Then the President Yet Again Attacks His Attorney General The Ag Fights Back Diagraceful
As Trump Claims to Be Law of the Land, Barr's Irritation Builds
The president broadly asserted his authority of the criminal justice system, attacking law enforcement officials and issuing pardons.
WASHINGTON — President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr agree on one thing at least: The president is making the attorney general's job much harder. What they don't agree on: Mr. Trump sees no reason to stop.
Defying Mr. Barr's pleas, the president renewed his public attacks on law enforcement on Tuesday, denouncing the prosecutors, judge and jury forewoman in the case of his longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr. and defending his convicted former adviser Michael T. Flynn against Mr. Trump's own Justice Department.
Explicitly rebuffed, Mr. Barr was left by the end of the day to consider his own future. He expressed dissatisfaction to associates and his irritation soon fed news reports that he was considering resignation if the president continued to publicly weigh in on individual prosecutions of his own associates. But it was unclear whether that would persuade Mr. Trump to back off or only get his back up.
The suggestions of resignation came at the end of a day when the president asserted his dominance over a justice system that had long sought to insulate itself from political pressures. Calling himself "the chief law enforcement officer of the country," Mr. Trump demanded a new trial for Mr. Stone, urged federal judges to address the "tremendous" abuse of the special counsel investigation of his campaign and bypassed the traditional pardon process to grant clemency to celebrity convicts recommended by his friends, allies and political donors.
Mr. Trump insisted he had not directly interfered in the prosecution of advisers like Mr. Stone and Mr. Flynn, but declared again that he had the power to if he wanted and at the very least, he planned to speak out for them. "You take a look at what's happening to these people," he told reporters. "Somebody has to stick up for the people."
In doing so, Mr. Trump acknowledged that Mr. Barr was right last week when he said that the president was making it "impossible" for him to do his work. "I do make his job harder," Mr. Trump said. "I do agree with that. I think that's true."
But while he praised Mr. Barr's "incredible integrity" and avowed "total confidence" in him, Mr. Trump dismissed the suggestion that he stop discussing individual cases. "Social media for me has been very important because it gives me a voice, because I don't get that voice in the press," he said. "In the media, I don't get that voice. So I'm allowed to have a voice."
Even as he refused to take Mr. Barr's advice, Mr. Trump expressed no anger toward his attorney general and some officials said he understood why Mr. Barr felt the need to complain last week to ABC News about the presidential tweets. But The Washington Post reported on Tuesday night that Mr. Barr was thinking about stepping down if the president's tweets continue, a story confirmed by an administration official and seemingly aimed at an audience of one.
Mr. Barr was especially irritated by the president's tweet on Tuesday morning denigrating Judge Amy Berman Jackson shortly before she was to hold a conference call with lawyers in Mr. Stone's case. Mr. Trump insisted in his tweet that she order a new trial for Mr. Stone but the Justice Department then disclosed that it opposed just such a retrial, a position personally approved by Mr. Barr.
The attorney general then had lunch with Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel and a longtime friend and colleague, in what officials said was a previously scheduled get-together. While Mr. Barr has been incredibly frustrated and has a limit to what he will put up with, people who know him said they doubted he would give in so quickly.
An abrupt departure by Mr. Barr would roil a Justice Department on track to deliver several initiatives important to Mr. Trump, including an overhaul of the F.B.I., a criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia inquiry and a continuing leak investigation into James B. Comey, the former director of the F.B.I. It would also leave the president with a vacancy at the top of the Justice Department that might be hard to fill eight months before the election.
Mr. Barr has taken heat from critics both inside and outside his department over what they see as the politicization of the law enforcement system. More than 1,100 former Justice Department officials called for Mr. Barr's resignation, and a group representing the nation's federal judges scheduled an emergency telephone conference to address the president's attacks on one of their own.
The Justice Department dismissed suggestions on Tuesday night that Mr. Barr's departure was imminent. "Addressing Beltway rumors: The Attorney General has no plans to resign," Kerri Kupec, the department spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter. Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, retweeted Ms. Kupec's message.
The president told reporters on Tuesday that Mr. Stone, a longtime friend and off-and-on adviser, and Mr. Flynn, a campaign adviser before serving briefly as his national security adviser, were both "treated very unfairly." He called Mr. Stone's conviction "a very, very rough thing" and said that Mr. Flynn's "life has been destroyed."
Mr. Stone, who was convicted in November of seven felonies for obstructing a congressional inquiry into the Trump campaign's ties to WikiLeaks, which disseminated Democratic emails stolen by Russian agents, is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday. Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his dealings with Russian officials but wants to withdraw his plea.
Asked whether he was considering pardons for Mr. Stone, Mr. Flynn or Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman convicted on tax and other financial fraud charges, Mr. Trump said, "I'm not even thinking about that." But aides said he had broached the idea and critics said Tuesday's pardons and commutations for convicted political figures like Rod R. Blagojevich and Bernard B. Kerik sent a clear message to the president's associates that he may yet clear them.
"The real test will be, what does this president do with Stone, Manafort and others who are directly connected to him and who have the ability to provide information that is harmful to him?" said Eric H. Holder Jr., who served as attorney general under President Barack Obama.
On Twitter, Mr. Trump cited a "Fox & Friends" legal analyst, Andrew Napolitano, who has insisted that the president "has every right" to intervene in a criminal case. He quoted Mr. Napolitano's calls for Judge Jackson to reconsider Mr. Stone's case.
"Judge Jackson now has a request for a new trial based on the unambiguous & self outed bias of the foreperson," Mr. Trump tweeted, quoting Mr. Napolitano.
Judge Jackson ruled Tuesday morning that Mr. Stone's sentencing would go forward as planned on Thursday despite last-ditch motions by his defense lawyers. She said she would allow the defense to file an amended motion for a new trial, give the government a chance to respond with its own filing and schedule a hearing if warranted. Defense lawyers argue that juror misconduct led to an unfair trial.
The handling of Mr. Stone's case has generated tumult throughout the Justice Department and grabbed the attention of Washington's broader legal establishment. After Mr. Barr scrapped the original sentencing recommendation in favor of a lighter one, the four career prosecutors handling the matter withdrew from the case and one resigned from the department entirely.
As the president has repeatedly pointed out, two of the four prosecutors had worked for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, whose investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election dogged Mr. Trump for two years. The president attacked Mr. Mueller's team anew on Tuesday, saying if he were not president, he would sue it.
The president said he had not intervened in Mr. Stone's case, evidently making a distinction between his public commentaries and explicit orders, but added that he had the power to do so if he wanted. "Just so you understand, I chose not to be involved," he said. "I'm allowed to be totally involved. I'm actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country."
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Republican congressional leaders defended Mr. Barr. "Suggestions from outside groups that the attorney general has fallen short of the responsibilities of his office are unfounded," Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California said in a joint statement.
Mr. Trump's attacks on Judge Jackson generated alarms in the judiciary. The Federal Judges Association, a voluntary organization, scheduled an emergency telephone conference for this week. Judge Cynthia M. Rufe of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania told USA Today that the group wanted to discuss "plenty of issues that we are concerned about."
Mr. Trump countered that the judges should instead investigate misconduct in the Mueller investigation. "I hope the Federal Judges Association will discuss the tremendous FISA Court abuse that has taken place with respect to the Mueller Investigation Scam, including the forging of documents and knowingly using the fake and totally discredited Dossier before the Court," he wrote on Twitter.
The role of Mr. Trump's lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani in another politically fraught matter before the Justice Department has also come under scrutiny.
Mr. Barr said last week that the department had an "intake process" for information from Ukraine, prompting complaints that law enforcement officials were giving Mr. Giuliani special treatment because he has said he turned over evidence against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son, Hunter Biden, about their dealings in Ukraine.
Mr. Giuliani led the campaign to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into Mr. Biden and other Democrats, a campaign that ultimately led the House to impeach Mr. Trump for abuse of power; he was acquitted this month in a Senate trial.
The department routes all Ukraine matters through a central process, not to circumvent channels but to avoid duplicating efforts, Stephen E. Boyd, an assistant attorney general, clarified on Tuesday. The United States attorney in Brooklyn, Richard P. Donoghue, oversees the process, and his counterpart in Pittsburgh, Scott W. Brady, accepts any unsolicited information from the public, including from Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Boyd wrote in a letter to Congress.
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/us/roger-stone-sentencing.html
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