William Barr - politics above justice
Today from the Washington Post;In response to:
Prosecutor testifies on alleged politicization inside Barr’s Justice Department
By; Felicia Sonmez, Karoun Demirjian, Matt Zapotosky and Colby Itkowitz
June 24, 2020 at 4:51 p.m. EDT
The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony Wednesday from a federal prosecutor and another witness who have accused Attorney General William P. Barr and his top deputies of acting “based on political considerations” and a desire to appease President Trump.
Aaron Zelinsky, an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland formerly detailed to the Russia investigation by special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III, told the panel that prosecutors involved in the criminal trial of Trump’s friend Roger Stone experienced “heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice” to give Stone “a break” by requesting a lighter sentence.
Zelinsky was joined by John Elias, an official in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, who said Barr ordered staff to investigate marijuana company mergers simply because of his “personal dislike” of the nature of their underlying business.
Also appearing before the panel were former U.S. attorney general Michael B. Mukasey and former deputy attorney general Donald Ayer, who has publicly called on Barr to step down.
In his testimony, Ayer said Barr “poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law,” while Mukasey dismissed allegations that the Justice Department has become politicized under Barr.
Meanwhile, Barr has accepted an invitation from the panel’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), to appear for a “general oversight hearing” on July 28, Barr’s spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, said in a tweet Wednesday. According to a Judiciary Committee spokesman, the Justice Department contacted the panel on Tuesday regarding a date for Barr’s testimony to avoid a subpoena for the attorney general.
The hearing ended more than four hours after it began, with the Democratic-called witnesses repeating their warnings about the crisis of confidence facing the Department of Justice.
“It’s very important that we recognize what’s happening now,” Ayer said. “What’s happening now is much worse than what happened in Watergate — much worse. It’s across-the-board. It’s a systematic effort to undo the checks that were put in place in Watergate and others that existed in the Constitution. And we need to do something about it."
Under forceful questioning by Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), former attorney general Michael Mukasey conceded that President Trump “maybe” used politics to sway sentencing decisions and help his friends.
Demings, who is on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s shortlist of potential running mates, asked: “Do you believe that the president nor the attorney general — who has been acting more like the president’s personal bodyguard and his fixer — have not engaged in politics as it pertains to the president’s friends?”
Mukasey responded: “I can’t speak for the president. The president is, by definition, a political — ” he said, before Demings cut him off to repeat her question.
“Based on your professional — political or professional — experience, do you believe the president has engaged in a political way as it pertains to sentences or what happens to his friends?” Demings asked more assertively.
“The attorney general himself criticized the president for tweets that he —” Mukasey began.
“So that's a yes?” Demmings asked.
“It’s a maybe,” Mukasey said.
Prosecutor testifies on alleged politicization inside Barr’s Justice Department
By; Felicia Sonmez, Karoun Demirjian, Matt Zapotosky and Colby Itkowitz
June 24, 2020 at 4:51 p.m. EDT
The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony Wednesday from a federal prosecutor and another witness who have accused Attorney General William P. Barr and his top deputies of acting “based on political considerations” and a desire to appease President Trump.
Aaron Zelinsky, an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland formerly detailed to the Russia investigation by special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III, told the panel that prosecutors involved in the criminal trial of Trump’s friend Roger Stone experienced “heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice” to give Stone “a break” by requesting a lighter sentence.
Zelinsky was joined by John Elias, an official in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, who said Barr ordered staff to investigate marijuana company mergers simply because of his “personal dislike” of the nature of their underlying business.
Also appearing before the panel were former U.S. attorney general Michael B. Mukasey and former deputy attorney general Donald Ayer, who has publicly called on Barr to step down.
In his testimony, Ayer said Barr “poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law,” while Mukasey dismissed allegations that the Justice Department has become politicized under Barr.
Meanwhile, Barr has accepted an invitation from the panel’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), to appear for a “general oversight hearing” on July 28, Barr’s spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, said in a tweet Wednesday. According to a Judiciary Committee spokesman, the Justice Department contacted the panel on Tuesday regarding a date for Barr’s testimony to avoid a subpoena for the attorney general.
The hearing ended more than four hours after it began, with the Democratic-called witnesses repeating their warnings about the crisis of confidence facing the Department of Justice.
“It’s very important that we recognize what’s happening now,” Ayer said. “What’s happening now is much worse than what happened in Watergate — much worse. It’s across-the-board. It’s a systematic effort to undo the checks that were put in place in Watergate and others that existed in the Constitution. And we need to do something about it."
Under forceful questioning by Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), former attorney general Michael Mukasey conceded that President Trump “maybe” used politics to sway sentencing decisions and help his friends.
Demings, who is on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s shortlist of potential running mates, asked: “Do you believe that the president nor the attorney general — who has been acting more like the president’s personal bodyguard and his fixer — have not engaged in politics as it pertains to the president’s friends?”
Mukasey responded: “I can’t speak for the president. The president is, by definition, a political — ” he said, before Demings cut him off to repeat her question.
“Based on your professional — political or professional — experience, do you believe the president has engaged in a political way as it pertains to sentences or what happens to his friends?” Demings asked more assertively.
“The attorney general himself criticized the president for tweets that he —” Mukasey began.
“So that's a yes?” Demmings asked.
“It’s a maybe,” Mukasey said.
(continued in my first comment below)
Comments (5)
Nadler says House 'may very well' pursue impeachment of Attorney General William Barr
By Katelyn Polantz, Jeremy Herb and Devan Cole, CNN
Updated 6:17 PM ET, Wed June 24, 2020
(CNN)House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Wednesday that his committee "may very well" pursue impeachment of Attorney General William Barr, who's now set to testify before the committee in late July.
Nadler, a New York Democrat who had threatened Barr with a subpoena, is investigating the attorney general. In response to growing calls to impeach Barr, Nadler said over the weekend that pursuing impeachment would be a "waste of time" because of the Republican-led Senate.
"We're looking into that, we may very well," Nadler said Wednesday when asked if he was considering impeachment of Barr, following a hearing where two Department of Justice prosecutors accused Barr of politicizing investigations and the sentencing of Roger Stone -- a friend of President Donald Trump. Asked why his view had changed, Nadler said: "I think the weight of the evidence and of what's happened leads to that conclusion."
The announcement that Barr would testify came after a win for the Justice Department in court Wednesday for a dismissal of former national security adviser Michael Flynn's case, and as the House Judiciary hearing with Justice Department employees testifying against Barr was beginning.
"The Attorney General has accepted an invitation to appear before the House Judiciary Committee for a general oversight hearing on July 28th," Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec tweeted Wednesday.
Barr's upcoming hearing is being billed as the panel's annual oversight hearing with the attorney general, but congressional Democrats have been fuming in recent weeks about a number of episodes involving Barr, including a weekend of drama where he and Trump fired Geoffrey Berman, the powerful prosecutor who led the Manhattan US attorney's office, which has pursued Trump and his allies.
Democrats are also calling for new investigations into the DOJ's role in the forceful clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square ahead of Trump's photo-op outside St. John's Church earlier this month. Barr, who was present for the photo-op, had defended the actions of law enforcement officers in clearing the protesters, claiming the Park Police simply wanted a larger security perimeter around the White House.
Lawmakers will also likely question Barr on the Flynn and Roger Stone cases. The attorney general has come under fire for dropping the criminal prosecution of Trump's former national security adviser, after Flynn admitted his guilt under oath, and for overriding career prosecutors' recommendations for a harsh sentence for Stone, a longtime political adviser and friend of Trump.
One of the prosecutors in the Stone case testified before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, accusing Barr and DOJ leaders of pressuring the acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia to recommend a lighter sentence for Stone because of Stone's relationship with the President.
Having said that, the whole Senate are just as bad, money before country is just appalling and caused shock waves around the world.
They are terrified of what is in that report. So they need to trash Barr now in spite of his decades long impeccable record of unequaled integrity and honor because they know the report is going shock Americans when they find out what the Democrats did and devastate their party right before the election.
We get it.