It is hard not to laugh at how much of a nothingburger this turned out to be. No October surprise from Barr on the great unmasking. No charges, no report, no bang, not even a whimper — and the investigating attorney also nowhere to be found having left the DOJ.
The federal prosecutor appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr to review whether Obama-era officials improperly requested the identities of individuals whose names were redacted in intelligence documents has completed his work without finding any substantive wrongdoing, according to people familiar with the matter.
The revelation that U.S. Attorney John Bash, who left the department last week, had concluded his review without criminal charges or any public report will rankle President Trump at a moment when he is particularly upset at the Justice Department. The department has so far declined to release the results of Bash’s work, though people familiar with his findings say they would likely disappoint conservatives who have tried to paint the “unmasking” of names — a common practice in government to help understand classified documents — as a political conspiracy.
Now, we all knew a fair wile back that this was yet another in a run of Trumped up bullshit. (Unmasking is not uncommon in the relevant intelligence circles, and you really cannot target someone for unmasking - because you do not know who the target is till the unmasking is concluded). Still, it is delightful to see their balloon deflate once more. So completely.
Add in the failure of the the Durham investigation into the FBI probes of the 2016 campaign to yield a report before the election (or at any time perhaps) and this seems like a trend.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch in my view.