I'm glad Nancy is calling the shots now!

"Among the many Trump administration toadies, there is one who stands out from the pack for the depths to which he’s sacrificed any and all dignity to further the president’s interests: Attorney General William Barr. In addition to the (relatively!) benign act of cutting Trump a $30,000 check for the honor of throwing the Justice Department’s holiday party at his Washington hotel, Barr famously took it upon himself to clear the president of obstruction of justice even though Robert Mueller’s report did not at all do that. (Those aware of the fact that Barr got his current job by sending an unsolicited 19-page memo to the DOJ in June 2018, in which he called the special counsel’s inquiry into potential obstructions of justice “fatally misconceived,” and insisted “Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction,” would not have been surprised.)

And now, Barr seemingly believes he can carry on business as usual at the Justice Department, despite the fact that it was his department that conveniently told the acting director of National Intelligence he had no obligation to send an “urgent” whistle-blower report to Congress, which may or may not have had something to do with the fact that Barr himself was mentioned in the complaint. (Barr holds he did nothing improper.) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though, has a slightly different point of view!

Speaking to CNN on Friday, Pelosi said, “the attorney general has gone rogue,” adding that “he has for a long time now. And since he was mentioned in all of this, it’s curious that he would be making decisions about how the complaint would be handled.” The complaint, released on Thursday, did not detail any actions taken by Barr that contributed to the effort to persuade Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. But it did describe Trump’s claim, during a July 25 phone conversation, that Barr would give Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky a call about the investigation he was hoping the Eastern European nation would undertake, withholding aid to incentivize the guy. Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said Wednesday that Barr had not communicated with Ukraine on anything, nor had he spoken with Rudy Guliani about the phone call “or anything relating to Ukraine.” But you’ll have to forgive Pelosi—and, y’know, millions of Americans—if she’s not willing to give Barr the benefit of the doubt.