9/18/20
The facts are beyond dispute. His politicization of the Justice Department is a danger to us all. Barr’s ordering the Justice Department to intervene in the prosecution of the Michael Flynn case — and attempting to dismiss the charges to which Flynn had already pleaded guilty, and over the objections of career prosecutors — is beyond unacceptable. He ordered the reduction of the proposed sentence for President Trump’s friend and advisor convicted felon Roger Stone, again against recommendations of prosecutors. He ordered the dismissal of the U.S. Attorney in New York who was known to be investigating those close to Donald Trump. When the pandemic prompted prisons to release offenders on humanitarian grounds, Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, got home release. But his former lawyer Michael Cohen was released and then thrown back into solitary confinement when he refused to give up his First Amendment right to publish his Trump memoir, Disloyal, and wasn’t released until a federal judge found his treatment had been retaliatory and unlawful. Barr’s actions suggest that the laws which govern criminal conduct in our country are for the rest of us, not for the friends and family of the president. The Constitution guarantees equal justice under the law and due process. The harm he has done to the professional pride of those in the Department, and his evident contempt for their institutional memory, devotion to justice and judgment (calling them “preschoolers”), will be difficult for memories to erase.
Barr’s hyperbolic and exaggerated claims invite ridicule of his high office. For example, his recent comments comparing public health quarantines to slavery shows an almost incomprehensible and stomach-churning insensitivity. The faculty of George Washington University Law School, which granted Barr his J.D. in 1977, condemned his actions as Trump’s attorney general. Their letter said he has “undermined the rule of law, damaged public confidence that the law applies equally and fairly to all persons and demonstrated contempt for basic Constitutional rights.” It then concluded that he has “failed to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” I believe the situation is worse. Barr is actively weakening and attacking the core of our democracy. He deliberately misled the public on the substance and significance of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on (“systematic and sweeping”) Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He plans to announce what are sure to be partisan and misleading allegations as an October Surprise in aid of his benefactor. Recently, Barr has sought to question the fairness of mail-in voting on national television. In our system, the Tenth Amendment dictates that the election laws are administered by the states and Barr’s purposeful spread of misinformation is both inappropriate and harmful. We need an attorney general committed to our highest law, and that’s why Barr must go.
