Tag: Bill Barr doing Trump’s bidding

Scoop: House Judiciary prepares to subpoena Attorney General Bill Barr

Axios logoHouse Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) is preparing to subpoena Attorney General Bill Barr for his testimony on July 2, a committee spokesperson confirmed to Axios.

Why it matters: The expected subpoena comes after the firing of Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who had been investigating President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

  • The committee’s ranking member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) made reference to the subpoena plans in a letter obtained by Axios.
  • Daniel Schwarz, a spokesman for Nadler, confirmed to Axios that the committee is seeking Barr’s testimony and intends to subpoena him if he does not agree to testify next week.
  • “There’s certain procedural steps that need to be taken if you were going to send a subpoena, but one of them is consulting the minority,” Schwarz said.

Continue reading.

GOP rallies around Trump after firing of Manhattan US attorney

The Hill logoSenate Republicans on Monday largely defended President Trump following his controversial decision this week to fire Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Trump was within his right to fire Berman, who was involved in a number of politically sensitive investigations that touched on Trump and his advisers.

“It’s kind of like previous firings, I would say,” Thune said. “These people all serve at the pleasure of the president. My assumption is that whatever investigation is underway will be continued by the career staff there. The show will go on.” Continue reading.

Barr says Trump fired Manhattan US Attorney Berman

The Hill logoPresident Trump has officially fired a U.S. attorney in Manhattan who led multiple investigations involving his associates, according to Attorney General William Barr. 

The Justice Department announced late Friday that it would replace Geoffrey Berman, a powerful prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, though Berman announced shortly afterward that he had no intention of resigning.

In a letter obtained by BuzzFeed News, Barr notified Berman that he asked Trump to officially fire him after his statement the night before in which he said he had not resigned and suggested he could not be removed until the Senate approved his replacement.  Continue reading.

Push to oust Manhattan attorney sparks fresh crisis for DOJ

The Hill logoThe Justice Department’s push to oust a key U.S. attorney who spearheaded multiple probes involving associates of President Trump has spurred a new crisis for the administration.

The chaotic and fast-moving situation began to unfold in public view on Friday night when Attorney General William Barr abruptly announced that Geoffrey Berman would be “stepping down” as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

That was met with an extraordinary statement released roughly an hour later by Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in which he stated, “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position,” adding that his office’s investigations would continue. Continue reading.

 

William Barr’s State of Emergency

New York Times logoThe attorney general has long held an expansive view of presidential power. With multiple crises converging in the run-up to the 2020 election, he is busy putting his theories to work.

On the first Monday in May, the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington was on coronavirus lockdown — or at least it appeared to be from the outside. Signs posted on the outer doors facing Independence Avenue admonished visitors to keep out if they had symptoms of Covid-19 or had been “exposed to any person diagnosed” with it. Inside, the guards operating the X-ray machines wore masks and gloves. Across the lobby, a free-standing pump of hand sanitizer cast a cautionary shadow down empty marble halls.

But as you drew closer to the fifth floor, where Attorney General William Pelham Barr works out of a suite of offices, things started to loosen up. One assistant outside his conference room wore a mask, but the other did not. In the middle of the room, with its oil paintings and vaulted ceiling, the long central table had fewer chairs than you might expect, and an appropriate distance between them. But past the next door, inside the attorney general’s smaller personal office, Barr himself was also mask-free. Turning around to greet his visitors, he moved into the middle of a wide circle of four chairs arranged in front of his desk.

Now nearing the end of his career, Barr did not take his current job for the glory. He had already been attorney general once, in President George H.W. Bush’s administration, winning him a reputation as a wise old man — a reputation that, in the eyes of some, his tenure in the Trump administration has tarnished. Nor is he doing it for the money. His time in corporate America earned him tens of millions of dollars in compensation and stock options, and his bearing is still that of a Fortune 500 counsel, cozy manners wrapped around a harder core. Continue reading.

Flynn decision cheered by Trump and the right, as critics decry it as an attack on the rule of law

Washington Post logoThe Justice Department’s decision to drop its prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Thursday was greeted as a triumph by President Trump and his allies, who have argued for years that Flynn was set up — but with dire alarm by Trump’s opponents, who saw the move as an attack on the rule of law.

The extreme division mirrored three years of partisan combat over how the FBI handled Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an investigation that shadowed much of Trump’s time in office.

And the circumstances of the development — delivered by a loyalist attorney general after a key prosecutor withdrew from a case in which Flynn had previously acknowledged guilt on multiple occasions — appeared only to harden positions. Continue reading.

Don’t Forget, Michael Flynn Pleaded Guilty. Twice.

New York Times logoEven President Trump has said his former national security adviser lied to the F.B.I.

It can be hard to recall, since so many members of President Trump’s inner circle have been indicted, convicted of federal crimes and even sent to prison, but the first felon to emerge from this administration was Michael Flynn.

Mr. Flynn, who served less than a month as the national security adviser before resigning in disgrace, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to F.B.I. investigators about his communications with the Russian ambassador.

When asked about the plea at the time, Mr. Trump said, “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the vice president and the F.B.I.” Continue reading.