Tag: Attorney General Barr

‘Tide has turned’ against Bill Barr as GOP lawmakers increasingly back away from Trump’s hand-picked AG: NBC analyst

NBC News national affairs analyst John Heileman explained how Attorney General Bill Barr is losing the support of Senate Republicans on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” on Thursday.

Host Lawrence O’Donnell showed a tweet by Sen. Chuck Grassley:

ChuckGrassley

✔@ChuckGrassley

I support release of the Mueller report

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“He could have easily not put that tweet out today,” O’Donnell noted. “He used to be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee which would have had direct jurisdiction, he would have been receiving these letters from Barr, so he’s an important voice among Republicans on this kind of issue.”

View the complete April 5 article by Bob Brigham with Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Barr Thinks DOJ Practice Allows Him to Bury Mueller’s Report: He’s Wrong. January 31, 2019

At his hearing, Barr stated that he would consult career ethics officials regarding recusal from oversight of the Mueller investigation, but refused to commit to following their advice, as previous nominees, including Jeff Sessions, had done. He insisted that he would make his own determination, regardless what ethics officials said. In his written answers, he refused to budge and added that he would not commit to making officials’ advice public. The public, therefore, likely will never know whether ethics officials told him to recuse himself, though the public likely will hear if officials do not urge recusal. In any event, Barr appears firmly committed to supervising Mueller.

Regarding release of any Mueller report, Barr repeated his statement that his “goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law, including the regulations discussed above, and the Department’s longstanding practices and policies.” In context, this reasonable-sounding language provides the rationale for a spare notification to Congress that the special counsel investigation is complete and little more. Continue reading “Barr Thinks DOJ Practice Allows Him to Bury Mueller’s Report: He’s Wrong. January 31, 2019”

Attorney General Barr will not recuse himself from Mueller investigation

Credit: Stefani Reynolds

Justice Department cites advice he received from senior career ethics officials

Attorney General William Barr will not recuse himself from oversight of the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, following the advice he received from Justice Department senior career ethics officials, a DOJ spokeswoman said Monday.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Barr did not commit to recusing himself. “I will seek the advice of the career ethics personnel, but under the regulations, I make the decision as the head of the agency as to my own recusal,” he told the Judiciary Committee in January.

Some Democrats have called for his recusal due to his past criticism of Mueller’s investigation.

View the complete March 4 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

Demands grow for a public Mueller report

Demands are growing for special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report to be made public, with lawmakers and legal experts raising concerns about how and when that could happen.

On Sunday, Democrats including one 2020 presidential candidate framed the conclusion of Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation as a crucial moment for transparency. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee pledged to subpoena the report on Russia’s election interference if necessary in order to make it public, while at least one legal expert suggested the path to making the report available to the public might be “circuitous.”

“This is an extraordinary moment in terms of the need that the special counsel has to investigate the conduct of the president of the United States’s campaign and issues surrounding it,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said on CNN’s “Inside Politics.”

View the complete February 24 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Rosenstein plans to leave Justice Department next month

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein plans to leave the Justice Department in mid-March, an official familiar with the matter said Monday night, and an announcement on his successor is expected imminently.

Rosenstein, the No. 2 Justice Department official who has spent nearly two years in the hot seat since appointing Robert S. Mueller III to lead an investigation into whether President Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, had made it known in recent weeks that he planned to leave if and when a new attorney general was confirmed by the Senate.

With William P. Barr’s swearing in to that post last week, Rosenstein has set a more precise timeline for departure — though the official stressed his plan could shift if needed to ensure a smooth transition.

View the February 18 article by Matt Zapotosky on The Washington Post website here.