Attorney General Bill Barr has been traveling overseas personally meeting with intelligence officials of foreign nations, asking for their help to investigate the FBI and CIA in an attempt to try to discredit investigations into President Donald Trump.

The Washington Post reports Bar has been “seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election.”

Barr has contacted officials in the UK and Australia, and made several trips to Italy to meet intelligence officials there.

Americans in the past few days were stunned to learn Barr was in Italy despite his trip having not been disclosed, even to the press. The Dept. of Justice appeared flustered in responding to reporters’ inquiries.

Intelligence experts are flabbergasted.

Related: Trump Used His Office to Pressure Australia to Help Barr Try to Discredit Mueller Report

“David Laufman, a former Justice Department official who was involved in the early stages of the Russia probe, said it was ‘fairly unorthodox for the attorney general personally to be flying around the world as a point person to further evidence-gathering for a specific Justice Department investigation,’ and especially so in Barr’s case.”

Some experts weigh in:

This scandal is spiralling out of control for the White House incredibly quickly. Trump is enlisting the powers of government to try to discredit the US investigation into a foreign attack on American democracy by the Kremlin and abusing his power for personal & political gain. https://t.co/ADt2ZlTY19

— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) September 30, 2019

Everyone just accepted that the Mueller investigation ended naturally & without interference from Barr. Given what we know now, how can we just accept that as gospel?

— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) September 30, 2019

In plain sight…. https://t.co/mBksWqlZ5z

— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) September 30, 2019

Remember all those Bush Admin “respectables” who thought Barr was an “institutionalist” and strong choice as AG. If not, please do. Don’t forget just how complicit they are in this situation. Our problem is not just Trump. It’s the GOP.

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) September 30, 2019

Kendzior retweeted this minutes ago:

“The GOP has been hijacked by a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government. This is not a secret.”

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) April 19, 2019

There are two laws that are very clear.

And they apply to Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin.

One says the IRS “shall” – not “can,” not “may” – hand over the tax returns of any person if requested by the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The second says any federal official who has anything to do with the tax laws must follow them or be removed from office snd face fines or jail – or both.

Tax law and economics expert, David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winner, explains at The Daily Beast:

“Under Section 6103 of our tax code, Treasury officials ‘shall’ turn over the tax returns ‘upon written request’ of the chair of either congressional tax committee or the federal employee who runs Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation. No request has ever been refused, a host of former congressional tax aides tell me.”

“There are no qualifiers in Section 6103 that shield Trump from delivering, in confidence, his tax returns to Congress. No wiggle room at all.”

New: ‘Lock Him Up!’: Calls Grow for Mnuchin to Be Jailed for Interfering With Law Requiring Release of Trump’s Taxes

But the buck, so to speak, does not stop there.

“There is, however, a law requiring every federal ’employee’  who touches the tax system to do their duty or be removed from office,” Johnston writes.

“The crystal-clear language of this law applies to Trump, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Mnuchin and [IRS chief] Rettig, federal employees all.”

“Another provision in our tax code, Section 7214(a), provides that ‘Any officer or employee of the United States acting in connection with any revenue law of the United States… who with intent to defeat the application of any provision of this title fails to perform any of the duties of his office or employment… shall be dismissed from office or discharged from employment and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than 5 years or both.'”

Read the entire article at The Daily Beast.