Reprinted with permission from DailyKos.

Sen. Lindsey Graham took to the Sunday talk shows to bask in the Senate’s nullification of Donald Trump’s impeachment for using the tools of his power to extort the Ukrainian government into providing him “dirt” on a Democratic election opponent. It is not just Trump who appears to feel unleashed; Graham, too, was eager to describe the next steps of the administration-led descent into American fascism.

A first step: Trump “private lawyer” Rudy Giuliani’s smear campaign against the Bidens is now moving into Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department. Whatever Barr’s prior pretenses may have been, Barr is now explicitly establishing the means by which Rudy’s propaganda can be filtered into official “investigations” of Trump’s targeted enemies.

Throughout the House and press investigations into the Ukraine scandal, Trump Attorney General Barr either refused comment or denied that he was involved with the Giuliani efforts, despite Trump specifically naming both Barr and Giuliani as contacts for the Ukrainian president in the “transcript” of Trump’s now-infamous phone call. Whether this was a lie or not—and it is almost certainly a direct lie by a complicit Barr—such pretenses have now vanished.

On CBS’s Face the Nation, Graham said that the Department of Justice is now “receiving information coming out of the Ukraine, from Rudy.” Barr’s Justice Department, says Graham, has “created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified.”

And this, in turn, means the claims of Russian organized crime-tied Dmytro Firtash, seeking to exchange “dirt” on Biden in exchange for the U.S. Department of Justice dropping his indictments in this country, are now being funneled through Giuliani directly into a Barr-led Justice Department that seems more then agreeable to making such a trade.

That was not the only assertion from Graham that Republicans and the Trump administration would be adopting new fascist policies of targeting and retaliating against Dear Leader’s critics and enemies. Just after Trump removed multiple U.S. government officials (and a family member) who testified to the House impeachment committee despite Trump and Barr’s standing orders to refuse House subpoenas, Graham indicated that many of those who investigated Trump will be heading to prison.

“We’re not going to live in a world where as a Republican you get investigated from the day you’re sworn in, three years later they’re still coming after you,” said Graham, erasing both Whitewater and the Benghazi “investigations” from the nation’s history.

“Here’s what amazes me. The Russian investigation, what happened? Half the people behind the Russia investigation are going to go to jail,” the Republican told his Fox News host. “And Trump was cleared.”

This means that the president’s self-identified “personal lawyer”, acting on behalf of known-corrupt pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs and ex-officials and in concert with two now-indicted launderers of Russian cash, is now directly channeling conspiracy claims against Trump’s election opponent to the U.S. Attorney General’s office. There is no longer any pretense of Giuliani’s efforts not being state policy.

“When? Hopefully,” host Maria Bartiromo mugged.

“Well, just hang tight,” Graham responded.

We are now well into fascism, and it is the Republican Senate that is not merely looking the other way, but aggressively assisting Trump’s team in its implementation. Those that testified against Trump are being removed, despite laws seemingly barring such retaliation. The propaganda efforts against Trump’s targeted political foe spearheaded by Rudy Giuliani (financed, it should be noted, from Russia, as previous Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort was financed for his own role in manipulating Ukraine towards Russian interests while creating schisms between that country and the West) are now being pipelined directly into Barr’s Department of Justice.

Barr, whose department attempted to stifle the Ukrainian whistleblower complaint and worked to sabotage all investigation of Trump, has issued orders that he must be informed of and approve of any new investigations that touch on a 2020 campaign or candidate—both giving him direct access to any information potentially damaging to Trump’s foes while maintaining absolute power to block probes of Trump himself.

It is in this environment that Lindsay Graham, who has been one of the prime advocates of Trump’s new, law-bending authoritarian powers, has confidence that Trump’s prior investigators will be jailed. “Just hang tight,” he tells his propagandizing state media host.