It's an enduring myth among former President Donald Trump's backers that the investigation into his Russia ties came up empty. In fact, the special counsel's report on the issue was damning, and it was only typically shameless spinning by Trump's sycophantic attorney general, Bill Barr, that allowed the myth of exoneration to take hold. Now, a federal judge's ruling may help correct the facts. The judge accused Barr of misleading not just the public but also Congress and the courts about the investigation, and ordered the release of previously withheld documentation. The Biden administration's Justice Department should comply without delay.

The GOP claim that the Russia investigation was a baseless "witch hunt" from the start borders on comical, given the facts that aren't even in dispute: During the 2016 campaign, Trump publicly encouraged Russia to hack into rival Hillary Clinton's emails, and Russian hackers did so that very day. Trump's top campaign officials met in Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who claimed to have dirt on Clinton, and Trump himself later concocted a public lie to explain the nature of that meeting.

During the 2016 GOP national convention, Trump's team pressed the party to ease off on criticizing Russian aggression. When the Russia investigation started, Trump fired his own FBI director to stop it, admitting his motives on national television. If Trump had been trying to provide cause for suspicion, it's difficult to imagine what more he could have done.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's probe outlined all of this as well as Trump's extreme attempts, both publicly and behind the scenes, to thwart the investigation, which is the dictionary definition of obstruction of justice. The report was delivered to Barr — who held off on releasing it to the public until he could put out his own summary of the findings that made it appear to have exonerated Trump. Mueller complained directly to Barr that he had misrepresented the report's finding. A federal court agreed, issuing a scathing opinion in early 2020 that accused Barr of a "calculated attempt" to mislead the public.

A different court last week accused Barr of also misleading Congress and the court itself. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled in favor of a watchdog group seeking release of a memo related to Barr's decision not to prosecute Trump for obstruction. Jackson called Barr's explanation about how he reached that decision "disingenuous," and ordered Barr's successors at the Justice Department to release the memo.

Jackson gave the department until May 17 to decide whether to appeal. It shouldn't. Other than Trump himself, Barr was arguably the most mendacious figure in the former administration. The damage he did to the rule of law and Justice Department integrity was incalculable. For the sake of history, the more the curtain gets pulled back on his ugly reign, the better.

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