Tag: Bill Barr

Bar Association Urges Barr To Recuse From Ukraine Case

The New York Bar Association has asked Attorney General William Barr to immediately recuse himself from any matters pertaining to President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal, believing that any further involvement would be a conflict of interest on the part of the head of the Justice Department.

In a statement Wednesday, the association explained: “Despite this commitment to the role of the attorney general, Mr. Barr’s actions in office have failed in precisely the role that he described with eloquence when nominated. That failure has jeopardized the confidence that the public can reasonably have in the DOJ as the place ‘where the rule of law, not politics, holds sway.’”

The statement goes on to assert, “Our concern has been brought to a head by Mr. Barr’s failure to recuse himself from the DOJ’s review — itself of uncertain propriety — of the ongoing ‘whistleblower’ complaint with respect to the president’s efforts during his July 25, 2019 telephone call to request the Republic of Ukraine to investigate Mr. Trump’s allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and former Vice President Biden and his son.”

View the complete October 24 article by Alex Henderson from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Review of Russia Inquiry Grows as F.B.I. Witnesses Are Questioned

New York Times logoThe review, led by the prosecutor John Durham, has focused on former investigators who are frequent targets of President Trump.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors reviewing the origins of the Russia investigation have asked witnesses pointed questions about any anti-Trump bias among former F.B.I. officials who are frequent targets of President Trump and about the earliest steps they took in the Russia inquiry, according to former officials and other people familiar with the review.

The prosecutors, led by John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, have interviewed about two dozen former and current F.B.I. officials, the people said. Two former senior F.B.I. agents are assisting with the review, the people said. Continue reading “Review of Russia Inquiry Grows as F.B.I. Witnesses Are Questioned”

Security experts warn AG Barr is trying to use foreign governments to ‘undermine’ FBI’s Russia investigation: ‘This is a gross abuse of power’

AlterNet logoWhen Attorney General William Barr was confirmed by the U.S. Senate earlier this year, his supporters noted he had previously held that position under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s and insisted that he would conduct himself like a traditional Republican rather than a Trump loyalist. But Barr has turned out to be very much a Trump loyalist, and an October 17 article by security experts James Lamond and Talia Dessel for Just Security outlines the ways in which Barr, with the help of U.S. Attorney John Durham, has been trying to use foreign governments to “undermine the FBI’s decision to open an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.”

“This effort is an abuse of power, purely designed to help President Donald Trump politically,” Lamond and Dessel warn. “The fact is, it would have been malpractice if the FBI had not opened its investigation in the summer of 2016.”

In his final report for the Russian investigation, former special counsel Robert Mueller made it clear that the Russian government aggressively interfered in 2016’s presidential election — and Mueller has warned that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin and his supporters plan to do the same thing again in 2020. But Lamond and Dessel (both known for their expertise on intelligence and Russia-related matters) stress that Barr and Durham aren’t trying to “contest the findings of the Mueller investigation” but rather, are trying to “prove that the trigger for the FBI launching its original inquiry into Russian interference was, in fact, a set-up.”

View the complete October 17 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Pence, Pompeo, Barr and Mulvaney could be subpoenaed by House Dems — and also be impeached: Former GOP rep

AlterNet logoVice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General Bill Barr, and Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney all may be subpoenaed by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, says ex-Republican Congressman David Jolly.

“This has been methodical and is building up, I think, to subpoenaing Mike Pompeo, possibly the Vice President of the United States, Mick Mulvaney, and Bill Barr, because this touches them,” Jolly said Tuesday morning on MSNBC.

“And so all questions center on who knew what, when,” he added, speaking about Trump’s Ukraine extortion scandal, “who was in the room when these conversations took place.”

View the complete October 15 aritcle by David Badash from the New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.

Don’t forget Bill Barr: He’s running the Justice Department like it’s the legal arm of the Trump Organization

AlterNet logoWhen the smoke finally clears from the impeachment morass, we’ll still have the case of the Justice Department that Attorney General William P. Barr has turned into a personal law firm to protect Donald Trump.

There have been almost daily developments showing that Barr’s Justice Department has been extending its efforts to provide both justifiable and legally questionable efforts to shield Trump, to pursue investigations into the actions of critics of the president and to interpret anything in the legal area in the president’s favor.

In short, Barr has become more Trump’s lawyer than America’s chief criminal law enforcement officer.

View the complete October 13 article by Terry Schwadron from DC Report on the AlterNet website here.

Shepard Smith, Fox News veteran anchor and frequent Trump target, abruptly resigns from the network

Washington Post logoShepard Smith, one of Fox News’s leading anchors and a frequent target of President Trump, abruptly stepped down from the network on Friday, departing with little explanation after 23 years on the air.

Smith, Fox News’s chief news anchor and host of its afternoon news program “Shepard Smith Reporting,” said the decision to leave was his own but gave no further reason for his resignation. He signed off with a brief statement, surprising even his colleagues. Fox News said Friday’s program would be Smith’s last.

Smith has been at Fox News since its founding in 1996 and is one of its signature figures. He was among the first people hired by Fox News’s co-founder, the late Roger Ailes, for the network’s launch. His recent tenure, however, has been marked by conflict and criticism, not just from President Trump but from within the network itself.

View the complete October 11 article by Paul Fahi and Sarah Ellison on The Washington Post website here.

Shep Smith steps down at Fox News

Axios logoLongtime Fox News anchor Shep Smith announced on Friday that he is stepping down from his position as Fox News’ chief news anchor, managing editor of the network’s breaking news unit and anchor of his weekday news show, Shepard Smith Reporting. Smith has been with the network for 23 years.

Why it matters: His departure comes as a rift grows wider between daytime news anchors and primetime opinion hosts at Fox.

Details: Smith’s last broadcast was Friday. The network sent a press release ahead of his final remarks about his departure on his show.

    • “Recently I asked the company to allow me to leave Fox News and begin a new chapter. After requesting that I stay, they graciously obliged,” he said in a statement.
    • In his final broadcast remarks, Smith thanked the network, and said he appreciated the opportunities that afforded him to “travel the country and the world gathering the facts for you.”

View the complete October 11 article by Sara Fischer on the Axios website here.

Justice Department slow to answer Congress on gun background checks

House Appropriations has asked Attorney General William Barr to clarify April testimony

House lawmakers are still waiting for Attorney General William Barr to answer written questions after he misstated key data about gun background checks during testimony in April.

The questions revolve around a controversial provision in federal law that lets gun dealers sell firearms before a background check is completed if that takes longer than three business days.

Here’s how the system works:

View the complete October 10 article by Joshua Eaton on The Roll Call website here.

Bill Barr defender turns on the attorney general: ‘I’m deeply disappointed in what I’ve seen’

AlterNet logoDuring a segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this Wednesday, a former prosecutor who previously defended Attorney General William Barr as “principled,” now says his assessment was “flat out wrong.”

“I had said for months that…Barr was a principled institutionalist,” former Virginia U.S. attorney Chuck Rosenberg said. “I was flat-out wrong.”

“I had it wrong. I have been deeply disappointed by what I’ve seen,” he added.

View the complete October 9 article from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Judge questions keeping Mueller grand jury materials from House

During the hearing the judge voiced skepticism about the Justice Department’s reasons for opposing the release of materials

A federal judge in Washington on Tuesday appeared ready to give the House Judiciary Committee access to at least some of the secret grand jury materials from the Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation.

Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, throughout a two-hour hearing, voiced skepticism about the Justice Department’s reasons for opposing the release of materials to the committee as part of an impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.

That was most clear when Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Shapiro told Howell that a federal judge in 1974 — who sent a sealed grand jury report and evidence to the committee for use in the Watergate impeachment investigation of President Richard Nixon — would rule differently if the issue arose today.

View the complete October 8 article by Todd Ruger on The Roll Call website here.