Trump ignores Barr’s pleas to remain silent United States
Unbowed by a public rebuke from his attorney general, US President Donald Trump has declared that he has the ‘‘legal right’’ to intervene in criminal cases and sidestep the Justice Department’s historic independence.
It has also been revealed that federal prosecutors have been ordered to review the criminal case of Trump’s former national security adviser.
Yesterday, a day after William Barr said the president’s tweets were making it ‘‘impossible for me to do my job’’, Trump said he had the right to ask the agency to intervene in cases but so far had ‘‘chosen not to’’.
It was a rare public flare-up of tensions that have been simmering for weeks, as Barr yesterday marked one year on the job.
Barr stepped in this week to alter the sentencing recommendation for Trump’s ally Roger Stone, which Trump had denounced as too harsh.
Meanwhile, Justice Department prosecutors were reviewing the handling of the federal investigation into Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a person familiar with the matter said.
Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during its probe of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, but his sentencing has been postponed after he complained that he was misled during his questioning.
As president, Trump technically has the right to compel the Justice Department, an executive branch agency, to launch investigations. But historically, when it comes to decisions on criminal investigations and prosecutions, the department has functioned independently.
‘‘The president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case,’’ Barr said in an interview with ABC News on Friday. ‘‘However, to have public statements and tweets made about the department, about our people . . . about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we’re doing our work with integrity.’’
Barr had repeatedly shared the same sentiment during private conversations with the president in recent weeks, telling Trump he was frustrated with the president’s public comments and tweets about Justice Department cases, a person familiar with the matter said on the condition of anonymity.
Barr was asked in the ABC interview whether he believed Trump had the authority to direct him to open an investigation. In many cases yes, such as ‘‘terrorism or fraud by a bank or something like that’’, Barr replied.
However, ‘‘if he were to say, you know, go investigate somebody because – and you sense it’s
The top civilian official in the US Army says the service isn’t investigating Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, pictured, after US President Donald Trump said the military might look at disciplining the former National Security Council official and key impeachment inquiry witness.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said yesterday there was no investigation into Vindman, who had been detailed to the White House National Security Council as Ukraine director and was due to return to the army for a new assignment when Trump dismissed him early
because they’re a political opponent – then an attorney general shouldn’t carry that out, wouldn’t carry that out.’’
Trump has publicly and privately threatened payback in the form of investigations against his perceived enemies, including former FBI director James Comey and former FBI director Andrew McCabe. Prosecutors said yesterday they would not charge McCabe with lying about leaking information to the media.
The president has also pressed for investigations into political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, especially following Trump’s impeachment acquittal over a phone call where he asked Ukraine’s leaders to investigate the Bidens.
Flynn’s case has become something of a cause for Trump supporters, who have seized on his assertion that he was somehow ambushed by the FBI during an interview at the White House.
As for Comey, Trump has tweeted scores of times that he should be charged with crimes. He was particularly incensed that from the post last week.
The president also removed Vindman’s twin brother Yevgeny from his job as a lawyer for the council.
McCarthy said Vindman was in a ‘‘bridging’’ assignment at the Department of the Army headquarters and would be heading to a senior service college for study later this year.
Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, handled Ukraine issues for the NSC while Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani pressured the country’s new
no charges were filed over the former FBI director’s handling of memos about his interactions with the president, according to a White House official and a Republican close to the White House, who were not authorised to speak publicly.
The president angrily denounced the decision not to charge Comey to his aides, and berated Barr over it, the sources said. They expected that the decision to not charge McCabe could produce a similar reaction.
An administration official acknowledged that there had been some tension between Trump and Barr in recent weeks, but said Trump still had confidence in his attorney general.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department overruled its own prosecutors – who had recommended that Trump’s longtime ally and confidant Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison – and took the extraordinary step of lowering the amount of prison time it would seek. The entire trial team of prosecutors quit the case, and one quit the leader to announce investigations into former US vicepresident Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. During his public testimony to the House impeachment inquiry, Vindman said he thought Trump’s demand that a foreign government investigate Biden and his son was improper. Trump’s former chief of staff, retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, earned the president’s ire by defending Vindman in public remarks this week. department altogether.
Barr faced intense criticism over the decision, which came just hours after Trump tweeted his displeasure about the harsher recommendation.
Trump greeted the reversal with another tweet congratulating Barr, which proved to be a tipping point for the attorney general. He opted for a public interview to air his frustrations with the president, while word was sent to the White House just a short time before it aired.
The Justice Department insisted that the decision to undo the sentencing recommendation was made before Trump criticised it on Twitter, and that prosecutors had not spoken to the White House about it.
House Democrats frustrated over the Senate’s acquittal of Trump on impeachment want answers from Barr about what they see as his efforts to politicise federal law enforcement. House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said Barr would testify before the panel on March 31.