Tag: Trump Justice Department

Judge again blocks US from resuming federal executions

The Hill logoA federal judge in Washington, D.C., once again blocked the Trump administration from resuming executions just hours before the first federal death sentence since 2003 was scheduled to be carried out.

Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday ordered a preliminary injunction against the government while the courts hear a legal challenge from four death row inmates against the administration’s new execution protocols announced last summer. She ruled that the new protocol likely violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The ruling is the second injunction Chutkan has issued in the case. A similar order from last November that found the new protocols likely violated federal death penalty laws was overturned by an appeals court, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Continue reading.

Damning report exposes Trump DOJ’s efforts to line up a secret supply chain for federal executions

AlterNet logoAn explosive Reuters investigation revealed Friday that a series of executions the Trump administration has planned for next week “will mark the culmination of a three-year campaign to line up a secret supply chain to make and test lethal injection drugs.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 cleared the way for federal executions to resume when it denied to hear an appeal from death row prisoners challenging the Trump administration’s lethal injection protocol. Inmates Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey, and Dustin Lee Honken are set to be killed at a federal facility in Indiana just days apart beginning on July 13, followed by Keith Dwayne Nelson on August 28.

Although it wasn’t until July 2019 when U.S. Attorney General William Barr publicly directed the Bureau of Prisons to resume capital punishment using only the drug pentobarbital—in lieu of a three-drug protocol that had been hampered by supply issues—Reuters reported that “President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice had started building the network of contractors it would need by May 2017.” Continue reading.

Letter sent in ‘utmost confidentiality’ to Bill Barr set in motion intervention for Michael Flynn: report

AlterNet logoAccording to a report from the New York Times, a letter sent in secret to Attorney General Bill Barr asking him to intercede in the case of former Donald Trump aide Michael Flynn, set in motion a move by the Justice Department to force a judge to set aside Flynn’s guilty pleas.

The report notes that Flynn attorney Sidney Powell, who used her appearances on Fox News to get Donald Trump’s attention, sent off a letter over a year ago asking for Barr to appoint an outsider to look at the case that was already in the sentencing stage.

The Times reports, “Asking for ‘utmost confidentiality,’ Ms. Powell told Mr. Barr that the case against Mr. Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser who had pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., smacked of ‘corruption of our beloved government institutions for what appears to be political purposes.’” Continue reading.

Barr forms task force to counter ‘anti-government extremists’

Washington Post logoAttorney General William P. Barr on Friday directed the formation of a task force that will be dedicated to countering “anti-government extremists,” escalating federal law enforcement’s response to the violence that has sometimes marked nationwide protests against police brutality and racism, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

In the memo, Barr wrote that amid peaceful demonstrations, anti-government extremists had “engaged in indefensible acts of violence designed to undermine public order.”

“Among other lawless conduct, these extremists have violently attacked police officers and other government officials, destroyed public and private property, and threatened innocent people,” Barr wrote in a directive to all the Justice Department’s law enforcement components and U.S. attorneys. “Although these extremists profess a variety of ideologies, they are united in their opposition to the core constitutional values of a democratic society governed by law. . . . Some pretend to profess a message of freedom and progress, but they are in fact forces of anarchy, destruction, and coercion.” Continue reading.

Four ways William Barr is already subverting the 2020 elections

Washington Post logoSafeguarding the vote would be the top priority of a normal attorney general. It’s the opposite now.

A normal attorney general of the United States right now would be focused on protecting the integrity of the fast-approaching November elections. Instead, the attorney general we have — William P. Barr — is intent on doing the opposite: unraveling the government’s efforts to hold accountable those who infected our last presidential election, in 2016, and undermining the integrity of the vote in 2020. It’s so bad that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, who last weekend said it would be a “waste of time” to try to impeach Barr, is now reconsidering. (For the moment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi says impeachment is not happening.)

There are four ways that Barr’s approach to running the Justice Department imperils the vote: He’s letting off the hook those who contributed to interference in the last election; he’s undermining confidence in the government’s ability to protect the coming election; he’s signaling to bad actors that helping President Trump win will garner them special treatment under the law; and he’s spreading disinformation about the potential for voter fraud.

First, Barr is actively undoing work by the very department he oversees to address the counterintelligence threat exposed during the 2016 elections. At the core of Russia’s effort to distort American democracy was its move to obtain influence over a presidential candidate and his team. That’s what the FBI was investigating when it interviewed Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in January 2017. The criminal charges brought against Flynn for lying during that interview — to which he pleaded guilty twice — affirmed federal law enforcement’s commitment to investigate counterintelligence threats and disrupt them.

For Barr, Standoff With Prosecutor Adds to String of Miscues

New York Times logoThe attorney general has found himself at odds with the White House on high-profile issues in recent weeks.

WASHINGTON — From the onset of his tenure, William P. Barr has been billed as the attorney general that President Trump was looking for. And Mr. Barr has taken some pride in this role, telling Fox News this past weekend that he speaks with the president “very regularly.”

But for a man who projects unswerving confidence in his political and legal skills, his efforts this month to play presidential intimate have backfired, embarrassing both him and his boss.

The month has brought a string of unusually high-profile miscues for the attorney general. He has been at odds with the White House at critical moments, showing how even top administration officials known for their loyalty can fall out of sync with a president laser-focused on his own political popularity. Continue reading.

Trump ousts Manhattan U.S. attorney who investigated president’s associates

Washington Post logoAttorney General William P. Barr said Saturday that President Trump had fired the top federal prosecutor in New York, ending an unprecedented standoff between Barr and U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who had resisted being removed from his post.

Barr informed Berman of the president’s move in a sharply worded letter, explaining that Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss, will serve as the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan until the Senate can confirm a permanent replacement. Under Berman, the office managed a number of sensitive investigations involving people close to Trump, including his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Barr wrote that he had hoped for Berman’s “cooperation to facilitate a smooth transition” in the office as Trump nominates the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, to take over the job. Instead, the attorney general wrote, Berman had chosen “public spectacle.” Continue reading.

‘Republic in grave danger’: Trump slammed for ‘laying the groundwork for a fascist America’

AlterNet logoOn Friday evening, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman of the Southern District of New York — a key figure in the investigations against President Donald Trump’s business associates — announced he was stepping down, and Attorney General William Barr put forward as his replacement Jay Clayton, a lawyer who has represented one of Trump’s major creditors.

The development triggered immediate outrage and suspicion on social media, with commenters warning it was another step to the destruction of the rule of law. Continue reading.

 

Trump administration in standoff with Manhattan U.S. attorney who investigated the president’s associates

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration announced late Friday that Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who has overseen a number of investigations involving the president and his political campaign, will be leaving that job, though Berman fired back that he had not resigned and intends to stay in the job to ensure the cases continue unimpeded.

The surreal standoff marks the latest battle over the administration’s management of the Justice Department. Democrats have decried what they charge has been the politicization of the agency under President Trump and his attorney general, William P. Barr.

Barr announced the personnel change in a statement, saying the president plans to nominate the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, for the job. Continue reading.

Justice Department seeks emergency order to block publication of Bolton’s book

Washington Post logoThe Justice Department on Wednesday night sought an emergency order from a judge to block the publication of former national security adviser John Bolton’s forthcoming White House memoir, escalating a legal battle against the former Trump aide even after many of his book’s most explosive details had spilled out into public view

The move came after the administration filed a civil suit against Bolton on Tuesday, targeting the proceeds of the book and asking a court to order him to delay its scheduled June 23 release. Less than 24 hours later, the Wall Street Journal released an excerpt of the memoir, and lengthy accounts were published by other news organizations.

Wednesday’s move sought to formally enjoin Bolton from allowing his book to be published, a legal strategy experts said was unlikely to succeed, particularly given that the book has already been printed and shipped to warehouses and copies distributed to the media for review. Continue reading.