Earlier this month, federal judge
Amy Berman Jackson ordered the Justice Department to release the 2019 memo then-Attorney General
William Barr used to help clear his boss,
Donald Trump, over wrongdoing after the conclusion of
Robert Muellerâs Russia probe. Citing the recommendations of âthe Office of Legal Counsel and other department lawyers,â Barr that March issued a four-page âsummaryâ of the special counselâs two-part tome of a report, writing that Muellerâs team did not reach any conclusions about Trumpâs conduct, but that he found the evidence presented in the 400-plus page report was ânot sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offenseââa claim Trump immediately pounced on to declare himself exonerated in the great Russia âwitch hunt.â
Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP, Pool
After a scathing ruling from Judge Amy Berman Jackson, critics of Donald Trump and William Barr expected a smoking gun from this internal Department of Justice memo. Instead, it looks like a dud another in a series involving the Russia-collusion hypothesis and subsequent special-counsel probe.
Jackson accused Barr of being “disingenuous” about the advice he received from the Office of Legal Counsel on prosecuting Trump for obstruction of justice, a question Robert Mueller pointedly left open for Barr:
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a scathing opinion saying that she had read the memo and that it showed that Barr was disingenuous when he cited the document as key to his conclusion that Trump had not broken the law.
The Justice Department signaled this week that it will carry on the
Trump administration‘s gauze of secrecy over the 2019 Russia probe led by former special counsel Robert Mueller.
Attorney General William Barr speaks during a 2020 roundtable discussion. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)
WASHINGTON (CN) More than two years after special counsel Robert Mueller delivered his 448-page report on Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, there is little on the record about former Attorney General William Barr’s decision not to charge then-President Donald Trump with obstructing Mueller’s investigation.
That was set to change after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson slammed the government’s tight-lipped posture in a May 4 ruling, initially filed under seal.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
I guess that answers the question posed by Friday’s post. Lefties have been hammering Manchin for believing that Republicans will compromise under the right circumstances and thus eliminating the filibuster isn’t necessary. That belief is now being tested with infrastructure talks suddenly hanging by a thread and a filibuster of the House’s January 6 commission bill looming. (Police reform still stands a fair chance of happening.) Manchin sounded almost distraught last week when asked about the commission going down in flames. “So disheartening. It makes you really concerned about our country,” he told reporters. “I’m still praying we’ve still got 10 good solid patriots within that conference.”
DOJ releases few pages of memo concluding evidence didn t support Trump prosecution
Former President Donald Trump. Photo from Shutterstock.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday evening released the first one-and-a-half pages of a nine-page internal memo concluding that former President Donald Trump should not be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.
The initial pages indicate that former U.S. Attorney General William Barr and DOJ officials had discussed whether facts in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report supported prosecution of Trump even before the memo was written, the Washington Post reports.
Law.com also has coverage.
The March 2019 memo is from Steven Engel, the assistant attorney general from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel; and Edward O’Callaghan, principal associate deputy attorney general.