Tag: Trump and Barr weakening American democracy

Barr clears Justice Dept. to investigate alleged voting irregularities as Trump makes unfounded fraud claims

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Attorney General William P. Barr on Monday gave federal prosecutors approval to pursue allegations of “vote tabulation irregularities” in certain cases before results are certified and indicated he had already done so “in specific instances” — a reversal of long-standing Justice Department policy that quickly drew internal and external criticism for fueling unfounded claims of massive election fraud pushed by President Trump and other conservatives.

Richard Pilger, head of the Justice Department’s Election Crimes Branch, stepped down from his position in protest over Barr’s directive — though he remains at the agency, according to people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a politically volatile situation.

The people said Barr had first broached a similar idea some weeks ago and that political leadership in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, of which the Election Crimes Branch is a part, pushed back. Those officials were blindsided when Barr’s memo was released on Monday, the people said. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. statement on mail-in ballot investigation appalls election law experts

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The Justice Department alarmed voting-law experts Thursday by announcing an investigation into nine discarded ballots found in northeastern Pennsylvania, a case immediately seized upon by the Trump campaign as evidence of a dark Democratic conspiracy to tamper with the presidential election.

President Trump also appeared to cite the case, telling reporters at the White House that ballots had been found “in a wastepaper basket in some location. . . . We want to make sure that the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be.”

The president’s comments marked his latest attempt to stoke uncertainty and alarm about the legitimacy of the upcoming election. Continue reading.

‘Trump’s handmaiden’: Former federal prosecutor explains the many ways AG Bill Barr twisted ‘the law to protect the president’

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To read Part 1 of this article, go here. 

None of the founders of the country conceivably imagined that if the Attorney General is indeed the creature of the President, he would be ill-equipped to investigate, much less prosecute the President or his associates for wrongdoing, either before or during his presidency. It obviously didn’t occur to Hamilton, Madison or Jay that we might one day have a rogue President like Donald Trump with a life history of being one step ahead of the law, and little or no regard for presidential or constitutional norms.

Barr enjoys the dubious decision of being the most controversial Attorney General in history. He testified in his confirmation hearings that he would make law enforcement decisions based on the facts and the law “not on politics.” But, he quickly broke his promise and emerged as a political apparatchik, leaving a trail of decisions favorable to Trump and his political cronies that appear to have ignored both the facts and the law, and raise serious questions as to whether he has any independence from the President at all. Indeed, Barr not only embraced, but bedded down with, the controversial doctrine of the unitary executive. In a devastating Washington Postop-ed, Obama Attorney General Eric Holder found Barr “unfit” to hold the office because he failed to distance himself from the President:

Barr made the outlandish suggestion that Congress cannot entrust anyone but the President himself to execute the law. In Barr’s view, sharing executive power with anyone ‘beyond the control of the President,’ [emphasis Holder’s]… presumably including a semi-independent Cabinet member’ [the Attorney General], contravenes the Framers’ clear intent to vest that power in a single person.’ This is a stunning declaration … revealing of Barr’s own intent: to serve not at a careful remove from politics, as his office demands, but as an instrument of politics — under the direct “control” of President Trump.

Continue reading.

Bill Barr endangers national security to promote a lie

AlterNet logoNot long after William Barr assigned John Durham to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, the president gave the attorney general the power to declassify information pertaining to the investigation. As I wrote at the time, what that really meant was that Barr would be able to selectively release classified information that bolstered his charge that the previous administration had spied on the Trump campaign. According to the New York Times, that is exactly what is happening.

Not long after the early 2017 publication of a notorious dossier about President Trump jolted Washington, an expert in Russian politics told the F.B.I. he had been one of its key sources, drawing on his contacts to deliver information that would make up some of the most salacious and unproven assertions in the document.

The F.B.I. had approached the expert, a man named Igor Danchenko, as it vetted the dossier’s claims. He agreed to tell investigators what he knew with an important condition, people familiar with the matter said — that the F.B.I. keep his identity secret so he could protect himself, his sources and his family and friends in Russia.

But his hope of remaining anonymous evaporated last week after Attorney General William P. Barr directed the F.B.I. to declassify a redacted report about its three-day interview of Mr. Danchenko in 2017 and hand it over to Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Graham promptly made the interview summary public while calling the entire Russia investigation “corrupt.”

The NYT report goes on to say that, while Danchenko’s name was redacted in the released document, it was just a matter of days before “online sleuths” (Russian agents?) were able to identify him based on clues left visible in the declassified document. Continue reading.

Barr continues his retaliation against Trump critics — outs a Russia-linked FBI source

AlterNet logoTrump-loyal Attorney General William Barr continues to use his granted federal powers to retaliate against Trump’s enemies—namely, those that would dare investigate Trump and his uncountably-many crooked allies. He has taken it upon itself to sabotage federal investigations, remove investigators and watchdogs who have taken on Trump-related cases, withhold evidence from Congress, order that testimony be withheld from Congress, and rigorously done whatever other actions would best cement conservative, fascist-premised power.

The Washington Post reports on a new instance, in which Barr ordered the declassification of a document last week that, upon delivery to senator and fellow corruption-enabler Lindsey Graham, within days resulted in the public outing of a secret FBI source. The reason? That source was one who compiled information for the now-infamous “dossier” collecting rumors and leads on Donald Trump’s dealings inside Russia, and we can presume the outing of this confidential source is in keeping with Barr’s brazenly public campaign of retaliation against those who investigated the connections between Russian election interference, in 2016, and Trump’s campaign.

Also in keeping with this administration’s fascist tendencies, whether this campaign of Trump-friendly declassifications results in people getting killed seems immaterial to Barr. 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.

‘It’s not good for our democracy’: Calls grow for federal officers to shed camouflage

Washington Post logoAs authorities crack down on protests in Portland, Ore., military leaders, lawmakers and former government officials have intensified calls for federal officers to shed the camouflage and return to wearing uniforms that clearly identify them as law enforcement.

The mobilization of federal agents in military-style camouflage in recent days, and their use of unmarked vans to make arrests, has deepened confusion about which force is doing what.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, said the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies should not allow their officers to wear camouflage. Continue reading.

Trump announces he’s sending federal agents to Chicago

The Hill logoPresident Trump said Wednesday his administration is sending federal law enforcement officers into Chicago and Albuquerque, expanding his controversial crackdown on what he claims is an unchecked surge of violence in Democratic-run cities.

“Today I am announcing a surge of federal law enforcement into American communities plagued by violent crime,” Trump said in remarks from the East Room of the White House.

He added he had “no choice but to get involved.” Continue reading.

Barr Tried To Undermine Michael Cohen Case That Implicated Trump

Attorney General Bill Barr directed Justice Department officials to draft legal memos undermining the campaign finance hush money case that brought down Michael Cohen and implicated President Donald Trump, according to a report in the New York Times.

Barr had the Office of Legal Counsel draft the memo, the report said. And the prosecutors reportedly “resisted” the effort. Since the case is finished — and Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 — there isn’t a whole lot Barr could do to affect the case. It may raise questions about whether Trump could be criminally prosecuted for his related conduct once he’s out of office.

The report reveals new depths Barr has undertaken in his crusade to provide Trump the full protection and exoneration he desires from his attorney general. Barr’s efforts on this front, which include his lies and spin about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, his interference in the sentencing of Roger Stone, his push to drop charges against Michael Flynn, and the investigation of the Russia probe led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, have already been extensive and widely criticized. 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.