Tag: William Barr

Legal Expert: Barr Made A ‘Serious Error’ In Defense Of Trump

President Donald Trump has repeatedly described special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report for the Russia investigation as a total vindication of him, insisting that Mueller ruled out the possibility of obstruction of justice. But Mueller never ruled out that possibility; he simply didn’t reach a conclusion on the matter. And Rebecca Roiphe, a New York Law School professor and former Manhattan prosecutor, explains why Mueller was right to do what he did — and why Attorney General William Barr’s response to Mueller’s report is deeply problematic.

Mueller, Roiphe notes inThe Daily Beast, has allowed for Congress to evaluate the obstruction matter — which was exactly what he should have done.

“To be sure, by handing over the lightly redacted results of Mueller’s investigation to Congress, Barr served the purpose of the Constitution and special counsel regulations,” Roiphe observes. “But by making his own call on criminal obstruction, Barr made a serious error.”

View the completeMay 7 article by Alex Henderson of AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Poll: Little support for Barr’s handling of Mueller report

Amid Attorney General William Barr’s escalating clash with Congress, a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows few voters are praising him for how he has handled the release of the Mueller report.

But while many voters disapprove of Barr’s handling of the report, there’s little sign of the kind of widespread antipathy that would lend public support to congressional Democrats who are considering holding the attorney general in contempt for not providing information and testimony to the House Judiciary Committee.

View the complete May 8 article by Steven Shepard on the Politico website here.

Dems want Justice IG to investigate Barr

Democrats are trying to convince the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate Attorney General William Barr in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

Senate Democrats realize they have almost no shot at convincing the Republican majority to dig into Barr’s actions since the Russia investigation wrapped up in March, and little leverage to force GOP senators, who are eager to move on, to the negotiating table.

Instead, they’re focusing their efforts on winning over the Justice Department’s top watchdog, putting the inspector general in the middle of a fight between Senate Democrats and Barr.

View the complete May 7 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

FBI director Chris Wray pushes back on Bill Barr’s claim about ‘spying’ on the Trump campaign

FBI director Chris Wray pushed back on Attorney General William Barr’s claims about law enforcement “spying” on the Trump campaign.

Barr suggested FBI surveillance that caught up at least two campaign associates was improperly conducted, despite courts issuing warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to investigate foreign nationals who spoke to members of the Trump campaign.

Wray, however, disputed Barr’s usage of the term and said he knew of no illegal surveillance on any of the 2016 campaigns.

“That’s not the term I would use,” Wray said.

View the complete May 7 article by Travis Gettys on the Raw Story website here.

Trump move raises pressure on Barr

President Trump’s decision to publicly object to special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony has raised pressure on Attorney General William Barr while stoking a deepening feud with Capitol Hill over presidential power.

Barr has maintained that he is willing to allow Mueller to testify, a position that now appears to put him at odds with the president.

Until this weekend, Trump had expressed ambivalence over Mueller’s testimony, leaving the decision up to Barr.

View the complete May 6 article by Morgan Chalfant and Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

With Mueller on Justice staff, Barr has sway over testimony

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller was expected to step down days after concluding his investigation in March. Yet he remains a Justice Department employee — and the department won’t say why.

That’s just one of the complications at play in the high-stakes, secret negotiations over whether Mueller will testify before Congress.

Whatever role Mueller now has, keeping him on the Justice Department payroll offers one clear advantage to President Donald Trump’s administration: It makes it easier for Attorney General William Barr to block Mueller from testifying before Congress.

View the complete May 6 article by Michael Balsamo and Jonathan LeMire on the Associated Press website here.

House Democrats start contempt of Congress process against Barr

The House Judiciary scheduled a Wednesday markup for the 27-page contempt resolution

House Democrats plan to take the first step to holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress on Wednesday, in their push to get an unredacted version of the Mueller report and its underlying investigative material.

The House Judiciary Committee scheduled a markup of a 27-page contempt resolution that lays out the need for the full report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the negotiations so far with Barr to get it.

Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said that Barr’s failure to comply with the congressional subpoena for the full report “leaves us no choice” but to initiate contempt proceedings — but he left the door open to canceling them as well.

View the complete May 6 article by Todd Ruger on The Roll Call website here.

Democrats schedule contempt markup for Barr over Mueller report

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday took their first formal step toward holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, deepening a feud over special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

The committee scheduled a markup of a contempt citation for Barr over his refusal to provide Mueller’s full report to Congress for this Wednesday morning, setting up an explosive week on Capitol Hill.

The markup, slated for Wednesday at 10 a.m., comes after Democrats gave the Justice Department a deadline of 9 a.m. Monday to provide the report as well as the underlying evidence.

View the complete May 6 article by Olivia Beavers and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

What’s the evidence for ‘spying’ on Trump’s campaign? Here’s your guide.

Attorney General William P. Barr has indicated that he is troubled by the possibility that the FBI conducted surveillance on the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. The president has regularly tweeted that he was a victim of spying. Trump’s allies in Congress have reiterated that claim.

There are two main threads to the accusations of spying: contacts by FBI-linked operatives with George Papadopoulos, a young Trump foreign policy aide, and federal court surveillance of Carter Page after he was ousted by the campaign. For instance, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tweeted:

“Now we know they spied on at least two American citizens associated with the Trump campaign 1) Carter Page — using the false Dossier as the basis for a secret warrant 2) George Papadopolous — set up by an FBI agent posing as a Cambridge professor’s assistant.”

View the complete May 6 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

Did Attorney General Barr mislead Congress?

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.): “Reports have emerged recently, general, that members of the special counsel’s team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your March 24th letter, that it does not adequately or accurately, necessarily, portray the report’s findings. Do you know what they’re referencing with that?”

Attorney General William P. Barr: “No, I don’t. I think — I think — I suspect that they probably wanted more put out, but in my view, I was not interested in putting out summaries or trying to summarize, because I think any summary, regardless of who prepares it, not only runs the risk of, you know, being underinclusive or overinclusive, but also, you know, would trigger a lot of discussion and analysis that really should await everything coming out at once.”

— Exchange at a hearing of a House appropriations subcommittee, April 9

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.): “You made a conclusion on the question of obstruction of justice that was not contained in the Mueller report. … Did Bob Mueller support your conclusion?”

Barr: “I don’t know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion.”

— Exchange at a hearing of a Senate appropriations subcommittee, April 10

The Pinocchio Test

View the complete May 3 article by Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.