1100 ex-prosecutors call on Barr to quit over Stone case
More than 1100 former prosecutors and justice department officials have called on William Barr, the US attorney general, to quit over his intervention in the case of Roger Stone, a longtime ally of Donald Trump.
In a scathing open letter, the critics accused Barr and the president of ‘‘interference in the fair administration of justice’’.
It was published days after Barr overruled his own prosecutors who recommended Stone serve up to nine years in jail after being convicted of obstructing congressional inquiry.
Barr stepped in after Trump condemned the sentence on Twitter,
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although the Department of Justice (DoJ) insisted the case had not been discussed with the White House. The attorney general’s decision to ask for a more lenient sentence led to all four prosecution lawyers withdrawing from the case, with two quitting the DoJ.
The attorney general tried to mitigate the row by criticising Trump’s interventions on Twitter, saying it made it impossible to do his job.
In a separate move last week, Barr appointed an outside prosecutor to review the case of
Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, who is awaiting sentencing after admitting lying to the FBI over talks with the Russian ambassador to the US.
It was the interference in the Stone case that proved the final straw for the signatories. In their letter, the lawyers said political interference in the conduct of a prosecution was ‘‘anathema to the department’s core mission and to its sacred obligation to ensure equal justice under the law’’.
Trump and Barr had ‘‘openly and repeatedly flouted this fundamental principle’’, they added.
‘‘Such behaviour is a grave threat to the fair administration of justice. In this nation, we are all equal before the law,’’ the lawyers wrote. –