Tag: Barr weakening American Justice

Barr Increasingly Appears Focused on Undermining Mueller Inquiry

New York Times logoA judge’s criticism cast light on the first in a series of steps by the attorney general to take aim at the Russia investigation.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr testified before Congress last spring that “it’s time for everybody to move on” from the special counsel investigation into whether Trump associates conspired with Russia’s 2016 election interference.

Nearly a year later, however, it is clear that Mr. Barr has not moved on from the investigation at all. Rather, he increasingly appears to be chiseling away at it.

The attorney general’s handling of the results of the Russia inquiry came under fire when a federal judge questioned this week whether Mr. Barr had sought to create a “one-sided narrative”clearing Mr. Trump of misconduct. The judge said Mr. Barr displayed a “lack of candor” in remarks that helped shape the public view of the special counsel’s report before it was released in April.

Bill Barr has thrown DOJ into a tailspin — and prosecutors have felt ‘under siege’ for months: report

AlterNet logoThe first thing federal prosecutors working on Roger Stone’s case heard from their new boss, a Bill Barr loyalist, was that he wanted the sentencing recommendation for Stone weakened. It was Timothy Shea’s first day on the job after being installed as the acting U.S. attorney for Washington, and the Stone prosecutors, just days away from filing their sentencing recommendation, felt “under siege,” according to The New York Times.

Shortly after those prosecutors recommended 7 to 9 years for Stone’s conviction on seven felony counts, Attorney General Barr himself would intervene in the case as Donald Trump groused on Twitter, decrying the recommendation as a “miscarriage of justice.” A day later, all four prosecutors, led by Aaron Zelinsky, quit the case.

But strains between the 600-person office and the Department of Justice began to emerge as far back as last summer during an effort to charge one of Trump’s favorite political enemies, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, with lying to investigators. After Shea’s predecessor, Jessie Liu, tried and failed to secure a grand jury indictment in the McCabe case, her relationship with Barr reportedly soured. Continue reading.