'William Barr is not done': experts raise concerns about attorney general's legal reach

Legal experts and and alumnae of the US Department of Justice have begun sounding the alarm about Donald Trump’s attorney general, William Barr.

Recently Barr’s justice department withdrew charges against Michael Flynn, the former Trump administration national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to federal law enforcement officials about his dealings with Russia’s ambassador over sanctions, just before Trump took office.

Barr’s decision last week was a stunning reversal and spurred rare rebukes from a large swath of legal experts and former attorneys who worked at the justice department under both Democratic and Republican presidents. And speaking at a fundraiser with thousands of former officials from his administration and previous campaigns, Barack Obama issued a strong warning that the move jeopardized the “rule of law” in the country.

Barr’s decision highlighted ongoing anxiety about the lasting impact the current attorney general will have on the position of attorney general and the department of justice overall.

On Monday, more than 1,900 former and current justice department officials reiterated their call for Barr to step down for having “once again assaulted the rule of law”.

The group that organized the letter collected more than 2,600 signatures for a similar letter in February after the justice department moved to reduce the sentence of Roger Stone, a former Trump administration aide who was convicted in cases that came out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation. At the time, a number of prosecutors resigned in protest because of the proposed sentencing reductions.

https://news.yahoo.com/william-barr-not-done-experts-100000915.html