Because this country either takes a long hard look at this guy right here, now, and the damage done, or nothing, not one thing, gets better. That's why. The Republican party needs to address how damaging and bad he was so they can improve, if that's ever going to be a thing. The Democratic party needs to address how damaging and bad he was so they can understand how you can not rely on Republicans' good intentions or judgment to save us. We all need to understand why crime-adjacent amoral reality show hosts aren't fucking responsible government leadership material. And we need to get to just how much he fucked up if we ever want to unfuck it.
Anyway, you might ask yourself, where is that unsealed Barr memo we were supposed to be getting? And then cursed Merrick Garland out for not wanting to release all of it. (Or, I don't know, maybe you're normal people, but if so, what are you doing here?) So, I get the equity of the thing--the DOJ has ongoing matters and maybe not all their business needs to be out in the street, so this is protective--not of Barr, but just the agency in general. It's also a little political:
Why, no! Nobody here is slavering for the heads and entrails of the previous administration's stalwart cover-up artists, that would be petty and beneath us and besides....
We have time.
The idea that DOJ doesn't go after a sitting president is one of those known but untested things--it's right up there with the extent of executive privilege. Mueller took it for granted in his report. I keep going back to the "murder on 5th Avenue" hypothesis though--what if you got him dead to rights? What if the president is engaging in unlawful activity for no discernible national interest at all, but only self-interest? That's an investigation in and of itself--what is the interest, which might not be readily discernible but still exists, for a president to ostensibly be covering up his own dirt like a cat in a litterbox? But you know--for the people? My gut feeling says --no Trump was covering up his own dirt for himself.
Maybe Congress will have the Russian investigation obstruction elucidated for them a bit when former White House counsel Don McGahn testifies in a closed-door hearing as soon as next week (instead of like, a year and half or so ago when it should have been). McGahn has always been a little fascinating to me as having been involved in a complicated maneuver (as I understand it) of being asked to fire Mueller, and then lie about whether he was asked to fire Mueller, and then be asked to lie about being asked to lie. (Trump loves to get people fired, even if it's stupid--getting Comey fired got him the Mueller investigation. If Mueller was fired, that would have been super Saturday Night massacre. And he also wanted to fire his own appointed FBI Director, Christopher Wray, because something something Russia, something something "election security". Weird, right?
Anyhow, in more Mueller-era stuff, some of the redacted information from the Manafort trial has been unsealed, and whoo! Manafort and Gates were just all over the place contacting Konstantin Kilimnik with polling data and whatnot and discussion of a Ukraine plan that would have Russia in control of part of the region. (Yes, this mattered during 2016, and regarding the first impeachment. TrumpWorld using Ukraine to get/keep Trump in power. It still matters.)
If we're still getting stories relating to the 2016 election--here in 2021? How long will be be looking at the 2020 shenanigans--what with the ongoing rehashing of the election results and the attempted insurrection and all? (And what shenanigans they were! And in the case of the "fraudits" and voter suppression laws, still are!) I may very well be writing these things forever.
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