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Barr
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Every now and again I’ll see someone post one of his weird statements. Other than that it’s been a good riddance. Same with his whacky brood.
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Out this summer: [link=https://amzn.to/3uggmHM][i]Hatchet Man: How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutors Code and Corrupted the Justice Department[/i][/link] by Elie Honig.
Honig uses his own experience as a prosecutor at DOJ to show how, as Americas top law enforcement official, Barr repeatedly violated the Departments written rules, and those vital, unwritten norms and principles that comprise the prosecutors code.’
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[h1][b]Judge Orders Release of Barr DOJ Memo Re: Not Prosecuting Trump[/b][/h1]
A federal judge has [link=https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.207679/gov.uscourts.dcd.207679.27.0_1.pdf]ordered the release[/link] of a key Justice Department memo supporting former Attorney William Barrs conclusion that former President Donald Trump should not be prosecuted for obstruction of justice over episodes investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller, [link=https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/04/trump-obstruction-justice-doj-485360]Politico[/link] reports.
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[link=https://thehill.com/regulation/551755-judge-orders-release-of-trump-obstruction-memo-accuses-barr-of-being-disingenuous]https://thehill.com/regul…-of-being-disingenuous[/link]
[b]Judge Amy Berman Jackson accuses Barr of deception[/b]
[b][/b]
Jackson, who was appointed to the federal district court in Washington, D.C., by former President Obama, wrote in a scathing [link=https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.207679/gov.uscourts.dcd.207679.27.0_1.pdf]41-page decision[/link] that “not only was the Attorney General being disingenuous then, but DOJ has been disingenuous to this Court with respect to the existence of a decision-making process that should be shielded by the deliberative process privilege.”
“The agencys redactions and incomplete explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum, and the excised portions belie the notion that it fell to the Attorney General to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision was on the table at any time,” she added.
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“Moreover, the redacted portions of Section I reveal that both the authors and the recipient of the memorandum had a shared understanding concerning whether prosecuting the President was a matter to be considered at all,” she wrote. “In other words, the review of the document reveals that the Attorney General was not then engaged in making a decision about whether the President should be charged with obstruction of justice; the fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given.” -
Judge Jackson says Barr whipped up the OLC memo post hoc (after the fact) to retroactively make his decision not to prosecute trump true. Remember when Rosenstein offered to land the plane back in May 2017? The decision not to prosecute had been made.
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DOJ really taking it down to the wire.
They have until midnight tonight to decide whether to release the Barr OLC memo or to fight it.
[link=https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/552049-judges-decision-on-barr-memo-puts-spotlight-on-secretive-doj-office]https://thehill.com/regul…n-secretive-doj-office[/link]
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Quote from dergon
Judge Jackson says Barr whipped up the OLC memo post hoc (after the fact) to retroactively make his decision not to prosecute trump true. Remember when Rosenstein offered to land the plane back in May 2017? The decision not to prosecute had been made.
There was no way the DOJ could have even charged him. It was simply not possible under DOJ rules. Barr just decided to take personal responsibility for a decision that had already been made by career staff.
Is that really the new thing to get worked up about ?
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It’s about the misrepresentation, not the final decision.
Barr said the evidence didn’t support charging. Had he simply re-stated that DOJ policy precludes charging regardless of whether or not there was criminal activity, then that would have been a fair representation. But that’s not what he did… he wanted to spin it as “total exoneration.”
And he retroactively claimed that is was privileged info because of legal deliberation when it appears no such deliberations occurred.
Amy Berman-Jackson, who has seen more of the documents than anyone outside of the Trump orbit, clearly believes there is more than just “spin” … she believes there is potentially real misconduct.
I’m not going to pre-judge .. but it sure deserves a full look.
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That was fast .
Justice Department to Probe Trump-Era Secret Subpoenas:Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced Friday that his office is launching a probe following reports that the department had sought the records of journalists and prominent critics of former president Donald Trump on the House Intelligence Committee, the Washington Postreports
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin said that Donald Trumps former attorney generals, William Barr and Jeff Sessions, must testify before the Senate judiciary committee under oath.
They added: If they refuse, they are subject to being subpoenaed and compelled to testify under oath.
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Politico: In a phone interview, Barr said he didnt recall getting briefed on the moves Barr also said that while he was attorney general, he was not aware of any congressmans records being sought in a leak case.
He also said Trump never encouraged him to target the Democratic lawmakers in this case
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Politico: In a phone interview, Barr said he didnt recall getting briefed on the moves Barr also said that while he was attorney general, he was not aware of any congressmans records being sought in a leak case.
He also said Trump never encouraged him to target the Democratic lawmakers in this case
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[link=https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/556077-doj-asks-judge-to-dismiss-cases-against-trump-barr-for-lafayette]DOJ asks judge to dismiss cases against Trump, Barr for Lafayette Square clearing
[/link]
Department of Justice lawyers asked a federal judge to dismiss lawsuits against former [link=https://thehill.com/people/donald-trump]President Trump[/link], former attorney general [link=https://thehill.com/people/william-barr]William Barr[/link] and other administration officials for the forced clearing of racial justice protesters at Lafayette Square last June.
The Washington, D.C., chapters of the ACLU, Black Lives Matter and other civil rights organizations [link=https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/501246-lawsuit-says-trump-admin-violated-protestors-free-speech-in-white]sued[/link] the Trump administration and law enforcement officials for the use of chemical agents, rubber bullets and other violent action to disperse protesters before Trump walked across the square to pose for photographs with a Bible outside of St. Johns Episcopal Church.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and the Justice Department presented oral arguments before a federal judge on Friday, with government lawyers arguing that Trump and other U.S. officials could not be included in civil lawsuits against police over actions taken to protect a president[/QUOTE]
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-lafayette-square-civil-lawsuit/2021/05/28/c413c840-bfb3-11eb-b26e-53663e6be6ff_story.html]The Washington Post[/link]
Lawyers for the ACLU said that despite legal precedents, the governments defense would authorize brutality with impunity in the heart of Washington at one of the most symbolic spaces within the seat of the federal government.
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Michelman said just invoking national security as a defense did not make it true nor should it excuse the executive branch from any oversight. Courts have continued to allow claims against police officials for core constitutional violations, he said.
Randy M. Mastro, co-chair of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutchers litigation practice, called security the latest in a series of shifting explanations after-the-fact by the government to explain its actions in a place used for decades for public protest.[/QUOTE]
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Trumps DOJ spied on members of Congress (notably, those on HPSCI), their aides, and at least one of their children. ….[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…mp-administration.html[/link]
Hunting Leaks, Trump Officials Focused on Democrats in Congress
[b]The Justice Department seized records from Apple for metadata of House Intelligence Committee members, their aides and family members.[/b]
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Norm Eisen:
“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. 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. 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.”
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(Elie Honig, Author of [i[Hatchet Man:How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor’s Code and Corrupted the Justice Department )
[h3][link=https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/11/opinions/bill-barr-despicable-conduct-honig/index.html]Opinion: Bill Barr’s despicable conduct is now on full display [/link][/h3]Barr used the staggering power of his position to selectively pursue Trump’s perceived political rivals. This is eerily similar to former President Richard Nixon’s “[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/08/17/nixon-had-an-enemies-list-now-so-does-trump/]enemies list[/link]” and his efforts at retributive action.
Barr himself apparently understood the flagrant impropriety of his actions. In a [link=https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/05/01/william-barr-kamala-harris-suggested-investigation-sot-vpx.cnn]memorable confrontation[/link] in May 2019, then-Sen. Kamala Harris — plainly aware that Trump had publicly called for the Justice Department to lash back at Mueller and others by “[link=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-whistleblower-barr-explaine/explainer-barr-gives-top-priority-to-investigating-the-investigators-of-russian-meddling-idUSKBN1WG4QZ]investigating the investigators[/link]” — [link=https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/09/politics/kamala-harris-william-barr-pressure-investigate-kerry/index.html]asked Barr[/link] at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “Has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone. Yes or no, please, sir.”
Barr’s response to Harris was telling. If nobody at the White House had asked (or “suggested”) that he open an investigation, that’s an easy “no” response. If somebody had asked, and there was nothing improper about it, then a simple “yes” would suffice. But Barr played dumb and engaged in semantic games. He seemed to know the answer was “yes” — and that his conduct was too ugly to openly admit.
Indeed, we are now learning just how deep Barr’s corruption ran. He [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html]reportedly reauthorized[/link] an investigation into purported leaks by Congress even after the investigative trail had gone cold (and it’s not clear there was any basis for an investigation in the first place).
Making matters worse, Barr [link=https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/10/politics/house-intelligence-committee-apple-data-trump-justice-department-doj/index.html]apparently authorized [/link]the extraordinary step of seeking to renew a “gag order” which prevented the recipients of the subpoenas (Apple and another service provider) from notifying the subjects of the subpoenas. The end result was an unfair fight, where the subjects — including Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California — did not even know their personal information had been obtained by law enforcement, and had no ability to fight for their own privacy and other legal rights in court.
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In a famous [link=https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/ag/legacy/2011/09/16/04-01-1940.pdf__;!!AQdq3sQhfUj4q8uUguY!1XEZ6FJaVbwhPQ3amIrYsqyrSizg7l56yVXGaWusKQj0_7BnfIghm8u9g5VeWeU3V7sLvEtk$]1940 speech[/link], then-Attorney General Robert Jackson noted astutely that “the prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous.” With that power comes unique public trust to exercise prosecutorial authority impartially and evenly. As Jackson said, “While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst.” Barr’s despicable conduct — and the damage he has wrought — proves that Jackson had it exactly right.
[/QUOTE]
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Think Kamala hammered him on the investigations while she was a senator
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She knew then (or at least guessed) what we are learning now
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Now Microsoft confirms they received a subpoena in 2017 related to a congressional staffer’s personal email account, the company said Friday evening. As with Apple, Microsoft was subject to a gag order
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For all of those who might be willing to take at face value that AG Barr wasn’t in the loop and had no knowledge of DOJ investigations into Dems. …This is the same person who instituted additional, higher-level sign offs for investigations into political candidates…but leak cases on sitting politicians somehow never made his desk?
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/barr-2020-investigations.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…20-investigations.html[/link]
Investigations Into 2020 Candidates Must Be Cleared by Top Justice Dept. Officials[/h1] [b]The move is intended to help avoid upending the election as the F.B.I. inadvertently did in 2016 when its campaign inquiries shaped the outcome of the race.[/b]
_____________Neal Katyal: “I believe Bill Barrs recollection of the Congressional spying investigation just about as much as I believe his summary of the Mueller Report.”
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[link=https://us.cnn.com/2021/06/12/politi…ena/index.html]https://us.cnn.com/2021/0…oliti…ena/index.html[/link]
Ex-top Trump Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein has told people in recent days he was not aware of a subpoena that targeted the data of Democratic members of Congress while he was deputy attorney general, a source familiar with Rosenstein told CNN on Saturday.
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“Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is telling associates that he had no idea his Justice Department seized phone records of two top Democratic Congressional critics of then-President Donald Trump,” The Daily Beast reported Friday.
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Either he or Sessions is lying. No way in heck are both the AG and DAG in the dark on this.
Or they’re both lying.
(Maybe it was all the work of the #3 at the DOJ, Sally Yates … fits right in with the whole “It was Antifa storming the capitol on 1/6” approach)
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A friend reminded me that I am forgetting Matt Whitaker who had a cup of coffee in the AGs office too … it could all be his master plan. 🙂
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Apple told Donald McGahn, the White House counsel to former President Donald Trump, last month that the Justice Department had subpoenaed information about an account that belonged to him in February 2018, and that the government barred the company from telling him at the time, the New York Times reports.
McGahns wife received a similar notice from Apple.
The disclosure that agents secretly collected data of a sitting White House counsel is striking as it comes amid a political backlash to revelations about Trump-era seizures of data of reporters and Democrats in Congress for leak investigations.
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[h1][b]This is Just the Beginning of Revelations on How Trump Targeted His Enemies[/b][/h1]
[link=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2021/06/14/manchin-and-sinema-still-might-get-their-way-493235?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000014e-f0ed-dd93-ad7f-f8edad790000&nlid=630318]Playbook[/link]: Nobody thinks these are isolated incidents. Clearly someone at Justice was targeting Trumps perceived enemies, perhaps in a bid to crack down on leaks or for some other reason. Former A.G. Bill Barr and former Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein have both denied they were aware of the activity on lawmakers, and its unclear who at DOJ was. Were told A.G. Merrill Garland is trying to quickly figure out what happened, but his department isnt fully staffed up, complicating his efforts.
We havent seen the last of this. Think about it this way: Were just now learning about these secret requests for data that were made about three years ago because the gag orders on the tech companies, after having been renewed annually, just expired. That puts us in early 2018. So its not unreasonable to ask: Who else did they request information about in the last three years of Trumps presidency that we dont yet know about? Democrats expect many more names to surface.
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[h1]Longest-Serving Trump Justice Department Official to Step Down[/h1]
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/us/politics/john-demers-leak-investigation.html]New York Times[/link]: John Demers, the head of the Justice Departments National Security Division, is expected to step down at the end of next week a departure that was arranged months ago but now comes amid widespread backlash over investigations into leaks of classified information that began under the Trump administration.
Mr. Demers was the longest-serving Senate-confirmed official from the Trump administration to remain at the Justice Department during the Biden presidency.
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[link=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-congress-data-subpoenas-merrick-garland/]Attorney general vows to “move swiftly” on seizure of lawmakers’ data[/link] [image]https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif[/image]
