Ex-DOJ lawyers press for Barr to step down
WASHINGTON — More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Attorney General William Barr on Sunday to step down after he intervened last week to lower the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation for President Donald Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone.
They also urged current government employees to report any signs of unethical behavior at the Justice Department to the agency’s inspector general and to Congress.
“Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice,” the former Justice Department lawyers, who came from across the political spectrum, wrote in an open letter Sunday. Those actions, they said, “require Mr. Barr to resign.”
The sharp denunciation of Barr underlined the extent of the fallout over the case of Stone, capping a week that strained the attorney general’s relationship with his rank and file, and with the president himself.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
After prosecutors last Monday recommended a prison sentence of up to nine years for Stone, who was convicted of obstructing a congressional inquiry, Trump lashed out at federal law enforcement. Senior officials at the department, including Barr, overrode the recommendation the next day with a more lenient one, immediately prompting accusations of political interference, and the four lawyers on the Stone case abruptly withdrew in protest.
The Justice Department said the case had not been discussed with anyone at the White House, but that Trump congratulated Barr on his decision did little to dispel the perception of political influence. And as the president widened his attacks on law enforcement, Barr publicly reproached the president, saying that Trump’s statements undermined him as well the department.
Protect Democracy, a nonprofit legal group, gathered the signatures from Justice Department alumni and said it would collect more.
The lawyers also called upon current department employees to be on the lookout for abuses and to be willing to bring oversight to the department.
“Be prepared to report future abuses to the inspector general, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Congress,” they wrote, and “to refuse to carry out directives that are inconsistent with their oaths of office.”
Prosecutors who work at the department should withdraw from cases that involve abuses or political interference, the lawyers said.
As a last resort, they asked Justice Department employees “to resign and report publicly — in a manner consistent with professional ethics — to the American people the reasons for their resignation.”