How does a man with no credibility provide credibility to an investigation that starts off with no credibility?

Courtesy of TPM:

Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday defended the criminal probe into the origins of the 2016 Russian investigation — a probe that is under fire for appearing to be geared toward validating conspiracy theories — and said FBI Director Chris Wray has lent “outstanding” support to John Durham, the U.S. attorney ostensibly leading the ongoing investigation.

Barr claimed in the interview that Durham was “in charge” of the probe. The probe started last spring as an administrative review of how the Russian election meddling investigation was launched, but has since evolved into a criminal investigation, the New York Times reported last week.

It’s unclear what alleged crimes are being investigated. The timing of the leak to the New York Times that the probe was now criminal prompted speculation that the news was being put out to counteract last week’s cascade of damaging revelations in the House’s impeachment inquiry.

Barr on Monday pointed to Durham’s leadership to push back on the criticism the ongoing probe has attracted.

Durham is a “by the book” kind of guy, Barr said, who has a “great reputation for nonpartisanship” and was previously selected by attorneys general in Democratic administration to lead “sensitive investigations.”

“As I understand, he is making great progress,” Barr told Fox News, later adding that he was “confident” the Durham will “get to the bottom of things.”

“We’ll let the chips fall where they may,” he said.

So here’s the thing about Barr defending an investigation by claiming that the guy behind the investigation is some kind of by the book professional over flowing with integrity, that is the same argument that many made about him before he entered Trump’s orbit. 

And clearly that was all bullshit. 

What we have seen in the past are people with integrity pulled into Trump’s orbit, who either flame out early and tumble back to earth or become assimilated and turn to the dark side with the rabid fervor of a Manson family member. 

We have already seen Trump and his minions attempting to force other foreign leaders to manufacture evidence to smear his political opponents or undermine the Russia investigation, so why would we not expect more of the same from Bill Barr and his flunkies?

I don’t know much of anything about John Durham but if Barr is betting that his mere participation will protect the investigation from criticism while also ensuring that it will reach the conclusions which please his boss, then he has either badly miscalculated who Durham is or the fix is already in.