Tag: Bill Barr

House Democrats subpoena two whistleblowers over allegations of DOJ politicization

Axios logoHouse Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced on Tuesday he has issued subpoenas for two Department of Justice whistleblowers as part of the committee’s probe into alleged politicization of the agency under President Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr.

Why it matters: One of the officials, Aaron Zelinsky, resigned from the team that was prosecuting Trump associate Roger Stone after Barr intervened to soften Stone’s sentencing recommendation.

  • The other, John Elias, was reportedly looking into a fuel efficiency deal between large automakers and the state of California. Democrats have called the probe politically motivated.
  • The two will testify before the committee, along with former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer, on June 24. Continue reading.

Court appears reluctant to order judge to immediately drop criminal case against Michael Flynn

Washington Post logoA federal appeals court in Washington expressed reluctance Friday to order a judge to immediately dismiss the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, suggesting it will allow the judge to question whether the Justice Department’s decision to drop the prosecution is “in the public interest.”

Flynn, joined by the Justice Department, wants the appeals court to force U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to quickly close the matter and put a stop to the judge’s examination of the retired three-star general’s politically charged case.

But Judges Karen Henderson and Robert Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seemed skeptical of Flynn’s argument that Sullivan cannot review the Justice Department’s abandonment last month of the long-running prosecution. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his pre-inauguration contacts with Russia’s ambassador. Continue reading.

‘Gross abuse of prosecutorial power’: Court-appointed lawyer rebukes Barr’s handling of Flynn case

AlterNet logoA retired federal judge appointed to argue against the Department of Justice’s move to drop criminal charges against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn has recommended that the court proceed with sentencing.

He called the department’s request to drop the case “a gross abuse of prosecutorial power” in an attempt to “provide special treatment” to a “political ally of the president of the United States.”

“The Department of Justice has a solemn responsibility to prosecute this case — like every other case — without fear or favor, and to quote the department’s motto, solely ‘on behalf of justice,’” former federal judge John Gleeson wrote in a brief filed Wednesday. Continue reading.

No Sign Of Antifa So Far In Justice Department Cases Brought Over Unrest

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has repeatedly blamed anti-fascist activists for the violence that has erupted during demonstrations over George Floyd’s death, but federal court records show no sign of so-called antifa links so far in cases brought by the Justice Department.

NPR has reviewed court documents of 51 individuals facing federal charges in connection with the unrest. As of Tuesday morning, none is alleged to have links to the antifa movement.

Of the cases brought so far, 20 involve allegations related to arson; 16 involve the illegal possession of a firearm, more often than not by a felon; another eight people face charges related to inciting a riot or civil disorder. Continue reading.

So this is why Bill Barr is such a bully

Washington Post logoPolice in Buffalo shove a 75-year-old man to the ground and blood pours from his ear. Police in Brooklyn knock down a young woman and call her a “bitch” because she asked why she had to leave the street. Federal authorities in Washington fire tear gas at peaceful demonstrators, then lie about it.

Get the feeling law enforcement in this country is being run by a middle-school bully?

If so, you are not wrong. Continue reading.

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.

Bill Barr just contradicted Trump’s excuse for going into the White House bunker

AlterNet logoAttorney General Bill Barr is still trying to desperately clean up the public relations mess created when federal law enforcement violently cleared the area in front of the White House last week prior to President Donald Trump’s trip across the street. But in trying to tamp down the blowback these acts sparked, Barr — apparently inadvertently — undermined Trump’s transparently silly excuse for his recent trip to the White House bunker.

Critics have slammed the administration, and Trump and Barr in particular, for the plan that included officials assaulting, teargassing, and otherwise accosting the protesters who were participating in First Amendment freedoms in Lafayette Square. Journalists on the scene also came under that assault and reported that it came without warning or provocation.

The administration has tried to push back on this narrative, claiming the protesters were warned, that at least some were throwing objects at police, and that “tear gas” wasn’t used (even though pepper bombs — which release an irritating and tear-inducing gaseous compound — were indisputably used, and evidence indicates other forms of tear gas were employed.) But no compelling evidence supports these accounts, and the reporters who were there tell a different story. Continue reading.

Attorney General William Barr Is Willing to Destroy the Rule of Law for the Trump Administration

Center for American Progress logoFrom the outset, the independence and integrity of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been in rapid decay under the Trump administration. Early in his presidency, Trump berated then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, accusing him of political “disloyalty,” for Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation. Later, after pushing Sessions out, he installed an acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, who was widely seen as a partisan actor willing to be an “attack dog” for Trump. This appointment was done without confirmation from the Senate, invoking serious constitutional concerns.

Since taking the helm of the department, Attorney General William Barr has become an active accomplice in the Trump administration’s efforts to politicize the DOJ. When armed protestors stormed the Michigan state legislature to protest public health orders, for example, Barr was largely quiet—a stark contrast to his willingness to quickly denounce the Black Lives Matter protests occurring throughout the country as “hijacked” by far-left extremists without providing evidence to back up his claim. In fact, despite the vulnerable state of the country amidst the coronavirus epidemic, Barr appears to be ramping up the partisan nature of the DOJ.

These actions provide a dangerous illustration of the lengths that Barr may be willing to go. Continue reading.

Bill Barr sued in a personal capacity as protesters who were gassed seek damages for injuries

AlterNet logoProtesters are suing President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr and a number of federal officials after they were tear-gassed to clear the way for an administration photo-op.

“This case is about the president and attorney general of the United States ordering the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators who were speaking out against discriminatory police brutality targeted at Black people,” the complaint reads.

The suit was filed on behalf of Black Lives Matter DC, along with a handful of individual protesters, by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia (ACLU), in conjunction with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Arnold & Porter LLP. Continue reading.

Barr Says There Is No Systemic Racism in Policing

New York Times logoThe attorney general’s remarks, which mirrored those of other administration officials, came as the president was scheduled to meet with law enforcement officials at the White House

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr said on Sunday that he did not believe racism was a systemic problem in policing, echoing other top administration officials’ defense of an important part of President Trump’s base as protests against police killings of unarmed black people continued across the nation.

“I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist,” Mr. Barr said in an interview with the CBS program “Face the Nation.” “I think we have to recognize that for most of our history, our institutions were explicitly racist.”

Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, made similar remarks on Sunday in an interview with “This Week” on ABC, saying that “systemic racism” was not an issue for law enforcement.