Eli Lake, Columnist

Ukraine Is a Scandal. Barr’s Investigation of Mueller’s Report Is Not.

Why Democrats should allow the attorney general’s inquiry into the probe of the 2016 campaign to proceed.

October 1, 2019 at 9:10 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

On the same team.
Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg

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When the first details of the Ukraine scandal emerged, Senator Chris Murphy offered some sound advice. “Don’t get creative,” the Connecticut Democrat tweeted. “If an American president gets away with bullying foreign counties (sic) to do his political bidding then we should just give up and accept our new banana republic.”

The known facts, after all, are damning. President Donald Trump has acknowledged, and the summary of his July 25 phone call shows, that he urged the new Ukrainian leader to look into allegations about former Vice President Joe Biden peddled by Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. That is an abuse of power. And while I think impeachment so close to an election year is unwise, the scandal itself demands bipartisan rebuke.