Tag: Bill Barr

Graham Says DOJ Will Probe Bidens, Warns Russia Probers ‘Going To Jail’

Sen. Lindsey Graham took to the Sunday talk shows to bask in the Senate’s nullification of Donald Trump’s impeachment for using the tools of his power to extort the Ukrainian government into providing him “dirt” on a Democratic election opponent. It is not just Trump who appears to feel unleashed; Graham, too, was eager to describe the next steps of the administration-led descent into American fascism.

A first step: Trump “private lawyer” Rudy Giuliani’s smear campaign against the Bidens is now moving into Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department. Whatever Barr’s prior pretenses may have been, Barr is now explicitly establishing the means by which Rudy’s propaganda can be filtered into official “investigations” of Trump’s targeted enemies.

Throughout the House and press investigations into the Ukraine scandal, Trump Attorney General Barr either refused comment or denied that he was involved with the Giuliani efforts, despite Trump specifically naming both Barr and Giuliani as contacts for the Ukrainian president in the “transcript” of Trump’s now-infamous phone call. Whether this was a lie or not—and it is almost certainly a direct lie by a complicit Barr—such pretenses have now vanished. Continue reading.

DOJ: Congress must meet high bar for Trump tax information

Cases set for March 31 oral argument

The Justice Department on Monday night backed President Donald Trump in the Supreme Court fight over congressional subpoenas for his financial documents, telling the justices that lawmakers must meet a higher bar when seeking a sitting president’s personal records.

The cases, set for March 31 oral argument, center on subpoenas from three House committees to accounting firm Mazars USA, Deutsche Bank and Capital One Financial Corp. House Democrats are seeking eight years of Trump’s financial and tax records.

Trump filed lawsuits to challenge the subpoenas in his personal capacity, and a Supreme Court decision expected by the end of the term at the end of June could reshape the limits for impeachment and other oversight investigations into a sitting president. Continue reading.

Attorney General Bill Barr is laying the groundwork to carry out his threat

AlterNet logo Barr, Last October, Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to establish a Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. As Tom Jackman reported, this is something that both police and civil rights groups have sought for years. Nevertheless, concerns emerged almost immediately.

A number of groups that might be expected to be part of the discussion said they had not yet been invited, including the National District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

Those who had advocated for such a commission were concerned about “overburdened courts, unsustainable incarceration costs, national security, prisoner reentry, victims’ rights, and civil rights and liberties.” But the tasks assigned to this commission are completely police-centric. Continue reading.

DOJ says surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Page lacked evidence

The Hill logoThe Justice Department has concluded that the evidence underlying multiple warrants authorizing the surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page failed to show Page was a foreign agent, as the law requires.

The department delivered its conclusion in a December letter to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the secretive federal body that approved the department’s four surveillance applications of the Trump aide.

A Justice Department assessment found that in at least two applications “there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power,” states a court document quoting the department’s review. Continue reading.

Barr Once Contradicted Trump’s Claim That Abuse of Power Is Not Impeachable

New York Times logoIn a memo for the Trump team during the Russia investigation, the attorney general wrote that presidents who misuse their authority are subject to impeachment.

WASHINGTON — Scholars have roundly rejected a central argument of President Trump’s lawyers that abuse of power is not by itself an impeachable offense. But it turns out that another important legal figure has contradicted that idea: Mr. Trump’s attorney general and close ally, William P. Barr.

In summer 2018, when he was still in private practice, Mr. Barr wrote a confidential memo for the Justice Department and Mr. Trump’s legal team to help the president get out of a problem. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was pressuring him to answer questions about whether he had illegally impeded the Russia investigation.

Mr. Trump should not talk to investigators about his actions as president, even under a subpoena, Mr. Barr wrote in his 19-page memo, which became public during his confirmation. Mr. Barr based his advice on a sweeping theory of executive power under which obstruction of justice laws do not apply to presidents, even if they misuse their authority over the Justice Department to block investigations into themselves or their associates for corrupt reasons.

Parnas attorney asks William Barr to recuse himself from investigation

The Hill logoA lawyer for Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump‘s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, is asking Attorney General William Barr to recuse himself from an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations against Parnas.

Joseph Bondy made the request in a letter sent to Barr and filed in New York federal court on Monday, CNN reported. In it, Bondy argues that Barr has a “conflict of interest” in the matter and that he should appoint a special prosecutor from outside the Justice Department to handle the case.

“Given the totality of the circumstances, we believe it is appropriate for you to recuse yourself from the ongoing investigation and pending prosecution of Mr. Parnas,” wrote Bondy.  Continue reading.

Justice Dept. Investigating Years-Old Leaks and Appears Focused on Comey

New York Times logoAn inquiry into years-old disclosures of classified information is highly unusual and leaves law enforcement officials open to accusations of politicizing their work.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors in Washington are investigating a years-old leak of classified information about a Russian intelligence document, and they appear to be focusing on whether the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey illegally provided details to reporters, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

The case is the second time the Justice Department has investigated leaks potentially involving Mr. Comey, a frequent target of President Trump, who has repeatedly called him a “leaker.” Mr. Trump recently suggested without evidence that Mr. Comey should be prosecuted for “unlawful conduct” and spend years in prison.

The timing of the investigation could raise questions about whether it was motivated at least in part by politics. Prosecutors and F.B.I. agents typically investigate leaks of classified information around the time they appear in the news media, not years later. And the inquiry is the latest politically sensitive matter undertaken by the United States attorney’s office in Washington, which is also conducting an investigation of Mr. Comey’s former deputy, Andrew G. McCabe, that has been plagued by problems. Continue reading.

Former federal prosecutor recommends AG Barr ‘retain a criminal defense attorney’ after Parnas bombshells

AlterNet logoRudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who is facing federal campaign finance charges, has been outspoken about the Ukraine scandal this week — granting interviews to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and CNN’s Anderson Cooper and discussing Giuliani’s efforts to get the Ukrainian government to officially announce an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Parnas has not only discussed President Donald Trump and Giuliani’s roles in the Ukraine scandal, but also, Attorney General William Barr’s. And according to former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi, Barr would do well to consult a defense attorney.

On Twitter, Rossi posted, “Based on the allegation of Lev Parnas, our esteemed Attorney General should probably retain a criminal defense attorney. What a conspiracy to bribe mess. Is our country’s AG the second coming of disgraced former AG John Mitchell? Crazy times.”

The late John N. Mitchell served as U.S. attorney General under President Richard Nixon. In 1974 — the year after Nixon resigned as president — Mitchell was found guilty of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and perjury for his role in the Watergate scandal. Mitchell served 19 months in federal prison. Continue reading.

DOJ asks SCOTUS to delay case that would void ObamaCare and steal health care from millions until after election

AlterNet logoEven while promising to protect popular aspects of the Affordable Care Act behind the scenes President Donald Trump and his administration have been hard at work trying to kill ObamaCare.  The Dept. of Justice is supporting a lawsuit brought by Republican governors and state attorneys general that has already received a ruling finding the individual mandate is unconstitutional. The DOJ then asked the court to declare the entire law – all of ObamaCare – unconstitutional.

Now that case is moving to the Supreme Court, but the Trump administration knows if it kills the now-popular health care law that bears his predecessor’s name, they will lose the support of millions whose lives literally depend on it.

So on Friday the U.S. Dept. of Justice under Attorney General Bill Barr asked the Supreme Court to delay deciding if it will hear the case, so any subsequent ruling would be handed down after the November, 2020 election. Continue reading.

William Barr, Trump’s Sword and Shield

The Attorney General’s mission to maximize executive power and protect the Presidency.

Last October, Attorney General William Barr appeared at Notre Dame Law School to make a case for ideological warfare. Before an assembly of students and faculty, Barr claimed that the “organized destruction” of religion was under way in the United States. “Secularists, and their allies among the ‘progressives,’ have marshalled all the force of mass communications, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values,” he said. Barr, a conservative Catholic, blamed the spread of “secularism and moral relativism” for a rise in “virtually every measure of social pathology”—from the “wreckage of the family” to “record levels of depression and mental illness, dispirited young people, soaring suicide rates, increasing numbers of angry and alienated young males, an increase in senseless violence, and a deadly drug epidemic.” Continue reading “William Barr, Trump’s Sword and Shield”