Tag: Trump Justice Department

William Barr’s DOJ inadvertently named Saudi official suspected of helping the 9/11 hijackers after trying for 2 years to conceal his identity

AlterNet logoAfter an extraordinary, two-year battle to keep secret the name of a Saudi diplomat suspected of ties to the 9/11 plot, the Justice Department accidentally disclosed the man’s name in a court filing.

The revelation of the Saudi official’s identity, in a federal court filing last week, did little to illuminate links between the Al Qaeda hijackers and the Saudi government, which is being sued for complicity in the 2001 attacks by survivors and families of the victims.

In fact, the diplomat’s identity only deepens a mystery about why the Trump administration has fought so aggressively to keep the information under wraps. The disclosure, in a partially redacted statement from a senior FBI official, was first reported on Tuesday by Yahoo News. Continue reading.

U.S. judge puts Justice Department’s move to drop charges against Michael Flynn on hold

Washington Post logoA U.S. judge put on hold the Justice Department’s move to drop charges against Michael Flynn, saying he expects independent groups and legal experts to argue against the bid to exonerate President Trump’s former national security adviser of lying to the FBI.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said in an order Tuesday that he expects individuals and organizations will seek to intervene in the politically charged case. Having others weigh in could preface more aggressive steps that the federal judge in Washington could take, including — as many outside observers have called for — holding a hearing to consider what to do.

Sullivan’s order came after the government took the highly irregular step Thursday of reversing its stance on upholding Flynn’s guilty plea. Continue reading.

Frank Figliuzzi: Trump’s ‘Obamagate’ comments and Barr’s Flynn meddling suggest troubling new pivot

Trump can’t pull off this ruse by himself, of course, but he has a partner. Barr is riding shotgun during this scorched-earth joyride against justice

In my 25 years as an FBI special agent and (now retired) head of the bureau’s counterintelligence, I learned the value of predictive analysis. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI transitioned from an investigative agency adept at investigating what happened after the fact to an intelligence agency capable of forecasting and preventing harm from happening in the future.

Forecasting is a lot easier when there are clear clues. And when it comes to assessing the trap Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump appear to be setting for us, the warning signs are plentiful. We don’t need to read tea leaves for this. We only need to review tweets.

On Saturday, Trump retweeted a fantastical fiction of a theory from The Federalist asserting that former President Barack Obama’s White House intelligence discussions about, in part, the trustworthiness of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn and members of the Trump transition team were proof that Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden were malevolently conspiring against the Trump administration. Continue reading.

Senate revives surveillance brawl

The Hill logoThe Senate is set to revive a fight over a shadowy surveillance court, bringing to a head a months-long stalemate that resulted in the lapse of three intelligence programs.

The looming debate, which will pit some of President Trump’s biggest allies against one another, comes on the heels of growing questions about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court after the Justice Department inspector general found widespread errors as part of an interim report on warrant applications.

Leadership wants to pass a House-passed bill that pairs a reauthorization of the intelligence programs with some changes to the FISA process. Continue reading.

The Memo: Flynn case will become election issue

The Hill logoThe prosecution of Michael Flynn has been dropped, but the use of his case as a political weapon looks sure to intensify.

President Trump kept his rhetoric on the case red-hot in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s decision from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop the case against the retired Army general, who had pleaded guilty on two occasions to lying to the FBI.

The president blasted the people behind Flynn’s prosecution as “human scum” to reporters — terminology that has grown familiar from Trump’s mouth but would once have been a shocking thing for a commander in chief to say in apparent reference to members of the FBI. Continue reading.

Barr signals DOJ support for lockdown protesters

The Hill logoWhen Attorney General William Barr this week directed U.S. prosecutors to safeguard civil liberties amid state-level pandemic orders, he signaled Justice Department support for lockdown protesters by highlighting religious and economic rights.

In a two-page memo, the nation’s top cop gave the clearest indication yet of the kind of battles federal prosecutors are likely to focus on. In doing so, Barr suggested the Department of Justice (DOJ) might back church groups and those seeking a swifter economic reopening while staying on the sidelines of fights over new limits on abortion and voting access.

“It’s extremely likely that the DOJ will play favorites,” said Lindsay Wiley, a law professor at American University. “I think it’s accurate to assume that DOJ will not intervene in a neutral way, but will instead intervene on behalf of plaintiffs asserting rights the administration favors.” Continue reading.

Top Democrats Urge Justice Dept Inspector General To Probe Barr

Two top Democrats are urging the Justice Department’s internal watchdogs to investigate slanderous remarks made by Attorney General William Barr about the intelligence community official who elevated the whistleblower complaint regarding Donald Trump.

Appearing on Fox News on April 9, Barr said Trump had done “the right thing” when he fired former intelligence investigator general Michael Atkinson, suggesting that Atkinson had exceeded his mandate as IG by exploring “anything” and then reporting it back to Congress. But in a letter to two Justice Department officials, the Democratic chairs of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees said Barr had “blatantly mischaracterized” Atkinson’s conduct.

“Mr. Barr’s remarks followed the President’s admission on April 4 that he fired Mr. Atkinson in retaliation for Mr. Atkinson’s handling—in accordance with the law—of the whistleblower complaint,” Reps. Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler wrote. “Mr. Barr’s misleading remarks appear to have been aimed at justifying the President’s retaliatory decision to fire Mr. Atkinson.” Continue reading.

How Bill Barr is gearing up to take the fall for Trump’s coronavirus policy: report

AlterNet logoAccording to a report from the Daily Beast, Attorney General Bill Barr appears poised to take the lead and attempt to force governors to re-open their states during the coronavirus pandemic — even at the risk of ramping up the spread of the virus when it appears to be slowing down.

In the process, he could become the face of Donald Trump’s failures to stem the COVID-19 health crisis.

“Donald Trump is calling for his followers to LIBERATE the states from the social distancing measures that are staving off an even greater coronavirus death toll. Trump’s enforcer, Attorney General Bill Barr, is now poised to support Trump’s call for insurrection by turning to the federal courts—seeded with a legion of newly installed right-wing jurists—to undermine critical public health protections on his boss’ behalf,” the Beast’s David Lurie wrote. “If Barr and Trump get their way, the states will soon be ‘opened up”’to the virus, and thus to a massive number of needless deaths.” Continue reading.

IG finds Treasury handled House request for Trump tax returns properly

The Hill logoThe Treasury Department’s inspector general office found that the department “properly” processed House Democrats’ request for President Trump‘s tax returns when it refused to turn over the documents to the Ways and Means Committee.

In a memo, the IG also said it found Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s supervision of the process to be consistent with its rules.

The memo said it found Treasury’s receipt, processing and responses to the request and subpoenas from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) “to be consistent with Treasury’s general process for handling Congressional correspondence.” Continue reading.

Federal judge critical of Trump and AG Barr has obtained an un-redacted copy of the Mueller report

AlterNet logoJudge Reggie Walton issued two court orders asking the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for an unredacted copy of the Mueller Report, and on Monday, March 30, DOJ attorneys with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia notified Walton that a copy had finally been delivered.

However, reporter Colin Kalmbacher notes in Law & Crime that “the long sought-after report won’t be looked over any time soon” because of “the general and specific federal caseload slowdowns enacted in response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing response regime.”

Walton explained the delay, noting that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s “review of the unredacted version of the Mueller report is unable to occur until the Court resumes its normal operations on April 20, 2020, unless the Court’s normal operations are further suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Continue reading.