Tag: Barr in Trump’s pocket

A federal judge who accused Barr of ‘distorting’ the Mueller report has read an unredacted version — and now he’s demanding some answers

AlterNet logoThe Mueller report hasn’t been in the headlines much in 2020, a year that has found reporters heavily focused on the Ukraine scandal, President Donald Trump’s acquittal on two articles of impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic, former Vice President Joe Biden’s surge in the Democratic presidential primary and — most recently — the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. But the Mueller report is still a compelling read, and a federal judge is demanding some answers after confirming, on June 8, that he has read an unredacted versionof the lengthy document.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, according to Law & Crime’s Matt Naham, has ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to answer questions “regarding certain redactions of the Mueller Report” at a hearing now set for July 20. In the past, Walton has been critical of Attorney General William Barr’s response to the Mueller Report, asserting that Barr, in 2019, “distorted” the findings of former special counsel Robert Mueller. And now that Walton has read the Mueller Report in unredacted form, he is more concerned than ever about Barr’s response to it.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Walton — like so many other Americans — has been working remotely. But the judge, Naham notes, has “made clear that he has some questions that the DOJ cannot answer remotely.” Continue reading.

Trump just made the DOJ’s Roger Stone intervention look even worse

Washington Post logoTrump directly implicated Attorney General William P. Barr, which will only increase questions about Barr doing his political bidding.

Amid a growing storm Tuesday within the Justice Department over its unorthodox intervention in the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump, officials maintained that there was nothing untoward about what happened. They said the decision was made independent of Trump’s very public gripes about the matter. They said it was the result of a “breakdown” in communication.

Then Trump tweeted.

The president took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to congratulate Attorney General William P. Barr for “taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought.” Continue reading.