Tag: Bill Barr

Dropping of Flynn Case Heightens Fears of Justice Dept. Politicization

New York Times logoAcross the country, rank-and-file prosecutors cringed at another extraordinary intervention by Attorney General William P. Barr.

WASHINGTON — President Trump and his supporters on Friday praised Attorney General William P. Barr’s decision to drop the prosecution of Michael T. Flynn, even as career law enforcement officials warned that the action set a disturbing precedent and Democrats accused the administration of further politicizing the Justice Department.

“Yesterday was a BIG day for Justice in the USA,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Congratulations to General Flynn, and many others. I do believe there is MUCH more to come! Dirty Cops and Crooked Politicians do not go well together!”

But some rank-and-file prosecutors said they saw Mr. Barr’s action as politically motivated and damaging to the department’s credibility. Several compared the move to his forcing prosecutors in February to reduce a standard sentencing recommendation for Roger J. Stone Jr., a friend of Mr. Trump, saying it would leave a lasting mark on the department. Continue reading.

Justice moves to drop case against Flynn

The Hill logoThe Department of Justice (DOJ) is moving to drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn for charges of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia shortly before President Trump took office.

Flynn had entered into an agreement in 2017 to cooperate with DOJ and plead guilty, but he had since withdrawn from the plea agreement and was fighting the charges.

Documents released last month have fueled conservative claims that the FBI was out to entrap Flynn, who was ousted from the White House after misleading Vice President Pence and others about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. Continue reading.

Barr signals DOJ support for lockdown protesters

The Hill logoWhen Attorney General William Barr this week directed U.S. prosecutors to safeguard civil liberties amid state-level pandemic orders, he signaled Justice Department support for lockdown protesters by highlighting religious and economic rights.

In a two-page memo, the nation’s top cop gave the clearest indication yet of the kind of battles federal prosecutors are likely to focus on. In doing so, Barr suggested the Department of Justice (DOJ) might back church groups and those seeking a swifter economic reopening while staying on the sidelines of fights over new limits on abortion and voting access.

“It’s extremely likely that the DOJ will play favorites,” said Lindsay Wiley, a law professor at American University. “I think it’s accurate to assume that DOJ will not intervene in a neutral way, but will instead intervene on behalf of plaintiffs asserting rights the administration favors.” Continue reading.

#AskTheAG: Barr is taking Twitter questions on coronavirus issues, and it’s getting ugly

Washington Post logoThe Justice Department offered the public a rare opportunity on Wednesday morning to submit questions to Attorney General William P. Barr for a “nationwide #AskTheAG Q&A session on May 1.” Specifically, it asked via Twitter for questions “on how DOJ is protecting public safety & combatting fraud, price gouging, hoarding, & more” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Justice Department

✔@TheJusticeDept

AG Barr will be participating in the nationwide Q&A session on May 1 at 12pm ET

Send us your Qs on how DOJ is protecting public safety & combatting fraud, price gouging, hoarding, & more during the pandemic.

Reply below or tweet your question with

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The response, as of early Thursday morning, was voluminous but surely not what the department had in mind when it asked for questions about the pandemic.Only a fraction were even about it, and they veered off from the suggested topics, perhaps fitting at best under the “& more” category. Continue reading.

It sure looks like Bill Barr gave Trump the absurd idea he has ‘total authority’ to force states to reopen

AlterNet logoBack on April 13, President Trump made an astonishing declaration, even for him, and he’s made some doozies. You may recall that this was the briefing at which he showed a strange campaign-style video featuring compliments from Democratic officials, which had clearly been inspired by a very similar compilation shown the night before on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, already a de facto Trump celebration hour.

It was also the appearance in which he repeatedly made the claim that he had “total authority” to reopen the government and blathered on about how he’d saved hundreds of thousands of lives when he supposedly “closed” the country in the first place.

Kaitlan Collins of CNN asked him a question I think we all were wondering at that point: Continue reading.

How Bill Barr is gearing up to take the fall for Trump’s coronavirus policy: report

AlterNet logoAccording to a report from the Daily Beast, Attorney General Bill Barr appears poised to take the lead and attempt to force governors to re-open their states during the coronavirus pandemic — even at the risk of ramping up the spread of the virus when it appears to be slowing down.

In the process, he could become the face of Donald Trump’s failures to stem the COVID-19 health crisis.

“Donald Trump is calling for his followers to LIBERATE the states from the social distancing measures that are staving off an even greater coronavirus death toll. Trump’s enforcer, Attorney General Bill Barr, is now poised to support Trump’s call for insurrection by turning to the federal courts—seeded with a legion of newly installed right-wing jurists—to undermine critical public health protections on his boss’ behalf,” the Beast’s David Lurie wrote. “If Barr and Trump get their way, the states will soon be ‘opened up”’to the virus, and thus to a massive number of needless deaths.” Continue reading.

IG finds Treasury handled House request for Trump tax returns properly

The Hill logoThe Treasury Department’s inspector general office found that the department “properly” processed House Democrats’ request for President Trump‘s tax returns when it refused to turn over the documents to the Ways and Means Committee.

In a memo, the IG also said it found Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s supervision of the process to be consistent with its rules.

The memo said it found Treasury’s receipt, processing and responses to the request and subpoenas from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) “to be consistent with Treasury’s general process for handling Congressional correspondence.” Continue reading.

Barr backs Trump on firing of intel IG, calls Russia investigation baseless

Speaking with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Barr also revealed some details of an ongoing investigation the attorney general ordered into the beginning of the Russia investigation.

Attorney General William Barr backed President Donald Trump on his firing of the intelligence community’s chief watchdog and dismissed the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia as baseless in an interview aired Thursday night.

Speaking with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Barr also revealed some details of an ongoing investigation the attorney general ordered into the beginning of the Russia investigation.

Barr’s comments come after Trump expressed his intent to fire the intelligence community’s Inspector General, Michael Atkinson, last week. Atkinson was the first to inform Congress about an “urgent” complaint concerning Trump’s contacts with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Those contacts launched the House’s impeachment inquiry. Continue reading.

Barr calls current restrictions ‘draconian,’ and suggests they should be revisited next month

Washington Post logoAttorney General William P. Barr said Wednesday that some of the government-imposed restrictions meant to control the spread of covid-19 were “draconian” and suggested that they should be eased next month.

In an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Barr, long a proponent of executive power, said the government — and in particular state officials — had broad authority to impose restrictions on people in cases of emergency.

But, he said, the federal government would be “keeping a careful eye on” the situation, and stressed that officials should be “very careful to make sure that the draconian measures that are being adopted are fully justified.” Continue reading.

Federal judge critical of Trump and AG Barr has obtained an un-redacted copy of the Mueller report

AlterNet logoJudge Reggie Walton issued two court orders asking the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for an unredacted copy of the Mueller Report, and on Monday, March 30, DOJ attorneys with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia notified Walton that a copy had finally been delivered.

However, reporter Colin Kalmbacher notes in Law & Crime that “the long sought-after report won’t be looked over any time soon” because of “the general and specific federal caseload slowdowns enacted in response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing response regime.”

Walton explained the delay, noting that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s “review of the unredacted version of the Mueller report is unable to occur until the Court resumes its normal operations on April 20, 2020, unless the Court’s normal operations are further suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Continue reading.