Barr's plan to put Joe Biden in jail. History's biggest frame-up is in the works.

We have a troubling report from Kyiv suggesting that William Barr may be readying an indictment of Joe Biden. The charges will be false, of course -- but they may stick, nonetheless.

Before we talk about this horrifying development, I must offer a few preliminary observations about the Attorney General.

Back when Dems were hoping that Barr would be one of the proverbial "adults in the room," I warned that he was a CIA operative with a history of deceit and underhanded behavior. Dems learned the truth -- the hard way -- when Barr lied about the Mueller report.

Digby understands why Barr is the most dangerous man in America: Barr is Trump with brains. Digby also punctures the myth that John Durham is a straight shooter.

This explains why his hand-picked special prosecutor, John Durham, broke every rule in the book by issuing his own statement saying he also disagrees with the IG's conclusions, hinting broadly that he's onto something big. If you can't remember a federal prosecutor ever talking about an ongoing investigation this way, it's because it simply isn;t done. Well, it hasn't been done. But at least it clarified that Durham is either a Rod Rosenstein-esque toady, afraid to stand up for himself, or another Trump partisan. A straight shooter wouldn't have broken that rule. Now we know.

Greg Sargent in the WP:

In saying those things, Barr is rewriting the story of 2016 in a subtle but consequential way. He’s implying that the FBI’s initial investigation was only motivated by what it had learned about the Trump campaign’s intentions with regard to coordinating with Russia’s electoral subversion effort.

But Barr is leaving out crucial facts and context. In fact, when the FBI launched this investigation, it had already developed an awareness that Russia was undertaking this attack on U.S. democracy — separate and apart from any Trump campaign involvement with it. This was a critical reason the FBI launched its investigation.

It's worse than that. The public is being brainwashed into believing that the FBI -- yes, the freakin' FBI -- is institutionally pro-liberal.

This insane assertion contradicts all experience, all history, all common sense. Virtually every book and article I've ever read about the Bureau has described it as a conservative institution that attracts conservative employees. From time to time, I've met people who have worked for the Bureau, and all of them were locatable somewhere on the right.

(I even met a former FBI guy -- a man who once held a prominent position -- who ended up on the Alex Jonesian lunatic fringe. Some of you may be able to guess who I'm talking about. Of course, I met a lot of weird people back in the 1990s.)

During the 2016 election, the only bias publicly demonstrated by the FBI was the decision to reveal the investigation into the Weiner laptop. That decision, which walloped Clinton, was probably forced on FBI Director Jim Comey by a pro-Trump contingent in the New York office. In fact, we now have confirmation that this FBI office was working with Rudy Giuliani.

When Comey made that announcemnt, Harry Reid and a whole lotta rank-and-file Dems accused Comey of pro-Republican bias. That accusation, though not really fair, has always been a lot more plausible than were the bizarre conspiracy theories later offered by the right. After all, Jim Comey was a registered Republican, and his actions effectively handed the presidency to Trump.

Logic tells us that, if the FBI really had been anti-Trump, the Bureau would have revealed that Trump was under investigation.

Moreover, FBI sources would not have told NYT reporters that the DNC hack was “was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Trump.” (Do you remember that infamous pre-election article?) It was the FBI's obvious pro-Trump bias which led an enraged Christopher Steele -- who was sincerely worried that a Russian puppet would gain the presidency -- to leak the Dossier to David Corn.

Yet Americans are being bombarded with propaganda designed to convinced them that the Bureau was pro-Clinton. Insane! Reality is being turned upside-down. Any propaganda apparatus capable of selling that absurd idea can also convince the public that Puff the Magic Dragon is real.

The triumph of propaganda will allow Barr to transform the Justice Department into an instrument of tyranny -- an Inquisition into any perceived foe of Donald Trump. Barr is Trump's Cardinal Richelieu.

Yes, Barr will indict Joe Biden. You read it here first, unless you follow the Kyiv Post or Seth Abramson (who has discussed the matter in this thread).

Attorney General Barr and his toady John Durham have the power to convene a Grand Jury. There are rumors that this has already occurred. Strong evidence suggests that the target will be Joe Biden.

Not Hunter: Joe himself.

Joe Biden is in danger of going to prison on false charges. I'm not kidding.

This incredibly important article in the Kyiv Post should have sounded far more alarm bells than we've heard.

A memo allegedly leaked from the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine shows that prosecutors are accusing former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden of receiving “an unlawful benefit” from former Ukrainian Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky’s Burisma Group, and oil and gas producer.

According to the document, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office also accuses Zlochevsky of offering Biden and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a share of Burisma Group’s profits.

Most Americans will not be able to understand just how audacious this lie is. First thing you have to know: Mykola Zlochevsky was a crook. (As I've noted in previous posts, he even looks like the Kingpin in Marvel Comics.) He was the corrupt former head of Burisma who, basically, robbed the company blind.

It's important to understand that Bursima was the victim. Too many American writers speak of Burisma as an innately evil enterprise. This is a smear -- a made-in-Russia lie. The Russians hate Burisma because, previously, Russians were in charge of Ukraine's natural gas. It was a very profitable enterprise -- one which gave Russia a great deal of leverage over Ukraine. Putin wants one of his 'garchs to run that show again.

Zlochevsky was exposed and ousted long before the company hired Hunter Biden to help rehabilitate the company's international image and allow it to do business in Western Europe. While Zlochevsky still ran the company, he had zero motive to attempt to bribe the American Vice President.

Joe Biden's taxes are a matter of public record. There's no "funny money" there -- if there were, we'd all know about it by now.

During the Obama administration, Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to can the corrupt prosecutor -- a shady character named Viktor Shokin -- who allowed Zlochevsky to get away with it. Zlochevsky's bank accounts in the UK were frozen, but the British case against him was stymied by Shokin's refusal to cooperate. That's one reason why Biden wanted Shokin fired.

Why on earth would Biden want Mr. See-No-Evil replaced, if Biden were the recipient of a Zlochevsky bribe? It makes no sense!

Zlochevsky's thievery started to come to light in 2012, when the Prosecutor General began to investigate him for money laundering and other crimes. This was before John Kerry was Secretary of State. By the time Kerry took on that job in 2013, pretty much everyone understood that Zlochevsky was no damned good; if memory serves, he was already out at Burisma by that point. Not long thereafter, he was forced to flee his home country.

Whatever you may think about Kerry, there is no way in hell the guy would have taken money from a known crook just after taking the oath of office as Secretary of State. Kerry is old and rich; he doesn't need the money. Moreover, he has always had a sterling reputation. If there was any corruption in his history, it would have come out in 2004, when the most ruthless oppo researchers in America examined every microsecond of that man's history. 

In short: This whole get-Biden narrative is utterly inane. Yet it will apparently have documentation to back it, and those documents will carry the imprimatur of the current Ukrainian government. (I told you not to trust Zelensky.)

Before we continue with the Kyiv Post article, you have to understand something else about Urkaine: Sergii Leshchenko is a true anti-corruption crusader -- probably the most trustworthy figure in the country. He's the one who exposed those obscene payments to Paul Manafort, a scandal which forced Manafort to step down as Trump's campaign manager.

Naturally, the pro-Trump and pro-Putin forces are out to destroy Leschenko's reputation.

(Don't mix up Sergii Leschenko with Yuri Lutsenko, the current Prosecutor General of Ukraine, who is not one of the good guys. The extra T in his name stands for Trump.)

Lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko published the memo on May 14. He said that the memo had been submitted by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s team to U.S. President Donald Trump’s team and that he had received it from journalists working for a news site affiliated with Trump.

The leaked memo came in response to claims by Trump’s personal lawyer, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, that Leshchenko had been convicted of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on the side of the Democratic Party, claims that Leshchenko denies.

"Convicted"? Are they nuts?

Leschenko's Wikipedia entry -- which is very lengthy -- mentions no such conviction. Under Ukrainian law, would it be a crime if he had helped the American Democratic party? In fact, Leschenko did not aid the Democrats -- but he did expose those illegal payments to Paul Manafort, who went to jail. What Leschenko did was not interference: It was decency.

Basically, every time you hear a Republican claim that Ukrainians helped Hillary, it's a reference to the justice meted out to Paul Manafort -- a man whose own daughters have accused him of having people killed. The smear-merchants are setting the stage for a Manafort pardon.

Here is the bottom line:

Leshchenko cast doubt on the veracity of the claims about Biden and Kerry. He said he believed the memo to be part of what he alleged was a disinformation campaign by Lutsenko.

“Lutsenko seeks to use Ukraine as a bargaining chip in the battle between the Democrats and the Republicans in the U.S.,” Leshchenko said. “They have created a conspiracy theory that made us hostages to one person’s desire to keep his job. (Lutsenko) should not get Ukraine involved in this terrible scenario and should not take President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy hostage.”

Lutsenko has been accused of trying to curry favor with Trump by investigating Biden, Trump’s potential Democratic rival in the 2020 presidential election.

Unfortunately, the media -- including the mainstream media -- has sold the American public on the idea that Zelensky is some sort of anti-corruption crusader. He is anything but. He's the puppet of Ihor Kolomoisky, a villainous oligarch who has been secretly working with Rudy Giuliani.

Unfortunately, Barr will probably get away with relying on false documentation and testimony supplied by Zelensky's government.

My prediction: Joe Biden is going to be indicted. He may even go to prison.

It will be the biggest frame-up in history -- and even if it doesn't put Joe in jail, it will insure the re-election of Donald Trump. Manafort will probably go free. (So will Roger Stone, but that's a separate matter.)

Like the Silver Surfer heralding the coming of Galactus, infuriating meme-smears like this are preparing the way for the Mother of All Smears.

Conspiracies are real, my friends. The true conspirators are on the right -- always. The true victims of these conspiracies are always moderates and liberals. (Real conspiracies usually do not target those on the far left, who often play the "useful idiot" role.) Such was the situation in Germany when the Nazis came to power in the 1920s, and such is the situation in America right now.

Walter Schaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, offers an important thread on this topic, which I have taken the liberty of translating into normal prose.

As Attorney General, Barr is a threat to democracy. He has distorted facts and misled the public. He appointed Durham to run a concurrent investigation because he knew the Inspector General would debunk his conspiracy theories, and he needed someone he could control.

Durham revealed much about his own character when he issued a transparently political message challenging the IG's report before completing his investigation. Barr, who deceived the public about the contents of the Mueller report, has similarly tried to undermine the IG report.

Barr's crackpot theory boils down to the idea that the last administration tried to sabotage Trump's candidacy by keeping its investigation of Trump's campaign completely secret while colluding with Jason Chaffetz to leak information about its investigation of Hillary Clinton.

Barr bizarrely argues it'd be bad if a president abused his power to sabotage a rival's campaign with an investigation. The notion that Obama came anywhere near doing this is the debunked lunacy of pizzagate enthusiasts, but it's exactly what the "transcript" shows Trump did. Barr's comments also suggest a plan to take personnel actions against individuals tied to the investigation of Trump. Whether action is warranted or not, an Attorney General commenting on personnel actions that must be taken by lower level managers suggests the fix is in.

Whether he ultimately intervenes in personnel matters is almost beside the point. His remarks were intended to intimidate the DOJ attorneys and FBI agents investigating others associated with the president. And there's something far more ominous that his remarks have signaled.

Barr, who traveled the world looking for ways to defend the politician he serves instead of the rule of law, has also signaled he may use the criminal investigative apparatus of the state to go after perceived enemies of his boss -- weaponizing it as a tool of a political party. Even the mere suggestion that he would do this is a direct assault on democracy and a betrayal of the public trust. It is extremely dangerous and may chill legitimate investigations. It's the stuff of autocracies. It must not be tolerated. It cannot be tolerated in a republic.

(Barr even talks like an authoritarian. He said he'd ignore any ethics guidance he disagreed with. He ignored the 1st amendment and blamed "secularism" for society's ills. He told certain "communities" [wink] they need to show more respect or live without police protection.)

In this context, it's important to remember that Trump fired Sessions the day after the election because he would not stop the Russia investigation. A president firing someone for failing to treat him as though he is above the law should have been viewed as an impeachable act. Instead, Barr was greeted warmly as a stabilizing force by people who should have known better. But, as the beneficiary of a slow motion Saturday Night Massacre, Barr was hired to do what Sessions wouldn't do. He was hired for this moment in history.