Tag: Bill Barr

The Daily 202: Michael Cohen asked to sign stay-out-of-jail agreement that may violate his First Amendment rights, lawyers say

Washington Post logoMichael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, is back in solitary confinement at a federal prison facility in Otisville, N.Y., and legal scholars across the political spectrum are expressing alarm about his treatment.

Their objections center on a Federal Bureau of Prisons agreement Cohen was asked to sign last week that he and his lawyers say would limit the ex-Trump ally’s ability to work on books, including a forthcoming tell-all about the president.

Cohen’s return to jail last week is likely to open yet another legal front for a man who once described himself as Trump’s loyal “fixer” but later offered testimony implicating the president in possible crimes. Continue reading.

ACLU demands special counsel probe into Barr over police assault on protesters: ‘The suspect can’t be the investigator’

AlterNet logoThe ACLU is demanding the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate a violent police assault last month on peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators near the White House—a crackdown reportedly ordered by Attorney General William Barr.

“The suspect can’t be the investigator,” the ACLU the tweeted. “We need a full investigation independent of Barr.”

The group sent a letter (pdf) Tuesday morning urging Barr and other Justice Department officials involved in the law enforcement crackdown to recuse themselves from any investigation into the June 1 incident, which came amid nationwide demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd. Continue reading.

Bill Barr quietly pulls off a shake-up in a federal prosecutor’s office — but why?

AlterNet logoAttorney General Bill Barr’s attempt last month to push U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman out of his position at the Southern District of New York blew up in his face. While Berman was ousted, Barr didn’t get the replacement he wanted, and House Democrats are now investigating.

But last Friday night, Barr successfully pulled off a similar maneuver in the Eastern District of New York. Richard Donoghue no longer leads that office, as he has taken the position of principal associate deputy attorney general at Main Justice. Seth DuCharme, who had been principal associate deputy attorney general and worked under Barr, will now serve as the acting U.S. attorney for EDNY.

It was a strange move because, as Berman has pointed out, typically U.S. attorneys are replaced by their deputies if they need to be ousted before a successor can be confirmed by the Senate. This ensures the best possible continuity for the office.

So why have Donoghue and DuCharme switch roles? Continue reading.

Leahy to Barr: Is Roger Stone sentence commutation ‘a crime’?

Vermont senator had asked attorney general about similar hypothetical during 2019 confirmation hearing

Attorney General William Barr said at his confirmation hearing that “it would be a crime” for a president to trade a pardon for a commitment not to incriminate that president.

The senator who asked that question wants to know why that logic does not apply to President Donald Trump’s announcement on Friday that he was commuting the sentence of former Trump campaign associate Roger Stone.

“Do you believe a president can lawfully issue a pardon in exchange for the recipient’s promise to not incriminate him?” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont asked during Barr’s January 2019 confirmation hearing.

“No, that would be a crime,” Barr said in response. Continue reading.

Supreme Court allows Justice Dept. to resume federal executions

Washington Post logoThe Supreme Court said early Tuesday morning that the Justice Department can resume federal executions this week, overturning a D.C. judge’s last-minute order that had temporarily halted the lethal injections.

In an unsigned, 5-4 opinion issued around 2 a.m., the Supreme Court found that the prisoners on death row had “not made the showing required to justify last-minute intervention.” Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor each wrote dissents, which Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan joined.

The opinion came hours after U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the District of Columbia had blocked the executions — including three set to take place this week — saying it was necessary to let legal challenges to the government’s lethal-injection protocol play out in court. Continue reading.

Watch: Bill Barr’s face falls when a reporter asks him about the Roger Stone commutation

AlterNet logoOn Friday, President Donald Trump saved veteran GOP operative Roger Stone from federal prison by commuting his sentence. Attorney General Bill Barr, before the commutation, had said that he considered Stone’s prison sentence fair. But when CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang asked Barr to weigh in on the commutation, he had no comment.

Jiang approached Barr, introducing herself and asking the attorney general, “Do you have any comment on the Stone commutation?.” Barr smiled when Jiang first introduced herself, but after hearing the question, he immediately turned away from the CBS reporter and ignored her.

Stone was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for charges that included obstruction of justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress. During an interview with ABC News, Barr said of the sentence, “I think the prosecution was righteous, and I think the sentence the judge ultimately gave was fair.” Continue reading.

Judge again blocks US from resuming federal executions

The Hill logoA federal judge in Washington, D.C., once again blocked the Trump administration from resuming executions just hours before the first federal death sentence since 2003 was scheduled to be carried out.

Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday ordered a preliminary injunction against the government while the courts hear a legal challenge from four death row inmates against the administration’s new execution protocols announced last summer. She ruled that the new protocol likely violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The ruling is the second injunction Chutkan has issued in the case. A similar order from last November that found the new protocols likely violated federal death penalty laws was overturned by an appeals court, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Continue reading.

Damning report exposes Trump DOJ’s efforts to line up a secret supply chain for federal executions

AlterNet logoAn explosive Reuters investigation revealed Friday that a series of executions the Trump administration has planned for next week “will mark the culmination of a three-year campaign to line up a secret supply chain to make and test lethal injection drugs.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 cleared the way for federal executions to resume when it denied to hear an appeal from death row prisoners challenging the Trump administration’s lethal injection protocol. Inmates Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey, and Dustin Lee Honken are set to be killed at a federal facility in Indiana just days apart beginning on July 13, followed by Keith Dwayne Nelson on August 28.

Although it wasn’t until July 2019 when U.S. Attorney General William Barr publicly directed the Bureau of Prisons to resume capital punishment using only the drug pentobarbital—in lieu of a three-drug protocol that had been hampered by supply issues—Reuters reported that “President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice had started building the network of contractors it would need by May 2017.” Continue reading.

Prosecutor spills about Bill Barr’s ‘unprecedented, unnecessary and unexplained’ efforts to oust him

AlterNet logoGeoffrey Berman, the man who until recently served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told members of Congress on Thursday about Attorney General Bill Barr’s “unprecedented, unnecessary and unexplained” efforts to oust him.

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Berman explained how Barr contacted him and repeatedly pressed him to step down from his position at SDNY to take another high-profile position within the government.

Berman, however, told Barr that he wanted to stay at his current job until a replacement was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the United States Senate. Continue reading.

Bill Barr warns of “mutiny” at Department of Justice if Trump commutes Roger Stone’s sentence: rpt

Bill Barr is begging Trump not to commute Roger Stone’s sentence

According to a report from Vanity Fair on Wednesday, President Donald Trump wants to commute Roger Stone’s sentence before he must report to prison on July 14.

Stone, who has long been pals with Trump, was convicted on seven counts and sentenced to over three years in prison (40 Months) after witness tampering, lying to investigators, and a slew of other things.

Attorney General Bill Barr “has told Trump not to do it, and if he does, there will be a mutiny at DOJ,” Vanity Fair cited a source briefed on the internal debates. Continue reading.