re: FBI Director Christopher Wray Pushed To Withhold Exculpatory Evidence In Mike Flynn Case

Part of the problem is that Barr and to some extent Wray are stuck with the mess generated by their predecessors.

If you are worried that what they did is bad enough that it would fracture or destroy the public trust of the institution completely, what do you do? Do you look at minimizing their damage and not exposing everything for the good of the institution/people? If you are a true believer in your institution, many times you will see people “fall on the sword” for the betterment of all.

Here Barr knows many people screwed up, but to release all of it would probably erode the trust to the DOJ in a manner that would make prosecution of almost any federal matter for many years an issue. So how do you slay the monster holding Pandora’s box without them dropping it and all the evils inside spilling out?

That is the struggle Barr has as a DOJ institutionalist. The best way to do that is to “freeze” the monster and take away Pandora’s box and then decide if you want to slay the beast or leave them frozen forever.

There is a reason why Van Grack has been left hanging. Why just enough is coming out to kill the charges against Flynn. Drip, drip, drip... Barr is trying to walk the tight rope between the travesty of injustice that the prior DOJ and FBI leadership left him, while trying to keep the institution whole and functioning...

The problem with that is it is almost impossible to do and therefore someone is going to pull the bandaid off and everything will implode. And then Barr will get tarnished with the rest of them.

He is going to be the captain that willingly jumped on a severely damaged sinking ship that is trying to get to the port, not because he wants to save the crew or the cargo or the passenger, but loves the ship itself.