Tag: Barr acting as Trump’s Roy Cohn

The Lack of Oversight in Trump’s Justice Department

Center for American Progress logo

In the upcoming days, the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG), led by Michael Horowitz, will be releasing a report related to President Donald Trump’s frequent claims that the FBI spied on his 2016 campaign. And while early reports indicate the investigation will refute claims that the FBI did so, the report’s focus reflects a troubling trend of the OIG prioritizing investigations into conservative conspiracy theories rather than responding to substantive allegations of serious misconduct in the DOJ. To ensure the integrity of the DOJ, it is essential that this pattern is put to an end through robust, comprehensive oversight efforts.

Investigations by the DOJ’s OIG under Trump

Each federal agency has an oversight division, led by an inspector general, that is charged with investigating possible corruption within its respective agencies. Horowitz, the DOJ’s current inspector general, was confirmed to his position by President Barack Obama in 2012. In addition to his current position with the DOJ, Horowitz has served as the chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency since 2015. Prior to the Trump administration, he enjoyed a strong, bipartisan reputation in Washington.

At least during the Obama administration, Horowitz did not shy away from investigating allegations of misconduct attracting major public attention. In fact, he issued two reports—the first in 2012 and a follow-up in 2016—on Operation Fast and Furious, overseen by the DOJ. This topic was the ongoing focus of House Republicans, who also launched an investigation into it, with at least one prominent member of Congress claiming the DOJ’s actions could be compared to Watergate.

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Trump’s AG gives a speech accusing left of ‘shredding’ norms and embracing ‘coercive state power.’ Project much?

AlterNet logoThe biggest moment in former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s impeachment-hearing testimony on Friday was when House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told her that President Trump was attacking her on Twitter as she was speaking.Trump’s defenders came out in force, offering various explanations for his mob-like behavior. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has been arguing that Trump was just testing the Ukrainians to see if they would fall into his trap and prove they were corrupt. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., using the abusive-husband excuse, insisted that it’s Trump’s political opponents who make him behave the way he does — they are “tormenting” him and should have just covered up his crimes for the good of the country. It’s clear that the only thing they can settle on is the inane story that Trump prefers: He did absolutely nothing wrong and anyone who says otherwise is a partisan hack acting in bad faith.

Trump himself was defiant when asked about his Twitter assault on Yovanovitch, saying he has the right of free speech, and simply refusing to acknowledge that intimidating and threatening people is illegal. His views on all this are clear, and he’s said it many times: “Article II means I have the right to do whatever I want.”

We know that Trump has never read the Constitution. His lack of basic civics knowledge is legendary and he wouldn’t sit still for a serious lecture on what it means. So where do you suppose he got this lie about Article II, which he bandies about as if it’s some obscure text that nobody’s ever heard of? (It’s rather similar to the way he constantly claims that few people realize Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.)

View the complete November 18 article by Heather Digby Parton from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

The unbearable wrongness of William Barr: Professor of secular studies explains why secularism doesn’t destroy moral order

AlterNet logoLast month, in what Jeffrey Toobin called “the worst speech given by an Attorney General of the United States in modern history,” Attorney General William Barr offered a lecture at Notre Dame Law School in which he denounced secularism as a “social pathology” that destroys the “moral order.” After blaming secularists for a host of contemporary problems — including depression, drug overdosing, and violence — Barr explained that without belief in a “transcendent Supreme Being” and adherence to “God’s eternal law,” the “possibility of any healthy community life crumbles.” Unless we follow “God’s instruction manual,” he sermonized, there will be “real-world consequences for man and society” — consequences that are not pretty, but quite grim. For without religion, there can be no “moral culture” and society will inevitably fall prey to humanity’s “capacity for great evil.”

Such hackneyed assertions are not new. Pious people of power have been scapegoating the non-religious for centuries, characterizing non-believers as threats to the nation, and declaring that without religion, there can be no moral social order. And like those before him who have made such claims — from Newt Gingrich to the prophet Muhammed — William Barr is wrong. Continue reading “The unbearable wrongness of William Barr: Professor of secular studies explains why secularism doesn’t destroy moral order”

Bill Barr is racing to deliver a report that blows up the impeachment inquiry

AlterNet logoAttorney General William Barr is racing to complete a new “report” before Thanksgiving. And if Barr’s very poor summary of the Mueller report threw Trump a lifeline by distorting the real findings of the special counsel investigation, this new report looks to be more like an atom bomb, designed to incinerate Washington by putting the whole Justice Department behind a conspiracy theory that rewrites history and declares open warfare on political opponents. And Republicans are already meeting with Barr to plan a “roll out” for this supposedly classified report in order to maximize its impact.

Barr appears to have taken the results of an inspector general report that was expected to end weeks ago, rolled it together with the investigation-into-the-investigation that he launched under the nominal control of prosecutor John Durham, and capped it all with the “findings” of a world tour that included attempts to get the Australian government, the Italian government, and the U.K. government to participate in attacks on U.S. intelligence agencies. What’s going to come out the other end could be a dud, but it could launch an effort to derail the impeachment process—and more.

Barr’s effort to create a comprehensive, all-conspiracy-theories-combined report seems to have delayed delivery of the long-expected findings from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Republicans were generally thrilled by Horowitz’s earlier report in which he was critical of former FBI director James Comey for his handling of some classified materials. That report had right-wing news outlets clamoring over potential charges against Comey. But despite claims that the findings justified Republican attacks on the entire Russia investigation, the actual complaints were minor and led to nothing.

View the complete November 6 article by Mark Sumner from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

Trump Lashes Out at Fox News Poll as Barr Meets With Murdoch

New York Times logoAttorney General William P. Barr met privately Wednesday evening with Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who is one of President Trump’s frequent confidants but whose Fox News is viewed by the president as more hostile toward him than it used to be.

The meeting was held at Mr. Murdoch’s home in New York, according to someone familiar with it. It was unclear if anyone else attended or what was discussed. Aides to both Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Barr declined requests for comment on the meeting.

The visit took place as the impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump by House Democrats has gathered momentum. Mr. Barr has emerged as a key defender of the president’s concerns about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mr. Barr was criticized in the spring for his handling of the report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, before it was released publicly.

View the complete October 10 article by Maggie Haberman and Katie Benner on The New York Times website here.

Justice Dept. asks Supreme Court to lift border wall ruling

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to step in to lift court orders blocking President Donald Trump from proceeding with his plan to spend billions of dollars on border wall construction despite Congress’ efforts to limit that spending.

Administration lawyers filed a stay application Friday afternoon seeking to lift an Oakland-based federal judge’s order blocking border wall projects in California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the high court that the injunction is impairing federal officials’ ability to cut drug trafficking across the border with Mexico.

View the complete July 12 article by Josh Gerstein on the Politico website here.

Judge rejects Justice Dept request to pull lawyers from census case

The Hill logoA federal judge in New York on Tuesday blocked the Department of Justice (DOJ) from changing its entire legal team handling a case on the census citizenship question in federal court in the state.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman found that DOJ’s motion did not address a procedural rule requiring them to provide a reason for the attorneys’ withdrawal from the case.

He wrote that the department’s filing offers “no reasons, let alone ‘satisfactory reasons,’ for the substitution of counsel.”

View the complete July 9 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

In Sudden Shift, Barr Urges Mueller To Defy Congressional Subpoena

When asked in April whether he was opposed to the special counsel testifying before Congress — an event now scheduled for July 17 — Attorney General Bill Barr clearly told lawmakers, “I have no objection to Bob Mueller personally testifying.”

But now he has changed his tune.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Barr said Democrats were trying to make a “public spectacle” by subpoenaing Mueller to testify about the Russia investigation.

View the complete July 8 article by Cody Fenwick with AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Justice releases legal opinion backing Treasury’s refusal to release Trump tax returns

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday released a legal opinion backing up the Treasury Department’s decision to reject a request by congressional Democrats for six years of President Trump‘s tax returns.

“While the Executive Branch should accord due deference and respect to congressional requests, Treasury was not obliged to accept the Committee’s stated purpose without question, and based on all the facts and circumstances, we agreed that the Committee lacked a legitimate legislative purpose for its request,” Steven Engel, an assistant attorney general in DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, said in the 33-page opinion.

The opinion comes after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last month rejected a subpoena from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) demanding Trump’s personal and business tax returns from 2013 through 2018.

View the complete June 14 article by Naomi Jagoda on The Hill website here.

James Comey: How Trump Co-opts Leaders Like Bill Barr

Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive this president.

People have been asking me hard questions. What happened to the leaders in the Trump administration, especially the attorney general, Bill Barr, who I have said was due the benefit of the doubt?

How could Mr. Barr, a bright and accomplished lawyer, start channeling the president in using words like “no collusion” and F.B.I. “spying”? And downplaying acts of obstruction of justice as products of the president’s being “frustrated and angry,” something he would never say to justify the thousands of crimes prosecuted every day that are the product of frustration and anger?

How could he write and say things about the report by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, that were apparently so misleading that they prompted written protest from the special counsel himself?

View the complete May 1 commentary by former FBI Directory James Comey on The New York Times website here.