The DOJ s actions drew sharp criticism from Democrats and Trump critics who demanded transparency.
But Garland said on Wednesday that there isn t one rule for friends and another for foes.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday addressed the Justice Department s decision to back some controversial Trump-era decisions, including its move to defend Trump in a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman who accused him of rape, and its move to shield an internal memo related to Trump from the public.
Democrats and Trump critics have sharply criticized the department over those decisions, but Garland said during a congressional budget hearing Wednesday that there is not one rule for friends and another for foes.
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POGO urges the inspector general to investigate whether DOJ lawyers lied to a judge to hide the role DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel played in Barr’s effort to mislead the public about Mueller’s report.
In a Thursday letter, a government watchdog group asked the DOJ’s independent inspector general to investigate whether department attorneys committed perjury or other crimes through a potentially improper attempt to keep the memo’s contents concealed amid a public records request.
“If it turns out that they committed crimes in the process of doing so, they will have magnified the harm to the department’s already damaged reputation and compounded the effect of Barr’s lies to the American people,” read the letter from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to the DOJ inspector general.
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DOJ attorneys told a federal judge that the memo, prepared at Barr’s request by the agency s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), provided legal advice that guided Barr s decision not to charge former President Trump
“If it turns out that they committed crimes in the process of doing so, they will have magnified the harm to the department’s already damaged reputation and compounded the effect of Barr’s lies to the American people,” POGO wrote in a letter to Mr. Horowitz.
The lawyers told a federal judge that the memo, prepared by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, justified Mr. Barr’s decision to clear Mr. Trump of obstructing the probe of special counsel Robert Mueller into whether the president or his campaign colluded with Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.