Tag Archives: Bill Barr

The New York Times reports: Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter. The review is highly unusual and could trigger more accusations of political interference by top Justice Department officials into the work of career …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump on Friday morning broke almost 17 hours of silence following ABC News’ exclusive interview with Attorney General Bill Barr, pushing back on Barr’s warning not to interfere in criminal cases, insisting he has the “legal right” to do so. Trump repeated what he’s said previously — including just this past Tuesday — that he …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr pushed back hard Thursday against President Trump’s criticism of the Justice Department, saying, “I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody.” In an interview with ABC News, Barr said the president’s highly critical tweets aimed at the department “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Barr said …

The New York Times reports: To career prosecutors around the country, the Stone case raised new fears of what is to come. Until now, according to conversations with more than a dozen career lawyers in some of the 93 U.S. attorney’s offices, they had watched other divisions in the Justice Department execute significant shifts in response to Mr. Trump while …

“Bill Barr is doing the Lord’s work, as well as that of this great republic. You know what? I heard that independent crap from James Comey. I heard it — let me tell you something, he works for the president of the United States. He works for the American people, he’s not independent by any measure. “He is the Attorney …

The Hill reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a Democratic presidential candidate, said Wednesday that the country is watching a “descent into authoritarianism,” as she amped up her call for Attorney General William Barr to resign. “The whole notion that we have people in our Justice Department resigning because of Donald Trump’s inappropriate influence, and the attorney general overturning a sentencing …

Just in from the House Judiciary Committee: Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) sent a letter signed by 23 Judiciary Committee Democratic Members confirming Attorney General William Barr will testify before the Committee on March 31st to address numerous concerns regarding his leadership of the Department of Justice and the President’s improper influence over the Department and our …

The Guardian reports: Senator Elizabeth Warren becomes the first Democratic presidential candidate to weigh in on the justice department reversal in the Roger Stone case. Warren says attorney general William Barr is corrupt and calls for his resignation. She includes a harsh appraisal of Senate Republicans. “Donald Trump is shredding the rule of law in this country. His AG overruled …

Politico reports: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Wednesday that he will not call Attorney General Bill Barr to testify on the Justice Department’s decision to lower its sentencing recommendation for Trump associate Roger Stone. “He’ll come in as part of oversight, but we’re not going to call him based on this,” Graham told reporters when asked …

Raw Story reports: President Donald Trump boasted that Attorney General William Barr was corrupting the Department of Justice to help out his friends caught up in the Russia probe. Four prosecutors abruptly resigned from Roger Stone’s case after Barr appeared to intervene and reject their sentencing recommendation, and Trump removed all doubt that his attorney general was involved in a …

The Daily Beast reports: Three government attorneys on the Roger Stone case—former Mueller prosecutors Adam Jed, Aaron Zelinsky, and Jonathan Kravis—indicated in Tuesday court filings that they would be quitting the Roger Stone case immediately. Zelinsky said in a Tuesday filing that he would be resigning “effective immediately” as Special Assistant United States Attorney role in D.C. Kravis wrote in …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr acknowledged Monday that the Justice Department would evaluate material that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, had gathered from Ukrainian sources claiming to have damaging information about former vice president Joe Biden and his family — though Barr and other officials suggested Giuliani was being treated no differently than any …

NPR reports: Attorney General William Barr has issued new restrictions on opening investigations into politically sensitive individuals or entities, including a requirement that he approve any inquiry into a presidential candidate or campaign. Barr outlined the new policies in a three-page memo obtained by NPR as the Democratic primaries are underway and the country gears up for November’s presidential vote. …

The Hill reports: The Trump administration told a federal judge on Thursday that Congress cannot sue the executive branch, attempting to fight off a House committee’s subpoena for documents related to aborted efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. James Burnham, an attorney with the Justice Department, argued that Congress cannot use the courts to enforce its …

Yahoo News reports: Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was giving media interviews about his role in President Trump’s attempts to convince Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden because he wanted to protect himself from Attorney General William Barr. Parnas made that claim in an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, the second …

Law & Crime reports: U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Monday said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would have to meet more rigorous standards before opening any future counterintelligence investigations into presidential campaigns. The more stringent protocols will require campaign probes to be approved by the top leaders at the Bureau and the Department of Justice (DOJ), currently FBI …

The New York Times reports: Attorney General William P. Barr declared on Monday that a deadly shooting last month at a naval air station in Pensacola, Fla., was an act of terrorism, and he asked Apple in an unusually high-profile request to provide access to two phones used by the gunman. Mr. Barr’s appeal was an escalation of an ongoing …

Bloomberg News reports: The New York City Bar Association has asked Congress to investigate U.S. Attorney General William Barr, saying his recent actions and statements have positioned the Justice Department and its prosecutors as “political partisans willing to use the levers of government to empower certain groups over others.” The request disclosed on Thursday appears to be the first time …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen today asked a judge to consider either reducing his three-year prison term to just one year, or to release him into home confinement and community service for the remainder of his existing sentence. Cohen’s lawyers suggested that the U.S. Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General William …

From an op-ed by former AG Eric Holder: Virtually since the moment he took office, though, Barr’s words and actions have been fundamentally inconsistent with his duty to the Constitution. Which is why I now fear that his conduct — running political interference for an increasingly lawless president — will wreak lasting damage. The American people deserve an attorney general …