The Trump presidency has resulted in no shortage of tensions between friends, colleagues,

family members, even marriages.

But few rifts have been as consequential and unexpected as the one that spilled into public

view this week between Attorney General William Barr and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Barr and Mueller go back decades.

They were closely side by side during the presidency of George H.W. Bush when Barr headed the

Justice Department and Mueller was one of his top deputies as head of the Criminal Division.

But the Russia investigation has changed all that.

This week it was learned that Mueller was so upset about the way Barr had characterized

his Russia report in his March 24 letter to Congress that three days later he wrote

the AG a letter, protesting that his wording, quote, did not fully capture the context, nature,

and substance of this office's work and conclusions.

After Mueller's complaint was leaked, Barr fired back when testifying before the Senate

Judiciary Committee, calling Mueller's letter a bit snitty and complaining that the

Special Counsel had failed to fulfill his responsibility to make a decision about whether

the president should be charged with obstruction of justice, a decision that Barr then made

for him.

This is a spat that can only escalate further when Mueller, as expected, testifies before

the House Judiciary Committee in a few weeks, giving him the opportunity to stick the

shiv in his old boss.

How much trouble is Barr in?

Can he survive the cries by top Democrats that he is lied to Congress about his handling

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