William Barr on Thursday said that President Donald Trump should stop commenting about criminal matters, telling ABC News that president’s tweets “make it impossible” for the attorney general to do his job. Let’s just say that the clean up on aisle 5 maneuver by Barr in the wake of the Roger Stone sentencing debacle of February 2020 didn’t leave many convinced.
In an interview with ABC’s Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas, Barr reiterated that the president had “never” directly asked him to “do anything in a criminal case,” but said his tweets had become increasingly problematic.
“I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” Barr said. “I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody … whether it’s Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president. I’m gonna do what I think is right. And you know … I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me.”
While many Trump administration officials willing to criticize the president have become the target of his vindictive wrath, Barr said he was prepared to accept any consequences in order to make critical DOJ decisions based on “What I think is the right thing to do.”
Barr claimed he had already decided to amend Stone’s sentencing recommendation before Trump tweeted his disapproval, saying the incident illustrated “how disruptive these tweets can be.”
Barr’s light rebuke of presidential interference in criminal prosecutions was met with incredulity and disdain by many.
“This is absolutely nonsense theatrics and I don’t buy if for one moment. Barr interfered in the Stone case for purely political reasons and Barr’s sole problem is the inconvenience of Trump saying it out loud,” former intelligence community attorney, Lawfare executive editor and CNN legal analyst Susan Hennessey commented. “Barr has been relying on completely implausible deniability about what he is doing and why at the Justice Department to keep his ranks in line. President Trump once again said the quiet part out loud about what they were up too and now Barr’s got a revolt on his hands.”
Hennessey went on to say that the entire interview was simply an attempt to assuage the blowback from the Stone controversy.
“Now he thinks a little carefully staged PR pushback against Trump is going to restore the perceptions of legitimacy and DOJ independence. It won’t. The only thing that could possibly do that at this point is Barr’s resignation,” she wrote. “It won’t matter that this is completely transparent BS. These theatrics are designed to give Republican members of Congress something to wrap themselves in. And it’ll serve those purposes just fine.”
Chaired professor at New York University Law School and former Department of Defense attorney Ryan Goodman provided a similar take on the interview, saying it appeared to be entirely self-serving for Barr.
Former federal prosecutor Richard Signorelli and Boston University School of Law professor Rebecca Ingber echoed that thought.
Some have suggested that Barr was doing this only stave off the threat of mass resignations. Still others said Barr could prove he was sincere by resigning, like the four prosecutors in the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office did.
The criticism went on and on.
Even Andrew Weissmann chimed in.
Trump is supposedly not upset about the Barr interview.
The president and Barr have been criticized by District Attorneys, the New York City Bar Association and the American Bar Association over the past couple of days. Even the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in D.C., Beryl Howell, has issued a “rare statement.”
“The Judges of this Court base their sentencing decisions on careful consideration of the actual record in the case before them’ the applicable sentencing guidelines and statutory factors; the submissions of the parties, the Probation Office and victims; and their own judgment and experience,” Howell said Thursday. “Public criticism or pressure is not a factor.”
Remarkably, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has endorsed Barr’s rebuke of the president.
[image via ABC screengrab]
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