The fascists sure are excited that Donald Trump has named Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey as Co-Deputy FBI Director. A simple perusal of Bailey’s Wikipedia page should give everyone else pause.

So, what’s the case in favor of placing Bailey near the top of the U.S. Department of Justice?

Two weaknesses with the appointment of Kash Patel and Dan Bongino were that neither of them had large institutional leadership experience, and neither had organized long investigative processes within the legal system. The concerns therein were never about intent, but rather, their ability.

Andrew Bailey provides a boost in experience that both the Director and Deputy are lacking. This is not a slight against Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, the appointment of a subject matter expert is strategically necessary.

This makes it sound like Bailey has been good at his job as Attorney General of Missouri, but that’s simply not the case. It’s behind a paywall, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch maintains a running tally of all the examples “in which Missouri’s official lawyer has abused the legal process, refused to do his job and/or engaged in blatant conflicts of interest, all in service to a right-wing agenda.”

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, he seems unable to retain staff.

Bailey’s office has seen high turnover, with 1/3 of budgeted positions vacant in 2024. Staffing inconsistencies has led to extreme delays for open cases and has been criticized by fellow Republicans in Missouri Legislature…

He seems to have a particular problem agreeing to set prisoners free when they’ve been proven innocent, including one case where a person had served 43 years of a life sentence based on an errant conviction.

His entire term in office reads like a litany of fever-dream right-wing fantasies translated into official state legal policy. He’s gone after school districts over DEI based on faulty information, attacked gender-affirming care, tried to undermine Missouri’s legalization of abortion and sued Planned Parenthood, investigated Media Matters, and accused Starbucks of discriminating against white men.

He’s attempted to help Donald Trump by interjecting himself and his state into investigations taking place in New York and Florida.

It makes complete sense that Trump would tap him for a top position at Main Justice, but even standard-issue Republicans should be concerned about his commitment to impartial justice.

And, given his office’s inability to retain staff and deal with Missouri criminal cases in a timely manner, I really think the fascists are a bit overconfident about his abilities:

The reality of the DC silo system is not easily understood, and that is entirely by design. High profiles may generate headlines, but do not generate adequate results as increasingly evidenced by AG Bondi, Director Patel and Deputy Bongino, all essentially, TV performers.

To speak bluntly, Bondi, Patel and Bongino are in over their heads. However, Pam Bondi has Todd Blanche to run cover for her inadequacies. Kash Patel did not have the same; he does now.

The fascists’ hope is that Bailey is the final piece of a dream team that will create a Great Purge of the folks who investigated Russia’s role in the 2016 election.

Who’s on their list?

…Andrew Weissman, the Mueller probe “pitbull;” Mary McCord, who oversaw DOJ’s sprawling probe into possible Trump-Russia ties; Aaron Zelinsky, another Mueller probe prosecutor; and Charles McGonigal, a former FBI special agent in charge who also worked on the Russia probe of the Trump campaign.

The inclusion of McGonigal is somewhat hilarious. After all, as the Special Agent in Charge of the Counterintelligence Division for the New York Field Office, he was a key investigator into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. But, he was, at the same time working with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to help Russia evade U.S. sanctions. Deripaska’s relationship with Paul Manafort was one the main areas of concern. McGonigal has been sentenced to over six years in prison. It’s seems far more probable that he undermined the investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia than that he furthered it.

In any case, this is the kind of tortured logic that passes for right-wing thought, and it’s perfectly exemplified in the person of Andrew Bailey who will be taking his position at the Justice Department in early September.

It’s probably time for people to look at a biography of Lavrentiy Beria.