Tag: Trump Justice Department

Bill Barr could lose his law license over Trump DOJ spy scandal: Legal expert says ‘expect a lot of legal fallout’

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On CNN Thursday, Norm Eisen, who acted as counsel for House Democrats during the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump, expressed outrage at the New York Times report that the Justice Department secretly spied on members of Congress investigating Trump’s ties to Russia — and predicted that former Attorney General William Barr could face the loss of his law license over the scandal.

“In my 30 years in Washington representing people in front of Congress, and at DOJ working in government and the executive branch as a staff member like those staff members who got subpoenaed in congress, it is completely without a precedent,” said Eisen. “It’s groundbreaking and earth-shaking. And there are going to be consequences. There’s going to be fallout.”

“You’re going to see congressional observations, you’re going to need a policy or laws to protect reporters and members of Congress,” said Eisen. “They even went after the child of one of these targets on the Hill to get information about a child’s account from Apple! And then there’s the question of Bill Barr … we’ve already had two judges criticize him for a coverup in connection with protecting Trump from obstruction charges. Now people are going to be looking at his law license afresh. So expect a lot of legal fallout from this.” Continue reading.

Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Post reporters’ phone records

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The Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Washington Post journalists’ phone records and tried to obtain their email records over reporting they did in the early months of the Trump administration on Russia’s role in the 2016 election, according to government letters and officials.

In three separate letters dated May 3 and addressed to Post reporters Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller, and former Post reporter Adam Entous, the Justice Department wrote they were “hereby notified that pursuant to legal process the United States Department of Justice received toll records associated with the following telephone numbers for the period from April 15, 2017 to July 31, 2017.” The letters listed work, home or cellphone numbers covering that three-and-a-half-month period.

Cameron Barr, The Post’s acting executive editor, said: “We are deeply troubled by this use of government power to seek access to the communications of journalists. The Department of Justice should immediately make clear its reasons for this intrusion into the activities of reporters doing their jobs, an activity protected under the First Amendment.” Continue reading.

Bill Barr sued by watchdog for records in potential DOJ corruption

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On Thursday, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced a lawsuit against former Attorney General William Barr to obtain the records of a meeting he took with infamous Blackwater founder Erik Prince.

“CREW is suing the DOJ for records on any meetings that Barr and Prince had since they could reveal potential preferential treatment for Trump’s allies in Department of Justice investigations,” said the group their press release. “Prince reportedly faced a DOJ investigation for apparently lying before Congress about the Russia probe following Representative Adam Schiff’s request for a criminal investigation, but almost two years later, no investigation has been reported and no charges have been announced. In addition to charges related to making false statements to Congress, DOJ apparently was considering whether Prince violated U.S. export laws, but no charges have been announced in that case either.”

“Throughout his tenure, Barr consistently intervened in cases to the benefit of Trump’s allies, including several Trump would later go on to pardon,” continued the statement. “In his final days as president, Trump issued pardon after pardon to benefit himself and his cronies, including four Blackwater guards convicted of killing of Iraqi civilians. Trump also pardoned Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, whose cases Barr and top DOJ officials had reportedly previously intervened in to withdraw stiff sentencing recommendations — in Stone’s case, after Trump tweeted that the recommendations were unfair.” Continue reading.

Justice Dept. Seeks to Pare Back Civil Rights Protections for Minorities

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A late move by the Trump administration would stop enforcement of protections against discriminatory practices that have a “disparate impact” on protected groups.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has embarked on an 11th-hour bid to undo some civil rights protections for minority groups, which could have a ripple effect on women, people with disabilities and L.G.B.T. people, according to a draft document, in a change that would mark one of the most significant shifts in civil rights enforcement in generations.

The Justice Department has submitted for White House approval a change to how it enforces Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating based on race, color or national origin. The regulation covers housing programs, employers, schools, hospitals, and other organizations and programs.

Under the change, the department would continue to narrowly enforce the law’s protections in cases where it could prove intentional discrimination, but no longer in instances where a policy or practice at issue had a “disparate impact” on minority or other groups. Continue reading.

I’m Haunted by What I Did as a Lawyer in the Trump Justice Department

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No matter our intentions, lawyers like me were complicit. We owe the country our honesty about what we saw — and should do in the future.

I was an attorney at the Justice Department when Donald Trump was elected president. I worked in the Office of Legal Counsel, which is where presidents turn for permission slips that say their executive orders and other contemplated actions are lawful. I joined the department during the Obama administration, as a career attorney whose work was supposed to be independent of politics.

I never harbored delusions about a Trump presidency. Mr. Trump readily volunteered that his agenda was to disassemble our democracy, but I made a choice to stay at the Justice Department — home to some of the country’s finest lawyers — for as long as I could bear it. I believed that I could better serve our country by pushing back from within than by keeping my hands clean. But I have come to reconsider that decision.

My job was to tailor the administration’s executive actions to make them lawful — in narrowing them, I could also make them less destructive. I remained committed to trying to uphold my oath even as the president refused to uphold his. Continue reading.

The Need To Rebuild the DOJ Office for Access to Justice

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Over the past four years, President Donald Trump’s administration has rolled back efforts that would have improved civil and criminal justice in the United States, including closing the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office for Access to Justice (ATJ).

Established in 2010, the Obama administration created the office with the purpose of increasing access to justice in both the civil and criminal justice systems. While the need for criminal justice reform is widely understood, there is also a pressing need to reform the civil justice system in the United States—the part of the country’s legal system that covers such critical matters as housing rights and family law.

For several years, the ATJ made significant strides in advancing this goal. The office’s closure under the Trump administration, however, resulted in the elimination of important initiatives it had spearheaded. This includes activity and guidance to eliminate excessive court fees and fines here at home, as well as activity on the global stage on behalf of the United States to advance justice for all. Furthermore, the office’s closure contributed significantly to the lack of a coordinated, federal response to the mounting civil and criminal justice issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading.

Barr Is Said to Be Weighing Whether to Leave Before Trump’s Term Ends

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The attorney general’s future came into doubt after he acknowledged that the Justice Department had not found evidence of widespread voter fraud in the president’s election loss.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr is considering stepping down before President Trump’s term ends next month, according to three people familiar with his thinking. One said Mr. Barr could announce his departure before the end of the year.

It was not clear whether the attorney general’s deliberations were influenced by Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede his election loss or his fury over Mr. Barr’s acknowledgment last week that the Justice Department uncovered no widespread voting fraud. In the ensuing days, the president refused to say whether he still had confidence in his attorney general.

One of the people insisted that Mr. Barr had been weighing his departure since before last week and that Mr. Trump had not affected the attorney general’s thinking. Another said Mr. Barr had concluded that he had completed the work that he set out to accomplish at the Justice Department. Continue reading.

Trump administration sets wave of executions for days leading up to Biden inauguration

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After nearly two decades without any federal executions, the Justice Department reversed course this summer by carrying out three death sentences in four days. Now the department is planning a similarly busy schedule of executions during the Trump administration’s final days, before a president who staunchly backs capital punishment is succeeded by one who opposes it.

The Justice Department’s push to carry out executions during the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration — including scheduling three during the week before he takes office — has drawn sharp condemnation from critics who denounced these actions during the lame-duck window. 

“It’s just unconscionable to move forward with executions at this point, in this situation,” said Shawn Nolan, a lawyer for two of the federal death-row inmates facing execution. “Joe Biden ran on a platform of not moving forward with executions. And they shouldn’t move forward with these executions during this transition period.” Continue reading.

Barr tells Republicans Durham report won’t be ready by election

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Attorney General Bill Barr has begun telling top Republicans that the Justice Department’s sweeping review into the origins of the Russia investigation will not be released before the election, a senior White House official and a congressional aide briefed on the conversations tell Axios.

Why it matters: Republicans had long hoped the report, led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, would be a bombshell containing revelations about what they allege were serious abuses by the Obama administration and intelligence community probing for connections between President Trump and Russia.

  • “This is the nightmare scenario. Essentially, the year and a half of arguably the number one issue for the Republican base is virtually meaningless if this doesn’t happen before the election,” a GOP congressional aide told Axios. Continue reading.

The Justice Department may have violated Attorney General Barr’s own policy memo

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When the Justice Department recently publicized an ongoing investigation into potentially improperly discarded Trump ballots, critics accused it of violating long-standing agency policy against interfering in an election.

But the unusual decision to publicly detail the Pennsylvania case may also have run afoul of guidelines that Attorney General William Barr himself issued to federal prosecutors this year, according to a memo obtained by ProPublica.

In May, Barr wrote a directive to all Justice Department employees imploring them to be “particularly sensitive to safeguarding the Department’s reputation for fairness, neutrality, and non-partisanship” when it comes to election-related crimes. Continue reading.