Tag: Bill Barr

Bill Barr has done this before

AlterNet logoAs violent crime continued to climb in Chicago and other cities across the country, Attorney General William P. Barr announced that the U.S. Department of Justice was mobilizing to help: Dozens of federal agents would be sent to work with local police to combat gangs and illegal guns.

“Our message to gangs, gang leaders and gang members is this: When we throw the federal book at you, it will be a knockout blow,” Barr said.

That was in 1992, during Barr’s first stint leading the Justice Department, under former President George H.W. Bush.

If it sounds too recent or familiar to have happened nearly three decades ago, that’s because Barr, now attorney general under President Donald Trump, made a strikingly similar announcement on July 22. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. drops support for Michael Cohen gag order, clearing way for tell-all Trump book

Washington Post logoNEW YORK — The Justice Department on Thursday dropped its support for a gag order that would have prevented President Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen from writing his forthcoming tell-all book or discussing it with the media, according to documents filed in federal court Thursday.

The about-face was spelled out in a proposed settlement agreement sent to U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein. In it, Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Rovner and Cohen’s attorney Danya Perry wrote that there should be “no specific media provision” governing Cohen’s release from prison to home confinement.

Hellerstein has yet to approve the deal. Continue reading.

Appeals court will rehear case over Flynn charges

The Hill logoA federal appeals court will revisit an earlier decision ordering a district court judge to allow the Department of Justice (DOJ) to withdraw its criminal charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the earlier decision in a brief order issued on Thursday, setting up a new round of arguments over the DOJ’s controversial move to withdraw its case against Flynn.

The full court will hear oral arguments on Aug. 11. Continue reading.

WATCH: Barr Claims He Never Reads Trump Tweets — Despite His Public Complaint About Them

Attorney General William Barr testified to Congress on Tuesday that he does not read Donald Trump’s tweets.

But in February, Barr criticized Trump for tweeting about Department of Justice issues, making it clear he does read the tweets.

“I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” Barr told ABC News, referring to Trump. Barr also said Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Continue reading.

Democrats blister Barr during tense hearing

The Hill logoAttorney General William Barr came under blistering criticism from Democrats on Tuesday over a series of decisions he has made as President Trump’s leader at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Roger Stone‘s prosecution, the use of federal police in U.S. cities and allegations that DOJ has become politicized under his leadership.

Democrats sought to paint Barr, making his first appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, as a Trump loyalist who has sought to shield the president and his allies from scrutiny, all while seeking to help Trump project the image of a law-and-order president ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

“The job of the attorney general is to defend the best interests of the people and serve as the people’s lawyer, but during your time as attorney general you have consistently undermined democracy, undermined the Constitution and undermined the health, safety and well-being of the American people,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). “All to personally benefit Donald Trump.” Continue reading.

Barr plans to mount a defiant defense of Trump in showdown with House Democrats

Washington Post logoAttorney General William P. Barr will tell the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that President Trump has not inappropriately intervened in Justice Department business — even though Barr has more than once moved in criminal cases to help the president’s allies — and he will defend the administration’s response to civil unrest in the country, according to a copy of his opening statement.

Barr, according to the statement, will take a defiant posture as he testifies before the panel for the first time since Democrats took control of it, alleging that they have attempted to “discredit” him since he vowed to investigate the 2016 FBI probe of possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, and the media has been unfair in covering unrest. He is expected to face critical questioning on his response to anti-police brutality protests across the nation, his controversial interventions in high-profile cases involving allies of Trump and many other matters.

According to a Democratic committee counsel, lawmakers will ask Barr about his role dispatching federal agents to respond to anti-police-brutality protests that have at times grown violent — first in D.C. and more recently, in Portland, Ore. Several Democratic leaders — including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) — have asked the Justice Department and Homeland Security inspectors general to probe the federal government’s actions in those cities and raised questions about whether they were legal. Continue reading.

Here are 7 disturbing revelations from a National Guard officer about Trump’s Lafayette Square disaster

AlterNet logoAn officer in the D.C. National Guard delivered a damning account of the events surrounding the federal crackdown on protesters in Lafayette Square in testimony released by the House of Representatives on Monday.

Adam DeMarco, a senior officer tapped to serve as a liaison between the National Guard and the Park Police, was on the scene during the June 1 assault on protesters, as his opening statement for a planned hearing on Tuesday explained. While the president gave a speech to reporters at the White House, federal officers, including the Park Police, violently cleared demonstrators, the media, and others from the nearby area. Shortly thereafter, the president walked across the street that had been cleared for a photo-op at St. John’s Church.

Though presumably intended to bolster Trump’s political standing, the optics of the events clearly backfired, as Vanity Fair reported: Continue reading.

Bill Barr endangers national security to promote a lie

AlterNet logoNot long after William Barr assigned John Durham to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, the president gave the attorney general the power to declassify information pertaining to the investigation. As I wrote at the time, what that really meant was that Barr would be able to selectively release classified information that bolstered his charge that the previous administration had spied on the Trump campaign. According to the New York Times, that is exactly what is happening.

Not long after the early 2017 publication of a notorious dossier about President Trump jolted Washington, an expert in Russian politics told the F.B.I. he had been one of its key sources, drawing on his contacts to deliver information that would make up some of the most salacious and unproven assertions in the document.

The F.B.I. had approached the expert, a man named Igor Danchenko, as it vetted the dossier’s claims. He agreed to tell investigators what he knew with an important condition, people familiar with the matter said — that the F.B.I. keep his identity secret so he could protect himself, his sources and his family and friends in Russia.

But his hope of remaining anonymous evaporated last week after Attorney General William P. Barr directed the F.B.I. to declassify a redacted report about its three-day interview of Mr. Danchenko in 2017 and hand it over to Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Graham promptly made the interview summary public while calling the entire Russia investigation “corrupt.”

The NYT report goes on to say that, while Danchenko’s name was redacted in the released document, it was just a matter of days before “online sleuths” (Russian agents?) were able to identify him based on clues left visible in the declassified document. Continue reading.

House Judiciary Democrats set to grill Attorney General Barr

After seeking his appearance since last year, the committee will have no shortage of questions and topics

Corrected, 5:30 p.m. | Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have wanted to question Attorney General William Barr at an oversight hearing for more than a year, so they have a dizzying list of controversial topics for what promises to be a highly watched showdown Tuesday.

It will be Barr’s first public testimony before a committee that has some of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, at a time when the nation’s focus increasingly turns to the presidential election less than 100 days away.

Until now, House Democrats have been increasingly frustrated in any effort to force Barr’s compliance with congressional oversight demands. The House already found Barr in contempt of Congress last year in connection with stonewalling oversight attempts. Continue reading.

More federal agents dispatched to Portland as protests rise in other cities

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration is sending more federal agents to Portland, Ore., already the site of aggressive policing tactics that activists and city officials across the country say are inspiring more-violent clashes and re-energizing protests.

The U.S. Marshals Service decided last week to send more deputies to Portland, according to an internal email reviewed by The Washington Post, with personnel beginning to arrive last Thursday night. The Department of Homeland Security is also considering a plan to send an additional 50 U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel to the city, according to senior administration officials involved in the federal response who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

Such moves would mark a significant expansion of the federal force operating at the Portland federal courthouse — there were 114 federal agents there in mid-July — though it is unclear how many existing personnel could be sent home after the arrival of at least 100 reinforcements, according to internal Marshals emails. Continue reading.