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Posted On: 03/06/2020 9:05:24 AM
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Barr vs. Truth
William Barr, the attorney general, has a problem with telling the truth.
A federal judge — Reggie B. Walton, who was appointed by President George W. Bush — yesterday excoriated Barr for releasing an initial summary of Robert Mueller’s report that seemed designed to mislead the public about the report’s content.
The judge’s ruling described Barr’s “lack of candor” in releasing “distorted” and “misleading” information full of “inconsistencies.”
The judge’s ruling was remarkable for its harshness. “It is highly unusual for a federal judge to publicly question the honesty of the attorney general,” Spencer S. Hsu and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post write.
• Barb McQuade, University of Michigan law professor: “The revelation that Barr was misleading in his public representations about the Mueller Report is nothing new, but quite remarkable to see a federal judge write it in a legal decision.”
• Josh Gerstein, Politico: “Walton’s claim that Barr displayed a ‘lack of candor’ is likely to reverberate loudly within the Justice Department. That phrase has unusual weight in federal law enforcement, where such an accusation can and does result in dismissal. ‘Lack of candor’ is specifically what former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was accused of before being fired by Barr’s predecessor, Jeff Sessions, in 2018.”
• The ruling ordered the Justice Department to turn over the redacted portions of the Mueller report, so the judge could review whether the department kept too much of the report private. Marcy Wheeler, a national security journalist, writes:
“To justify this review, Walton cites Barr’s silence about the multiple links between Trump and Russians and about the reason Mueller didn’t make a decision about charging Trump with obstruction. … Walton doesn’t say it explicitly, but he seems to believe what the unredacted portions of the report show amount to ‘collusion,’ the kind of collusion Trump would want to and did (and still is) covering up.”
A former prosecutor who handled drug and street crime cases, Judge Walton is known for handing down tough sentences and for being careful and methodical. He also once broke up a street brawl near the courthouse.
The Mueller ruling was not the first time that Judge Walton had criticized the actions of the Barr Justice Department. Last month, he unsealed the transcript of a September closed-door meeting with prosecutors about whether and when the department was going to charge Andrew G. McCabe, the former acting F.B.I. director whom Mr. Trump has vilified for his role in the Russia case, in connection with a leak investigation.
Noting in that September hearing that prosecutors had said to him weeks earlier that a decision about charging Mr. McCabe could come “literally within days,” Judge Walton chastised them for stringing along Mr. McCabe and noted the president’s comments about Mr. McCabe with disapproval, saying they created the appearance of a “banana republic.”
“I don’t think people like the fact that you got somebody at the top basically trying to dictate whether somebody should be prosecuted,” the judge said, adding that even if Mr. Trump’s moves were “not influencing the ultimate decision, I think there are a lot of people on the outside who perceive that there is undue, inappropriate pressure being brought to bear.”
Nevertheless, the Justice Department continued to keep Mr. McCabe hanging for another five months, announcing only last month that he would not be charged. Hours later, Judge Walton unsealed the transcript of the closed September hearing, which was part of a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/us/politic...4620200306
William Barr, the attorney general, has a problem with telling the truth.
A federal judge — Reggie B. Walton, who was appointed by President George W. Bush — yesterday excoriated Barr for releasing an initial summary of Robert Mueller’s report that seemed designed to mislead the public about the report’s content.
The judge’s ruling described Barr’s “lack of candor” in releasing “distorted” and “misleading” information full of “inconsistencies.”
The judge’s ruling was remarkable for its harshness. “It is highly unusual for a federal judge to publicly question the honesty of the attorney general,” Spencer S. Hsu and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post write.
• Barb McQuade, University of Michigan law professor: “The revelation that Barr was misleading in his public representations about the Mueller Report is nothing new, but quite remarkable to see a federal judge write it in a legal decision.”
• Josh Gerstein, Politico: “Walton’s claim that Barr displayed a ‘lack of candor’ is likely to reverberate loudly within the Justice Department. That phrase has unusual weight in federal law enforcement, where such an accusation can and does result in dismissal. ‘Lack of candor’ is specifically what former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was accused of before being fired by Barr’s predecessor, Jeff Sessions, in 2018.”
• The ruling ordered the Justice Department to turn over the redacted portions of the Mueller report, so the judge could review whether the department kept too much of the report private. Marcy Wheeler, a national security journalist, writes:
“To justify this review, Walton cites Barr’s silence about the multiple links between Trump and Russians and about the reason Mueller didn’t make a decision about charging Trump with obstruction. … Walton doesn’t say it explicitly, but he seems to believe what the unredacted portions of the report show amount to ‘collusion,’ the kind of collusion Trump would want to and did (and still is) covering up.”
A former prosecutor who handled drug and street crime cases, Judge Walton is known for handing down tough sentences and for being careful and methodical. He also once broke up a street brawl near the courthouse.
The Mueller ruling was not the first time that Judge Walton had criticized the actions of the Barr Justice Department. Last month, he unsealed the transcript of a September closed-door meeting with prosecutors about whether and when the department was going to charge Andrew G. McCabe, the former acting F.B.I. director whom Mr. Trump has vilified for his role in the Russia case, in connection with a leak investigation.
Noting in that September hearing that prosecutors had said to him weeks earlier that a decision about charging Mr. McCabe could come “literally within days,” Judge Walton chastised them for stringing along Mr. McCabe and noted the president’s comments about Mr. McCabe with disapproval, saying they created the appearance of a “banana republic.”
“I don’t think people like the fact that you got somebody at the top basically trying to dictate whether somebody should be prosecuted,” the judge said, adding that even if Mr. Trump’s moves were “not influencing the ultimate decision, I think there are a lot of people on the outside who perceive that there is undue, inappropriate pressure being brought to bear.”
Nevertheless, the Justice Department continued to keep Mr. McCabe hanging for another five months, announcing only last month that he would not be charged. Hours later, Judge Walton unsealed the transcript of the closed September hearing, which was part of a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/us/politic...4620200306
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