Tag: Trump and Barr weakening American rule of law

Former Roger Stone prosecutor to testify DOJ intervened in case for political purposes

Axios logoCareer prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky will tell the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Justice Department leadership intervened in the sentencing of former Trump adviser Roger Stone for political purposes, according to his opening statement.

Why it matters: Zelinsky is one of two Justice Department whistleblowers who plan to testify before the committee about the alleged politicization of the Justice Department under Attorney General Bill Barr.

The big picture: Zelinsky, a former member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, resigned from the case in February after the Justice Department submitted a new sentencing recommendation for Stone, overruling career prosecutors who had requested the former Trump adviser serve seven to nine years in prison for obstruction of justice, lying to Congress and witness tampering. Continue reading.

The Memo: Storm brewing after chaotic Berman firing

The Hill logoShock over the Trump administration’s firing of a top government prosecutor is reverberating across the political world, but not even the president’s foes are confident he will face consequences.

Legal experts — especially those critical of what they see as President Trump’s erosion of the independence of the justice system — are appalled at the firing of Geoffrey Berman in contentious circumstances.

Berman was spearheading a number of investigations that touched on the president and his circle in his role as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Continue reading.

Barr Takes Cheap Shot At Mueller In CBS Interview

Attorney General Bill Barr took a shot at former Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday in an interview with CBS discussing his controversial decision to withdraw charges against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

In the interview, Barr asserted without explanation that the counterintelligence investigation into Flynn, which led to criminal charges and became a part of Mueller’s Russia investigation, was unjustified. And he discussed, as he has previously, that he has directed U.S. Attorney John Durham to examine the origins of the probe and its conduct in 2016 and 2017.

That’s when interviewer Catherine Herridge — a former Fox News correspondent who largely tossed Barr softball questions — brought up the Steele dossier. It was an opposition research document from the 2016 campaign containing raw intelligence, including a series of wild allegations about Donald Trump and his associates. The question prompted Barr to sharply criticize Mueller: Continue reading.