Justice Dept. Watchdog Is Preparing to Deliver Verdict on the Russia Investigation

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — Inside a London office building in early June, three investigators for the Justice Department’s inspector general took a crucial step toward clearing the political fallout from the Russia investigation: They spent two days interviewing Christopher Steele, the former British spy whose now-infamous dossier of purported links between Trump associates and Russia ended up in the hands of the F.B.I. ahead of the 2016 election.

The investigators pored over Mr. Steele’s old memos and his contemporaneous notes from meetings with F.B.I. agents in the fall of 2016, according to a person familiar with the investigation. They asked Mr. Steele to explain in detail how he had validated his sources inside Russia, how he communicated with them, and how he decided which of their claims to include in his reports. They spoke at length about Mr. Steele’s work with the F.B.I. on other Russia-related investigations and his contacts with a senior Justice Department official.

The interview was a key step in the investigation by the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, into the facts underlying a bitter partisan feud: Did F.B.I. officials do anything wrong in 2016 when they sought to understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia — including how they used information from Mr. Steele?

View the complete July 9 article by Adam Goldman, Charlie Savage and Matthew Rosenberg on The New York Times website here.

In Sudden Shift, Barr Urges Mueller To Defy Congressional Subpoena

When asked in April whether he was opposed to the special counsel testifying before Congress — an event now scheduled for July 17 — Attorney General Bill Barr clearly told lawmakers, “I have no objection to Bob Mueller personally testifying.”

But now he has changed his tune.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Barr said Democrats were trying to make a “public spectacle” by subpoenaing Mueller to testify about the Russia investigation.

View the complete July 8 article by Cody Fenwick with AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Barr Says Legal Path to Census Citizenship Question Exists, but He Gives No Details

New York Times logoEDGEFIELD, S.C. — President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr began working to find a way to place a citizenship question on the 2020 census just after the Supreme Court blocked its inclusion last month, Mr. Barr said on Monday, adding that he believes that the administration can find a legal path to incorporating the question.

“The president is right on the legal grounds. I felt the Supreme Court decision was wrong, but it also made clear that the question was a perfectly legal question to ask, but the record had to be clarified,” Mr. Barr said in an interview. He was referring to the ruling that left open the possibility that the citizenship question could be added to the census if the administration came up with a better rationale for it.

“It makes a lot of sense for the president to see if it’s possible that we could clarify the record in time to add the question,” Mr. Barr added.

View the complete July 8 article by Katie Benner on The New York Times website here.

House will vote ‘soon’ to hold Barr, Ross in criminal contempt over citizenship question

Pelosi announces plans for full House vote in dear colleague letter, also outlining legislative steps to protect migrants

The House will “soon” vote to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary William Ross in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas for documents explaining the administration’s rationale for wanting to add a citizenship question to the census, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Monday.

The Oversight and Reform Committee last month approved a contempt resolution against Barr and Ross that included language to refer the matter to the U.S. attorney in Washington for possible criminal charges, as well as authorize the pursuit of a lawsuit.

The Justice and Commerce departments have provided the Oversight Committee with some documents on the citizenship question while withholding others over claims of executive privilege.

View the complete July 8 article by Lindsey McPherson on The Roll Call website here.

Ex-federal prosecutor warns Bill Barr could ‘run interference’ on the Epstein case if Trump is potentially involved

AlterNet logoUPDATE: Since the publication of this story, it has been widely reported that Attorney General Bill Barr is recusing from the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah highlighted the troubling nature of Attorney General Bill Barr’s position leading the Justice Department in a new op-ed reflecting on the arrest of billionaire and alleged sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

While it often seems that sexual abusers and high-status men guilty of criminal wrongdoing face little actual accountability, Rocah argued, Epstein’s arrest indicates, at least in this instance, the justice might be served.

But she has serious concerns about the attorney general’s potential involvement. Barr oversees all federal prosecutions, even the charges, such as those against Epstein, brought by the famously independent Southern District of New York. While Barr may have no interest in going easy on Epstein, Rocah warned he may be tempted to get involved if the president falls within the scope of the investigation:

View the complete July 8 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Pelosi: Census citizenship question is effort to ‘make America white again’

The Hill logoSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) argued Monday that President Trump‘s push to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census is an effort to “make America white again” in an adaptation of his campaign slogan.

“This is about keeping — you know his hat — make America white again,” Pelosi said at an event in San Francisco about election security legislation, referring to the red “Make America Great Again” hats that are popular among Trump supporters. 

Pelosi, like other critics of adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census, argued that it could result in racial minorities being undercounted so that legislative maps can be drawn more favorably for Republicans.

View the complete July 8 article by Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.

Trump’s Justice Department lawyers may soon pay a high price for lying to the courts

This is what happens when you get into bed with Donald Trump.

Late last month, the Supreme Court determined that the Trump administration liedabout its real reason for wanting to add a question to the 2020 census form asking if each respondent is a U.S. citizen.

Less than two weeks later, as a team of lawyers led by the ACLU laid out in a remarkable brief filed in a federal district court, Trump’s Justice Department is entangled in an entirely different web of deceit. The brief, moreover, references a forthcoming motion for sanctions against the government attorneys who litigated this case.

There is a lesson here for officials throughout the government. If you play ball with Donald Trump, you’re likely to get smacked with a fastball right across your temple.

View the complete July 7 article by Ian Millhiser on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump’s legal battles over census go public

The Hill logoThe Trump administration’s internal legal struggles to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census are spilling out into the open.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced late Sunday that it was cleaning house on the team of lawyers that have spent the past year defending the citizenship question in court. That move came just days after DOJ attorneys told a federal judge that they were caught off guard by President Trump’s announcement that he still wanted the question on the census after the Supreme Court ruled against it. 

Legal experts were shocked by the decision to change attorneys. But it may have been the only way the administration could continue pushing for the citizenship question in court.

View the complete July 8 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Justice says it is reviewing ‘all available options’ on census

The Hill logoJustice Department lawyers told a federal judge Friday that the Trump administration is reviewing “all available options” for adding a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census after the Supreme Court blocked the query’s inclusion last week.

“The Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Commerce have been asked to reevaluate all available options following the Supreme Court’s decision and whether the Supreme Court’s decision would allow for a new decision to include the citizenship question on the 2020 Decennial Census,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing Friday.

“In the event the Commerce Department adopts a new rationale for including the citizenship question on the 2020 Decennial Census consistent with the decisions of the Supreme Court, the Government will immediately notify this Court so that it can determine whether there is any need for further proceedings or relief,” they wrote.

View the complete July 5 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Longtime colleague delivers brutal dressing down to Bill Barr: His goal is ‘assigning unchecked power to the president

AlterNet logoDonald Trump is not the first U.S. president who has chosen William Barr as his attorney general: Barr held the same position under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s. One of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials who knew Barr under Bush’s presidency was Donald Ayer, who explains why the attorney general is so bad for democracy in a blistering June 30 article for The Atlantic.

The 70-year-old Ayer (who is now in private practice) served as principle deputy solicitor general under the Reagan Administration in the 1980s and went on to serve as deputy attorney general under Bush in 1989 and 1990. In his article, Ayer explains that given Barr’s “prior service as attorney general in the by-the-book, norm-following administration of George H. W. Bush,” many Americans viewed him as “a mature adult dedicated to the rule of law who could be expected to hold the Trump Administration to established legal rules.”

But Barr, Ayer stresses, has proved to be a Trump loyalist who has “seen fit to support Trump in his lies and abuses.” Ayer is highly critical of Barr’s response to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report for the Russian investigation.

View the complete July 1 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.