Latest in Bill Barr
Geoffrey Berman, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who was fired last month, today told Congress that Barr pushed him to resign prior to his dismissal.
The investigation as it developed should not have been conducted by a federal prosecutor, and Attorney General Barr’s public commentary has seriously (and somewhat mysteriously) damaged the credibility of whatever Durham uncovers.
A Justice Department veteran testified last week that attorneys in the Antitrust Division were ordered to open unfounded investigations targeted at companies Attorney General Barr dislikes. If true, this is deeply troubling.
Judge Reggie Walton’s ruling demanding in camera review of the unredacted Mueller report underscores how much the Trump administration has squandered the executive branch’s goodwill with the judiciary.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson had a particularly difficult job on Thursday.
The New York Times and other media outlets, citing anonymous sources, recently reported that the Department of Justice inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation has “shifted” from an administrative review to a criminal investigation.
The Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Adam Schiff published a letter written to Attorney General Bill Barr regarding the Department of Justice’s involvement in the whistleblower complaint. Schiff characterized the intervention as “improper and contrary to both a clear, categorical statutory directive and longstanding IC whistleblowing practices” before demanding the formal legal opinion, allegedly from the Office of Legal Counsel related to the complaint.
Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated on Friday a presidential proclamation barring people who enter the country outside ports of entry from seeking asylum. The policy had been temporarily enjoined by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern California. The ruling is available here and below.
On Tuesday, July 23, Attorney General William Barr delivered a keynote address at the International Conference on Cyber Security at Fordham University. The complete speech can be read below.
Good Morning.
Jan Crawford’s extraordinary CBS interview with Attorney General William Barr was released on Friday, May 31. In it Barr said some good things about why his investigation of the Trump campaign investigation is needed. He also said some bad things about his attitude toward his investigation that reveal the depressingly ugly state of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement institutions.
On the Need for an Investigation