Greg Sargent: Barr's ABC News interview is deeply damning. Here's what must come next.

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/14/barrs-abc-interview-is-deeply-damning-heres-what-must-come-next/

<snip>
Barr’s new chronology
On ABC, Barr offered his first detailed account of the mess involving Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering to obstruct investigations into Russian subversion of the 2016 election for Trump.

Barr recounted that a top deputy — apparently Timothy Shea, a longtime Barr adviser just installed as U.S. attorney in Washington — had grown concerned that sentencing guidelines would dictate too draconian a punishment.

Stone’s prosecutors wanted to recommend the stiff sentence. But Barr wanted the judge to make the determination without any affirmative department recommendation.

Barr claimed he thought this was the approach all agreed would be followed, but that the prosecutors submitted the stiffer recommendation, which “surprised” him. He claimed he then started the process to undo this — before Trump tweeted his rage at 2 a.m. the next day.

Later the next morning, Barr was already preparing to implement the change when he was notified about Trump’s tweet — meaning Trump’s rage didn’t influence him. Barr claimed Trump’s tweet boxed him in — reversing the sentence would now smack of carrying out Trump’s bidding.

This account is actually very damning. The most charitable interpretation here is that Trump has openly sought to corrupt the process. By Barr’s own implicit admission, Trump’s rage could only be construed as an effort to manipulate law enforcement — after all, this is precisely what, by Barr’s account, boxed him in.

</snip>

[empedocles]

1. traitortrump keeps out trumping himself

[MagickMuffin]

2. He should RESIGN since he admitted on national TV isn't able to do the job

He isn't capable of separating himself from his loyalty to trump and meting out justice. He can't tell the difference.

[Eyeball_Kid]

3. Barr's complaint is that he can't EFFICIENTLY do Trump's bidding because

Trump keeps stepping on his own feet. Barr wants Trump to stop the tweeting because Trump is exposing Barr as his toady.

[ooky]

4. Barr said in the ABC interview that "the President had never asked him

to do anything in a criminal case".

Yeah, like for example when he asked Comey to take it easy on Flynn. Of course the President never does anything like that.

That's your defense? Seriously?

The lies just keep getting more brazen as they go.

[maxsolomon]

6. I can see Barr laying that out for Trump when he took the job.

"You know what you want me to do, and I know what you want me to do, but don't say it out loud or I can't do it."

It's how things have traditionally worked it American corruption. Picture Tammany Hall, the Teapot Dome, etc.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Fuck Barr and the fools who believe him.

[Midnightwalk]

7. What are the rules for this?

I would have thought Barr was ethically required to recuse himself after his boss to do something inappropriate or illegal. Regardless of whether he had already made up his mind.

What do the ethical standards say? Is it disbar-able
No pun intended.

Barr might have reached the conclusion on his own. He’d do just about anything to please his master and without the tweet he had if not plausible deniability, legally good enough deniability.

[OMGWTF]

10. Ethics left the room three years ago.

[forgotmylogin]

8. Lock Barr and Stone in a cage with a tinfoil blanket.

That's apparently not too draconian for this administration.

[Ponietz]

9. The job Barr maintains is "impossible" is to walk Flynn and Stone

[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/us/politics/michael-flynn-prosecutors-barr.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage|

“ WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter.

“The review is highly unusual and could trigger more accusations of political interference by top Justice Department officials into the work of career prosecutors.

“Mr. Barr has also installed a handful of outside prosecutors to broadly review the handling of other politically sensitive national-security cases in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, the people said. The team includes at least one prosecutor from the office of the United States attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen, who is handling the Flynn matter, as well as prosecutors from the office of the deputy attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen.

“Over the past two weeks, the outside prosecutors have begun grilling line prosecutors in the Washington office about various cases — some public, some not — including investigative steps, prosecutorial actions and why they took them, according to the people. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.”