US judges meet to discuss interference in cases
Call Trump, Barr political acts in cases alarming
WASHINGTON – A national association of federal judges will call an emergency meeting Tuesday to address concerns about the intervention of Justice Department officials and President Donald Trump in politically sensitive cases, the group’s president said Monday.
Philadelphia U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, who heads the independent Federal Judges Association, said the group “could not wait” until its annual conference to weigh in on a deepening crisis that has enveloped Justice and Attorney General William Barr.
“There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about,” Rufe told USA TODAY. “We’ll talk all of this through.”
Rufe, nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush, said the group of more than 1,000 federal jurists called for the meeting last week in the midst of fast-moving developments in which Barr ordered prosecutors to back off a stiff prison sentence for longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone as the president criticized prosecutors’ initial sentencing recommendation.
Trump took a swipe at the federal judge who is set to preside at Stone’s sentencing hearing Thursday.
“Is this the judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something not even mobster Al Capone had to endure?” Trump tweeted last week, referring to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. “How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!”
Rufe said that while the group was “not inclined to get involved with an ongoing case,” she voiced strong support for Jackson.
“I am not concerned with how a particular judge will rule,” Rufe said, referring to her “excellent reputation.” “We are supportive of any federal judge who does what is required.”
The unusual concern voiced by the judges’ group comes in wake of an equally unusual written protest signed by more than 1,000 former Justice Department officials Sunday who called on Barr to resign.
Founded in 1982, the Federal Judges Association is a voluntary association of federal judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution. The association has grown to well over 1,100 members, an overwhelming majority of the nation’s Article III judges, who support the organization through their dues. Its officers and directors come from federal courts of appeals and district courts across the country.