Breaking: Barr is now NOT recusing himself from current Epstein case according to DOJ

[Mrs. Overall]

Link to tweet

erica orden
✔
@eorden
A DOJ official says that Barr has consulted with career ethics officials at DOJ and he will not recuse from the Jeffrey Epstein case in SDNY, @evanperez reports.

Barr has been & will remain recused from any retrospective review of the resolution of the earlier case in Florida.

[dalton99a]

1. Meaning he consulted with his idiot boss

who was up to his eyeballs with Epstein

[MaryMagdaline]

2. best indication so far that Trump is scared ... that and the fact that he hasn't tweeted

about Epstein yet

[Claritie Pixie]

6. You got it! He's in it up to his eyeballs.

[Trenzalore]

3. Trump has something to hide

Probably at first lied to Barr and said he has nothing to hide than went off on a tirade when he recused himself.

[tishaLA]

4. This Epstein - Barr BS is going to leave me

chronically fatigued

[MaryMagdaline]

8. Too funny!

[malaise]

5. That only means that the big Con and others

have something to hide.
Very interesting

[ScratchCat]

7. By this evening

I hope the talking heads on the news shows are starting to wonder why Trump would have told Barr to "un-recuse" himself in this case.

[procon]

9. Is that anything like a "do over"? nt

[RockRaven]

10. Translation: Trump made it clear this case jeopardizes himself, so Barr realized he must interfere.

One of the standards for recusal is the *appearance* of a conflict of interest which would undermine public confidence in the delivery/pursuit of justice.

By announcing his recusal and then "clarifying" (i.e. retracting) his already clear statement of recusal, Barr has created EXACTLY that appearance. Especially since he's working for a POTUS who repeatedly pressured his predecessor Sessions to un-recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

Once his simple and clear statement of recusal was made, any change of course would look corrupt, so any change or "clarification" is *at that point* ill-advised. If he didn't want to recuse himself, he should have made the correct statement initially. It is too late now -- not that he cares about the damage he does to the DOJ or public confidence or rule of law.