It appears that Attorney General Bill Barr and President Donald Trump tried to pressure Australian officials to help them dig up dirt on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller to discredit the Russia investigation in exchange for help negotiating the release of hostages from Iran.
Trump and Barr have been desperately trying to undermine Mueller’s findings since Barr took over the Justice Department. The report confirmed that Russia interfered with the 2016 Election and that Trump obstructed justice multiple times.
Barr has since opened his own probe in a futile effort to discover a conspiracy against Trump that does not exist.
But both apparently have no problem leveraging American diplomacy in exchange for help from other nations to provide the dirt they are seeking.
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As you may recall, Trump withheld vital military aide from Ukraine last year to extort officials there into investigating his political rivals. This misconduct got him impeached, and he was only spared removal from office because Senate Republicans rigged the trial in his favor.
Trump hasn’t learned his lesson at all, because he is now using the same tactic to extort help from Australia.
According to the Daily Beast:
In a series of conversations last September, senior Department of Justice officials worked with representatives of the Australian government to hammer out an arrangement to win the release of a pair of Australian bloggers imprisoned in Tehran.
Barr, like his boss, President Donald Trump, had long had a view of the Russia probe that bordered on hostile, and his review has been widely seen as an attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation, which led to the indictment of multiple Trumpworld associates. Just days before the culmination of talks in September—which coincided with an official Australian state visit—Trump himself pushed Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help Barr with this inquiry.”
So, it really looks like Trump and Barr wanted something in return for their help trying to free Australians held captive in Iran, and the help they allegedly wanted is for the Australian government to join their witch hunt against Mueller to help cover up the Russia scandal.
Barr followed up about the Mueller re-investigation, two U.S. officials and a third individual familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast, even as American and Australian officials finalized their arrangement to try to free the pair jailed in Iran. According to four sources—including those two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official—the American government agreed to help facilitate the release of the Australian bloggers, in part by agreeing to pull back from pursuing the extradition of an Iranian scientist held in Australia.
The discussions between Washington and Canberra raise questions about why the Department of Justice engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to help win the release of Australian hostages from Iran and whether the president’s request to have the country assist in Barr’s Russia inquiry influenced the department’s decision-making.”
Again, this is same kind of behavior that resulted in an impeachment investigation and the filing of articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives. Clearly, another such inquiry is necessary and this time Barr should be included alongside Trump. This corruption cannot be tolerated. Helping our allies should not come with a price, especially a sinister one. The Russia investigation was legitimate and Trump should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for his crimes when he leaves office. And now prosecutors have another bribery charge to add to the list.
Featured image via Political Tribune photo gallery
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