Barr doesn't let facts get in the way of what he says.
If the democrats win in 2020, Bill Barr could go to prison for the rest of his life. The democrats won't send him to prison though, his illegal acts and the courts will, ya just need an honest AG and justice department to look into it. Bill Barr knows what Bill Barr did, unfortunately for him, so do a lot of other people. I figure Barr, Perry, Pompeo, Pence and a host of others are at serious risk of long prison sentences, and Rudy is practically in his cell already. Busting these clowns will be child's play for any competent prosecutor, many have gone down for far less. It's win in 2020 or die in prison for Trump and his minions, the stakes are even higher for Putin and MBS would literally lose his head. Look for massive hostile foreign interference and cheating in the 2020 election, Trump and the GOP left the door wide open for a reason, survival.
Still no FEC commissioner appointed by the GOP
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Pro-Biden super PAC goes up in Iowa — Holding to retire; Foxx goes up on TV with new North Carolina map
www.politico.com
THE ENFORCERS? — The FEC last had a quorum 100 days ago, leaving the country’s top cop for campaign finance off the beat.
“The nation’s election and campaign finance watchdog lacks the ability to bark or bite,” Michael Beckel, the research director at the good governance group Issue One, told Score. “There’s more money than ever flowing in through politics, and the public needs to have faith that bad actors will be scrutinized and penalized.”
Personnel problems is not a new issue for the FEC: Commissioners have as of late stayed on well past when their terms have expired — including all three of the remaining commissioners, because no replacements have been nominated. But thelast time the FEC lacked a quorum for an extended period of time was in 2008, and there’s no end in sight.
“Out in the political world, I think there are some campaigns that are going to push the envelope, with the lack of an FEC quorum,” former commissioner Michael Toner, a Republican, told Score. “I do think the odds are growing that there’s going to be no FEC quorum through the presidential election.”
Among the things the FEC cannot do: approve public financing for presidential candidates, something that Steve Bullock and Beto O’Rourke at least considered before ending their campaigns; advance (or dismiss) any investigations on both old and new complaints; and issue advisory opinions to campaigns. Commissioners “can only have coffee together if they want,” former commissioner Ann Ravel, a Democrat now running for state Senate in California, said. “And they don’t, because there’s such great animosity in that commission.”
In an interview, FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, stressed to Score that the lack of a quorum could have a ripple effect on clearing a backlog of cases, even once one is restored. “I think people certainly cannot have confidence that violations will be addressed in a timely fashion,” she said. “This is really going to make it harder to get any of our current caseload done on a timely basis.”
The FEC is not in a total stasis, however. Everyone who spoke to Score was quick to point out that campaign finance reports were still due and were still being disclosed, perhaps the agency’s most public duty. And just because there’s no quorum now, it doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way forever. “We’re not in the middle of a legal-free-zone here,” Toner said. “You might not be sanctioned by the FEC now, but you could be a year or two from now.”
The GOP-controlled Senate could, theoretically, end the stalemate whenever it wants. Trump’s
nomination of Trey Trainor, a Republican lawyer from Texas, has languished since Sept. 2017 (he was renominated at the beginning of the 116th Congress as well). But some Republicans — including Republican vice chair Caroline Hunter, who wrote a
POLITICO Magazine op-ed critical of Weintraub in October — have instead called for a full new slate of nominees to both replace the three commissioners serving past the end of the term and fill the three empty seats. A Senate GOP leadership aide hinted at that being the preferred strategy, telling Score that “the goal has always been to have a full commission. That will take bipartisan cooperation. Discussions continue on how to accomplish the goal” (read the
Center for Public Integrity’s Dave Levinthal from September for more on the vacancies).