Trump overrules Barr’s pleas
President claims ‘legal right’ to intervene in criminal cases
WASHINGTON — Unbowed by a public rebuke from his attorney general, President Donald Trump on Friday declared he has the “legal right” to intervene in criminal cases and sidestep the Justice Department’s historic independence.
At the same time, it was revealed that federal prosecutors have been ordered to review the criminal case of Trump’s former national security adviser.
A day after Attorney General William Barr said the president’s tweets were making it “impossible for me to do my job,” Trump declared he had the right to ask the agency to intervene in cases but so far has “chosen not to.” It was a rare public flare-up of tensions, simmering for weeks at the upper echelon of the Trump administration, as Barr marked one year on the job Friday.
While Barr complained that Trump’s tweets undermine the department’s perception as independent from political interference, he has proved to be eager to deliver on many of the president’s investigative priorities.
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, Justice has functioned independently, unmoved and unbound by political sway. And that reputation is important to Barr, as he made clear in an interview Thursday on ABC News.
“I’m happy to say that, in fact, the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case,” Barr said. “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.”
Justice Department prosecutors are reviewing the handling of the federal investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday.