WELL, THAT’S A TAKE: The press plays along with AG William Barr’s obstruction of justice ploy.

The bottom line: Mueller’s report provided evidence of obstruction of justice. After receiving the report, Barr then decided not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice (surprise!) and issued a brief summary of Mueller’s work. Right now, the Mueller report and all the underlying evidence remain under lock and key at the DOJ. And no, Mueller had no say over the contents of Barr’s letter, which quoted selectively from the prosecutor’s work.

The whole scenario seems preposterous on its face, yet the White House is hoping it can pull it off. The painful realization is that there’s a chance it can, and specifically that it can rely on the political press to lose interest in the conflict, kind of like it lost interest in Trump refusing to release his tax returns. (This is the same press corps that focused like a laser for 18 months on Hillary Clinton’s emails.)

If the roles were reversed, you’d be damn sure the press would be leading a crusade for more information.

If the roles were reversed — and as recently as 2016, they were — we’d still be glowing in reports about that “remarkably scandal-free administration.”