No U.S. Attorney General in history has ever turned the Department of Justice into a political tool belonging to the president. Until now. Bill Barr has totally politicized the Department.
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote today:
Why? Well, it turns out the head of the Catholic Charities affiliate had been active with Democrats and the Phoenix group had opposed President Trump’s immigration policies. By contrast, Hookers for Jesus is run by a Christian conservative and the Lincoln Tubman group was launched by a relative of a Trump delegate to the 2016 convention.
That Catholic Charities has been replaced by Hookers for Jesus says much about Barr’s Justice Department. Friends of Trump are rewarded. Opponents of Trump are punished. And the nation’s law enforcement apparatus becomes Trump’s personal plaything.
Federal prosecutors Monday recommendedthat Trump associate Roger Stone serve seven to nine years in prison for obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, witness tampering and other crimes.
Then Trump tweeted that the proposed sentence was “horrible and very unfair” and “the real crimes were on the other side.” And by midday Tuesday, Barr’s Justice Department announced that it would reduce Stone’s sentence recommendation. All four prosecutors, protesting the politicization, asked to withdraw from the case.
But politicization is now the norm. Last week, Barr assigned himself the sole authority to decide which presidential candidates — Democrats and Republicans — should be investigated by the FBI.
Also last week, the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Justice Department, announced that New York state residents can no longer enroll in certain Trusted Traveler programs such as Global Entry — apparent punishment for the strongly Democratic state’s policies on illegal immigrants.
On Monday, Barr declared that the Justice Department had created an “intake process” to receive Rudy Giuliani’s dirt from Ukraine on Joe Biden and Hunter Biden — dirt dug in a boondoggle that left two Giuliani associates under indictment and Trump impeached.
The same day, Barr’s agency announced lawsuits against California, New Jersey and King County (Seattle), Washington — politically “blue” jurisdictions all — as part of what he called a “significant escalation” against sanctuary cities.
On Tuesday, to get a better sense of the man who has turned the Justice Department into Trump’s toy, I watched Barr speak to the Major County Sheriffs of America, a friendly audience, at the Willard Hotel in Washington.
Even by Trumpian standards, the jowly Barr, in his large round glasses, pinstripe suit and Trump-red tie, was strikingly sycophantic. “In his State of the Union, President Trump delivered a message of genuine optimism filled with an unapologetic faith in God and in American greatness and in the common virtues of the American people: altruism, industriousness, self-reliance and generosity,” he read, deadpan.
Trump, he went on, “loves this country,” and “he especially loves you.” The boot-licking performance continued, about Trump’s wise leadership, his unbroken promises and even the just-impeached president’s passionate belief in the “rule of law.”
Then Barr turned to the enemy. He attacked “rogue DA’s” and “so-called social-justice reformers,” who are responsible for “historic levels of homicide and other violent crime” in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Chicago and Baltimore. Politicians in sanctuary jurisdictions, he said, prefer “to help criminal aliens evade the law.” Barr vowed to fight these foes with “all lawful means” — federal subpoenas to force them to turn over “information about criminal aliens,” dozens of lawsuits to invalidate statutes and attempts to deny them both competitive and automatic grants.
In response to a question, Barr railed against tech companies’ use of encryption: “They’re designing these devices so you can be impervious to any government scrutiny,” he protested.
Maybe people wouldn’t be so sensitive about government scrutiny if the top law enforcement official weren’t using his position to punish political opponents and reward political allies.
Instead, with Barr’s acquiescence, we live in a moment in which: Trump’s Treasury Department immediately releases sensitive financial information about Hunter Biden, while refusing to release similar information about Trump; Trump ousts officials who testified in the impeachment inquiry and even ousts the blameless twin brother of one of the witnesses; and Trump’s FBI decides to monitor violent “people on either side” of the abortion debate — although the FBI couldn’t point to a single instance of violence by abortion-rights supporters.
This week, the Pentagon released a new color scheme for Air Force One, replacing the 60-year-old design with one that looks suspiciously like the old Trump Shuttle.Surprised? Don’t be. Soon the entire administration will be able to apply for a Justice Department grant as a newly formed nonprofit: Hookers for Trump.
Bill Barr will be remembered by historians for his role in destroying the professionalism, morale, and ethics of the Department of Justice. He is Trump’s Joker.
“Hookers for Trump” should be the title of Donald Trump’s life story.
And who are these hookers in his life? The women he has cavorted around with or the politicians who either support him or say and do nothing to stop him?
I’m in a blur . . .
All the metericious Trump sycophants, including he who should be disBarred.
Oops. Typo. meretricious
NO typos . . . It’s mera-vicious . . .
It sounds like Barr is trying to cloak undermining a multitude of anti-Constitutional checks & balances under a single justification that might get Dems to wink, i.e., the election-yr DOJ investigation that bent election results [thanks to self-righteous, self-indugent Boy Scout Comey’s big mouth).
This very afternoon four prosecutors just resigned when Barr’s cronies at the Justice Department did what Trump wanted and asked for a lighter sentence for Trump’s pal Roger Stone. Trump thought that the prosecutors’ request for a sentence that fit Stone’s crime was “unfair”, so Barr rides in to rescue Roger Stone.
That is quite scary. Not a joke.
the Trump minions are puffed up like peacocks now, strutting around to show off their “invincibility”
Does resigning work? Is that the most efficient way to protest?
Barr should not be leading the DOJ. He is biased and narrow minded, and this is exactly what Trump wants. Barr makes a good lap dog for his autocratic master.
Agreed. When Nixon told AT Elliot Richardson to fire the special prosecutor who was investigating Nixon’s crimes, Richardson resigned in protest. The AT & Justice Dept are the people’s attorneys not the president’s personal henchman.
Both Barr &Trump should be impeached for this stunt.
Trump requires a lot of panderers around him.
I thought, hooking was illegal in this country.
Evidently it is not illegal for the nation’s chief law enforcement officer to be a hooker for Trump. After all, he decides what is going to be enforced and what isn’t.
Some people are upset with the power that Barr and Trump have given each other.
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By David Leonhardt
Opinion Columnist for NYT
…Yesterday, political appointees at the Justice Department overruled career prosecutors who had recommended a seven- to nine-year prison sentence for Roger Stone, for trying to sabotage an investigation that threatened Trump. The department did so shortly after Trump had blasted the requested sentence on Twitter.
Four prosecutors quickly quit in protest. In doing so, they were sacrificing their careers on behalf of a principle that presidents of both parties used to uphold.
Elsewhere: Asha Rangappa, former F.B.I. agent: “I have really tried to have, and encourage others to have, faith in the resiliency of our institutions. But today I just feel so much sadness — grief, really — over what is happening. There is a cancer in the White House, and it has spread to the Justice Department.”
Harry Litman, a former prosecutor, in The Washington Post: “It is hard to overstate the irregularity and impropriety of the department’s rollback of Stone’s sentence. … As a general matter, the Justice Department and the White House are supposed to communicate only in rare, well-defined instances and almost never about the results of individual cases.”
Elizabeth de la Vega, another former prosecutor, noted that the judge in the case, Amy Berman Jackson, could ignore the new Justice Department request and sentence Stone “as she sees fit.”
The lies never stop.
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Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought. Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted. Even Bob Mueller lied to Congress!
5:53 AM · Feb 12, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
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Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson tweeted about a week ago in response to something Trump tweeted: “You do realize he is insane, don’t you?”
I’d say crazy like a fox.
One thing we have learned in Trump’s three years in office: The President can do whatever he wants. He is above the law.
Jesus doesn’t allow hookers into his life but Hookers for Jesus is an organization that would welcome Trump and his sycophants. Trump is disgusting and rude and would love to be surrounded by hookers. Long live “Hookers for Trump”.
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Annie Lobert (born September 26, 1967) is an American former call girl and sex industry worker, who founded the international Christian ministry Hookers for Jesus. In 2010, she produced and starred in a three-part documentary on the organization, titled Hookers: Saved on the Strip, which was broadcast nationwide on cable television’s Investigation Discovery.
Lobert worked as a prostitute in Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and Hawaii for 16 years. She left the sex industry with the support of Al Nakata, one of her regular customers, who had fallen in love with her. After leaving prostitution, Nakata trained her in estimates and service reviews in order to work with him in his Super GT Series auto body and design firm.
More substantiation is required to believe that Trump is “punishing Catholics”, a plan that would presumably require a separation of progressive Catholics from the well-funded, highly political, white, conservative Catholic block of votes that created his victory.
The post’s conclusion about Trump punishing Catholics is somewhat undercut by the fact that Bill Barr, a Catholic, who has said religion should be introduced at every possible opportunity, has control of the implementation of Trump’s plan.
Two articles posted last month elucidate the convergence of the Trump campaign and the Catholic church as represented by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (15 bishops of major cities signed the Manhattan Declaration, including NYC’s-written by conservative, Robert P. George).
(1) “Trump Looks to Reward Conservative Catholics for their Loyalty…(Trump’s campaign said) heavy lifting will be done by groups like…Knights of Columbus”, (a major Catholic charity). Politico 1-14-2020.
(2) “Pro-Trump group targets Catholic voters using cell phone technology…captures cell phone data of mass goers” (btw- have local priests and congregants spoken out about it?)
The article explains the work that Catholic Vote, founded by Tim Burch and a guy who led a Catholic advisory council for the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, plans to do for the 2020 election of Trump. (National Catholic Reporter 1-2-2020
Most articles at this blog are about education. There is no doubt about the position of the USCCB and state Catholic Conferences on the subject of privatization of public schools which is in total alignment with Betsy DeVos’.
So now the Holocaust is the same as Planned Parenthood. This is just revolting. Trump is affecting the far R and it is becoming nastier and nastier.
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— One GOP witness this morning argued, “I think we need to apologize to the Nazis” in a 2017 post comparing the Jewish Holocaust against Planned Parenthood’s abortion record.
“In fact, it may be time for [Nazis] to be given an award!” wrote Georgette Forney of Anglicans for Life, noting that Planned Parenthood had been honored for public service. “The real truth about these mass murderers must be told in the context of our present-day holocaust.”
One day, these people scream “sperm-murderer” and will demand prison sentences for the perpetrators.
SCARY!!!! The last I heard 49% of Americans APPROVE of this travesty of a man.
I’m 75 years old and have only missed one Presidential election. This one will be the most important of my lifetime. We must vote this madman out of office. He is ruining our America.
Agreed. Trump is a danger to our democracy, or what’s left of it.
It’s perfectly okay to elect the Orange Moron but, NEVER alright to elect Bernie. This is from the Hill, BUT I believe it expresses the media’s take on Bernie.
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Senate Democrats queasy over Sanders as nominee
Senate Democrats are feeling queasy about their party’s presidential primary after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) seized frontrunner status by winning the New Hampshire primary, while former Vice President Joe Biden stumbled to a fifth-place finish.
Democratic senators have been careful not to criticize Sanders publicly, fearing that it could undermine party unity heading into the November general election, which they view as a must-win contest.
But they have serious questions about the electability of their self-described Democratic Socialist colleague, and the problems he may create down ballot for vulnerable Senate candidates.
Nickolas Kristof, NYT columnist:
After New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. That’s confirmed by the betting markets like PredictIt, which show him as the most likely candidate to win the nomination — but also show that President Trump most likely will be re-elected….
Most notably, small numbers of voters say in polls that they might not vote for a woman, a black candidate, a Catholic, and so on. Somewhat larger numbers admit that they would not vote for a gay candidate, an older person or a younger person. But there’s only one kind of candidate that only a minority of Americans say they are willing to vote for: a socialist. It may well be that in the voting booth people would feel differently, but it worries me…
I’m thinking not just of the presidency, but also of the Senate. One of the key questions this year is which nominee could help Democrats win Senate races in states like Kansas and Alabama. I’m skeptical that Sanders is the answer to that question. ..
What can I say? In entering any race, one has to put aside anxieties about not winning. The energy about believing in one’s win is contagious: it energizes our friends and it depresses our adversaries. A candidate we don’t believe in completely generates only lukewarm feelings in us which shows, and generates the same feelings in others. That’s what politics is: lots of unsatisfying decisions that generate lukewarm feelings. If we play politics too much, what we get is politics and not what we can be passionate about.
Whoever we vote for the democratic ticket, we need to feel passionate about.
If, at the end, the democratic candidate loses against Trump because he is a socialist, gay, or female, then we have to admit, that’s what our country is like now: afraid of a woman, a homosexual or a socialist more than of a fascist, and, apparently, our laws do not protect democracy properly.
Our frame of mind needs to be positive; the possibility of losing should not enter our thoughts. Don’t forget, so called discussions about the chances of a candidate winning or losing against Trump are political speculations and have nothing to do with science. No science, no statistical method, no polling data can predict what will happen in November. They can’t even make “educated” guesses.
We can safely say that the urge to “prepare for the worst” chips away our enthusiasm, and we infect our friends with pessimism instead of passion.
If we feel anxiety bubbling up about the elections, let’s retell each other about the great battles where the underdog won, despite the odds, let’s recall the Olympic champions who won from behind, whom nobody was betting on before the Games. Let’s think about all the artists, musicians, scientists, engineers who beat childhood and mental problems and created lasting work for all humanity, simply because their passion about their craft wiped away the odds against them.
And if we still are willing to think about our chances of winning, let’s recall that we are far from underdogs: we do have the power of the majority. Not believing in the winning power of democracy is a mortal sin.
“I’m skeptical that Sanders is the answer to that question. ..”
We also have to suppress negative feelings about other democratic candidates. Chances are, the criticized candidate may end up running against Trump and we need all the energy to stand behind that candidate so that people around us will be swept along with us.
We are teachers. We know very well what makes kids fall in love with our subject. If we just once say in class “I hate math”, our credibility as a math teacher is lost.