Tag: Bill Barr doing Trump’s bidding

Justice Dept. Threatens to Withhold Federal Funds From N.Y., Seattle and Portland

New York Times logo

Attorney General William P. Barr criticized the cities for their responses to protests against police brutality. Democrats called it an effort to help President Trump’s re-election campaign.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr on Monday escalated the Trump administration’s attacks on Democratic-led cities by threatening to withhold federal funding from New York, Seattle and Portland, Ore., over their responses to protests against police brutality, portraying them as inadequate as President Trump seeks to make the unrest a cornerstone of his re-election campaign.

The cities “permitted violence and destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract criminal activities,” the Justice Department said in a statement announcing its response to a directive by the presidentthis month to find ways to cut funding from such cities.

“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,” Mr. Barr said in a statement. “It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.” Continue reading.

Rep. Swalwell expertly corners Bill Barr and details evidence of Trump’s crimes

AlterNet logoWhile much of Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee Hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr was wasted with imprecise and circuitous questions that let him filibuster and avoid accountability, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) managed to use his brief time to zero in on a key issue. He exposed Barr’s excessive fealty and deference to President Donald Trump and effectively debunked the attorney general’s claims to be an impartial defender of the rule of law.

Swalwell began by addressing an issue that had been discussed previously in the hearing without much clarity: Barr’s interference in the sentencing recommendation of Roger Stone.

“Mr. Barr, have you ever intervened, other than to help the president’s friend get a reduced prison sentence, in any other case where a prosecutor had filed a sentencing recommendation with the court?” he asked. Continue reading.

Trump sending agents into more cities to help combat crime

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced he will send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law and order” mantle.

Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe illegal immigration, Trump painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the “radical left,” which he blamed for rising violence in some cities, even though criminal justice experts say it defies easy explanation.

“In recent weeks there has been a radical movement to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police department,” Trump said Wednesday at a White House event, blaming the movement for “a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders and heinous crimes of violence.” Continue reading.

Berman Testifies That Barr Fired Him — And Then Lied

A former top prosecutor testified under oath on Thursday that Attorney General William Barr lied about the events surrounding his departure from his job last month.

Barr had announced on June 19 that Geoffrey Berman would be resigning from his role as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Berman testified in a closed-door hearing of the House Judiciary Committee that Barr had pushed him out of his job in order to install the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, in the position. Continue reading.

READ: Ousted Manhattan US Attorney Berman testifies Barr ‘repeatedly urged’ him to resign

The Hill logoGeoffrey Berman, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, on Thursday testified that Attorney General William Barr “repeatedly urged” him to resign before forcing him out in June.

Berman told the House Judiciary Committee that prior to his ouster, he resisted Barr’s urging because “there were important investigations in the office that I wanted to see through to completion.”

Those investigations included whether President Trump‘s personal attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, violated laws on lobbying for foreign interests as it relates to Ukraine. Continue reading.

Inside Geoffrey Berman’s closed-door testimony

Axios logoGeoffrey Berman, the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, was expected to say in closed-door testimony today that Attorney General Bill Barr repeatedly urged him to take another job, warned him that getting fired would not be good for his resume or job prospects and steered him toward a high-level Justice Department post in DC.

Driving the news: Axios has obtained a copy of Berman’s opening statement for his closed-door hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

  • In the statement, Berman gives a detailed account of the conversations he had with Barr in the days and hours leading up to President Trump firing him from his post as the U.S. attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York.
  • The document also says that Barr told Berman that he should take a different job, running the Justice Department’s Civil Division, because “the role would be a good resume builder” and would help him “create a book of business” once he returned to the private sector. Continue reading.

Inside Barr’s Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in N.Y.

New York Times logoThe firing of the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan was foreshadowed by a disagreement over a case linked to President Trump.

Shortly after he became attorney general last year, William P. Barr set out to challenge a signature criminal case that touched President Trump’s inner circle directly, and even the president’s own actions: the prosecution of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s longtime fixer.

The debate between Mr. Barr and the federal prosecutors who brought the case against Mr. Cohen was one of the first signs of a tense relationship that culminated last weekend in the abrupt ouster of Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan. It also foreshadowed Mr. Barr’s intervention in the prosecutions of other associates of Mr. Trump.

By the time Mr. Barr was sworn into office in February, Mr. Cohen, who had paid hush money to an adult film star who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, had already pleaded guilty and was set to begin a three-year prison sentence, all of which embarrassed and angered the president. Continue reading.

Trump’s pick for Manhattan U.S. attorney refuses to say he would recuse from probes of president’s associates

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s nominee to take over the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office after the abrupt dismissal of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman refused on Thursday to say whether he would recuse himself from pending investigations involving Trump’s interests and associates if confirmed for the post.

Appearing before a House Financial Services subcommittee, Securities and Exchange Committee Chairman Jay Clayton sought to deflect Democrats’ questions about his selection for the job and the circumstances under which Berman was removed over the weekend, characterizing the Senate confirmation process as “way down the road.” But when pressed by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) to “commit, right here, to recusing yourself” from matters in which the president has a personal stake, Clayton demurred

“What I will commit to do, which is what I commit to in my current job, is to approach the job with independence and to follow all ethical rules,” Clayton responded. Continue reading.

House Republicans Resort to Literally Drowning Out Testimony About DOJ Corruption

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony from two Department of Justice attorneys who said that improper political influence had warped multiple cases, including the sentencing recommendation for President Donald Trump’s associate Roger Stone.

These insider accounts of political abuse by Attorney General William Barr confirmed what thousands of former DOJ employees suspected when they recently signed onto letters calling for Barr’s removal. The testimony detailed how federal prosecutors were pressured to change tactics and recommendations based on the president’s tweets and political pressure from the administration.

As damning as this testimony is, however, it was quickly overshadowed by the fact that the Judiciary Committee is a clown show. Republicans on the committee immediately sought to derail proceedings by turning to familiar tactics. Democratic leadership on the committee, as exemplified by Chairman Jerrold Nadler, consistently allows committee Republicans to wreck proceedings any time the committee attempts to address Barr’s efforts to put Trump and his allies above the law. The theatrics have become so predictable they may as well be scripted. Continue reading.

Citing coronavirus fears, Roger Stone files motion to delay reporting to Georgia prison

Trump’s ex-adviser to serve 3-plus years for crimes stemming from Russia probe.

A week before President Donald Trump’s longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone was scheduled to turn himself in to federal prison in Georgia to begin his more than three-year sentence, his lawyers filed a motion seeking to delay his surrender, citing the deadly risk posed by the coronavirusoutbreak.

“This motion is based on the exceptional circumstances arising from the serious and possibly deadly risk [Stone] would face in the close confines of a Bureau of Prisons facility, based on his age and medical conditions,” the motion says. “Those medical conditions make the consequences of his exposure to the COVID-19 virus in a prison facility life-threatening.”

The 67-year-old was sentenced to 40 months in prison on Feb. 20 by Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C. Stone’s attorneys also asked to file a letter under seal from a physician concerning their client’s medical conditions. Continue reading.