation — and they’re far from the only ones!
It’s not hard to wonder why President Trump may have expected AG Barr to skirt the rules in such a partisan environment. If the so-called “fourth estate” isn’t going to do their job, how are the American people supposed to make an informed decision in the voting booth?
At the same time, that’s not Barr’s problem.
Though I’m not sure that’ll be a good enough excuse to save his job.
Will Barr Be Fired?
Now that the supreme court has rejected Texas’ legal challenge, Donald Trump is all out of options. He’s not going to be able to overturn the election result, no matter what kinds of fraud may or may not have taken place.
He’s probably tempted to fire every official he deems responsible out of spite. But there’s one thing that may persuade Trump to wait.
Appointing a Special Counsel
Along with several Republican officials, the President is calling on Barr to assign a special counsel to investigate the Hunter Biden situation.
“We gotta get the attorney general to act and he’s gotta act and he’s gotta act fast,” the President said on a call with “Fox and Friends” Tuesday. “He’s gotta appoint somebody. This is major corruption, and this has to be known about before the election.”
Well, it’s too late for a special counsel to be appointed before the election, but there’s another month to get it done before the Biden administration takes power and sweeps this under the rug.
The clock is ticking for Bill Barr.
It’s an urgent request for Republicans because special counsels are protected by federal regulations and can operate without the threat of dismissal from the White House. Anyone investigating the President’s son needs to be shielded from interference, or they’ll be fired as soon as Biden enters the office.
President Trump isn’t the only voice calling to get this done.
Colorado Rep. Ken Buck wrote to the Attorney General, “This investigation is critical to defending the integrity of our republic and ensuring a potential Biden administration will not be the subject of undue foreign interference,” Fox News reported on Monday.
“Americans have the right to know whether Mr. Biden’s reported ties to foreign governments will make him the subject of blackmail attempts or other nefarious efforts to undermine U.S. national security or otherwise improperly influence American foreign policy,” Buck added.
On Thursday, Sen. Tom Cotton echoed Rep. Buck and President Trump’s sentiments, calling on the Attorney General to appoint a special counsel to handle the investigation of Hunter Biden before his dad is sworn into office on January 20.
“There are allegations of securities fraud, money laundering related to Hunter Biden’s Chinese businesses, a crooked hospital deal with Jim Biden, Joe Biden’s brother out in western Pennsylvania. These investigations span multiple jurisdictions,” said Cotton.
He added: “If Joe Biden becomes President, then all those prosecutors are in line to be fired next month. If there were ever circumstances that create a conflict of interest and call for a special counsel, that’s here.”
Rep. Devin Nunes agreed. “I have concern now that this investigation will be squashed,” he told Fox Business. “So, we’re probably going to have to look at — and I will talk to my colleagues in the Senate and the House — this probably needs to be a special counsel.”
If Bill Barr wants to keep his job, he better appoint a special counsel to investigate this matter in the very near future. I’d expect that the person chosen to lead this investigation will play a crucial role in Trump’s decision as well.
Timing is Everything
How close to January 20 might the Attorney General play it?
Having lost all of his significant legal challenges, I suspect Donald Trump will be keeping the pressure on Barr to appoint a special counsel as soon as possible.
There’s no way he’ll want to take any chances of letting the Biden’s off the hook after feeling as if he’s been robbed of a second term.
If Barr hasn’t chosen an adequately aggressive investigator by Christmas, I think Trump will fire him and replace him with an interim AG who will.
That’s why I’m taking “Yes” at +200.
Bonus Pick: Kamala Harris Presidency
I’ll be covering this more in-depth in another article dedicated to the Hunter Biden investigations, but the pieces are quickly moving into place for Kamala Harris to become the President of the United States.
She was the Democratic elite’s favorite since before the party primaries. However, after failing to win a single delegate, the establishment needed Joe Biden’s empty husk to deliver her to the White House.
When Donald Trump was still a threat to win reelection, the media conspired to squash any negative stories about the president-elect. But now he’s done his job.
Expect the investigation into Hunter and Jim Biden (Joe’s brother) to unearth some extremely unflattering evidence of corruption – especially the family’s close financial ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
As soon as things get too hot, Biden will resign, citing health reasons.
At the moment, no political props are covering Kamala Harris taking over the presidency.
There are, however, 2024 election betting odds.
Once Biden is gone, President Harris becomes a heavy favorite to win the party’s nomination in four years; she’ll probably run unopposed.
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