Attorney General Barr made an unusual call to Trump to give him political advice about how Rudy Giuliani should handle the Russia probe
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Attorney General Barr made an unusual call to Trump to give him political advice about how Rudy Giuliani should handle the Russia probe
Associated Press
-
Attorney General William Barr gave President Donald Trump political advice about Rudy Giuliani's public statements on the Russia investigation in an April phone call, The Wall Street Journal reported.
-
Barr's involvement in the matter is unusual, given that the attorney general is the nation's chief law enforcement officer and is tasked with guarding the institution of the presidency, and not the president himself.
-
Barr has been widely accused of behaving more like Trump's personal lawyer than the attorney general, and he's made headlines in recent days over his involvement in pushing foreign officials to work with him to investigate the origins of the Russia probe.
-
Barr was also named in an explosive whistleblower complaint against Trump that accuses the president of abusing his power to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election.
Attorney General William Barr in April called President Donald Trump and urged him to tell his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to tone it down in TV appearances, according to The Wall Street Journal .
At the time, Giuliani did a number of cable news interviews in which he tore into the former White House counsel Don McGahn for cooperating with the former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
McGahn's name appeared 529 times in Mueller's final report in the inquiry, and he spent dozens of hours testifiying to prosecutors about his knowledge of Trump's efforts to obstruct justice in the investigation.
Mueller's team ultimately declined to make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on whether Trump obstructed justice, citing Justice Department guidelines that state a sitting president cannot be indicted. And although Mueller's team emphasized that its report "does not exonerate" the president, prosecutors did not bring criminal charges against Trump.
In his April phone call to Trump, Barr is said to have asked the president why Giuliani was attacking McGahn on TV and drawing attention to himself instead of declaring victory in the Mueller probe and calling for the country to move on, The Journal reported.
Barr's interest in the matter is highly unusual, given that he is the nation's chief law enforcement officer and is tasked with guarding the institution of the presidency and not the reputation of the president himself.
But this isn't the first time Barr has been perceived as functioning more as the president's personal lawyer than as the attorney general.
Late Monday, the Washington Post reported that Barr traveled overseas and personally asked top foreign intelligence officials to help with a Justice Department inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation, led by US attorney John Durham.
"This is unheard of," one former senior Justice Department official who worked closely with Mueller when he was FBI director, told Insider.
Robert Deitz, a former top lawyer at the CIA and the National Security Agency, also said he hadn't heard "of so much involvement by the attorney general in this sort of investigation."
"This is work for the gumshoes," he told Insider. Barr's involvement is all the more unusual, Deitz added, given Durham's reputation. "I have worked with John Durham. He is absolutely a straight shooter. What he says one can rely on."
Earlier Monday, The New York Times reported that Barr personally asked Trump to call Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, and ask that he assist with the Justice Department's inquiry. The Associated Press reported that the call was one of a "number of times" Trump made similar calls at Barr's behest.
And in a July 25 conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump repeatedly pressured Zelensky to work with Barr and Giuliani to help discredit the Russia investigation as well as to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
To date, there is no evidence that the DOJ or the FBI acted improperly while investigating the Trump campaign, and the call to "investigate the investigators" is widely perceived to be part of an effort to undermine the Russia probe and fuel Trump's baseless conspiracy theories of a "deep state" plot to oust him from office.
Trump's July phone call with Zelensky is at the center of an explosive whistleblower complaint that a US intelligence official filed against Trump accusing him of soliciting foreign interference in the upcoming election. It mentioned Giuliani 31 times and described him as a "central figure" in Trump's efforts. It added that Barr "appears to be involved as well."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday accused Barr of being part of a "cover-up of the cover-up" and "going rogue" in relation to the Justice Department's role in urging the acting director of national intelligence against releasing the whistleblower complaint to Congress. The extent of Barr's involvement is an open question, but there's no evidence he played a direct role.
Tags
Who is online
106 visitors
Attorney General William Barr gave President Donald Trump political advice about Rudy Giuliani's public statements on the Russia investigation in an April phone call, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Barr's involvement in the matter is unusual, given that the attorney general is the nation's chief law enforcement officer and is tasked with guarding the institution of the presidency, and not the president himself.
Barr has been widely accused of behaving more like Trump's personal lawyer than the attorney general, and he's made headlines in recent days over his involvement in pushing foreign officials to work with him to investigate the origins of the Russia probe.
Barr was also named in an explosive whistleblower complaint against Trump that accuses the president of abusing his power to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election.
Attorney General William Barr in April called President Donald Trump and urged him to tell his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to tone it down in TV appearances, according to The Wall Street Journal .
At the time, Giuliani did a number of cable news interviews in which he tore into the former White House counsel Don McGahn for cooperating with the former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
McGahn's name appeared 529 times in Mueller's final report in the inquiry, and he spent dozens of hours testifiying to prosecutors about his knowledge of Trump's efforts to obstruct justice in the investigation.
Mueller's team ultimately declined to make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on whether Trump obstructed justice, citing Justice Department guidelines that state a sitting president cannot be indicted. And although Mueller's team emphasized that its report "does not exonerate" the president, prosecutors did not bring criminal charges against Trump.
In his April phone call to Trump, Barr is said to have asked the president why Giuliani was attacking McGahn on TV and drawing attention to himself instead of declaring victory in the Mueller probe and calling for the country to move on, The Journal reported.
Has Barr talked to the 'president' lately about Ghoulianis' latest appearances on cable news admitting guilt?
OCTOBER 1, 2019
Welcome to the Impeachment Briefing , a special edition of the Morning Briefing that explains the latest developments in the House impeachment inquiry against President Trump.
This newsletter will go out in the early evening (Eastern time), though we may tweak that depending on the news. If you’re not interested in receiving the Impeachment Briefing, you can unsubscribe through the link at the bottom of this email, and it won’t affect your regular Morning Briefing subscription.
Today, we’re going to catch you up on the latest news, and set the stage for the coming days, when the impeachment fight is likely to heat up.
What happened today
What to expect this week
The whistle-blower
Mr. Trump kept his focus on the whistle-blower whose complaint helped mobilize House Democrats, saying today that he wanted to “interview” him , a day after saying the White House was seeking to identify him — an action legal experts said could constitute an illegal reprisal.
[ Read the whistle-blower’s complaint, annotated by our reporters. ]
The White House has known for weeks that a C.I.A. officer lodged concerns about Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Still, Mr. Trump’s fixation on discovering and discussing the identity of the whistle-blower, whose anonymity is protected by law, was seen as a brazen move for a president under scrutiny for abuse of power.
Representative Adam Schiff , the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the whistle-blower would testify “very soon."
The tally in Congress
Congress won’t be back for another two weeks. But The Times has asked every member of the House whether they support an impeachment inquiry . As of this morning, this was the count:
If the House votes on articles of impeachment, a simple majority, or 218 votes, will be needed to impeach.
Impeachment primers
What else we’re reading
See you tomorrow. Email us your thoughts at briefing@nytimes.com .
So no House republicans support an impeachment inquiry. Shocking.....
Yeah, I was just as shocked as you TG . . . .
The left must smear Barr because he is going to get to the bottom of the Russia hoax!
What hoax?
Barr is the 'president's toady and ass kisser and fixer, in place of Michael Cohen
No smearing involved. TRUTH
You haven't heard?
Barr is the 'president's toady and ass kisser and fixer, in place of Michael Cohen
Because he is doing his job?
No smearing involved.
Smearing En masse!
Nope.
Barr's involvement in the matter is unusual, given that the attorney general is the nation's chief law enforcement officer and is tasked with guarding the institution of the presidency, and not the president himself.
Says who? Eric Holder?
The AG works for the country, not as the President's personal lawyer.
Says everyone, except tRump supporters
Eric Holder was, and still is, a fine man/lawyer/diplomat/family man. He put the best interests of the country in front of his own personal interests. Any attempt to imply anything else is just wrong.
And finding out about CIA and/or FBI wrongdoing is part of the job. Democrats wanted no stone unturned in the "Russia" investigation. Suddenly they want the investigation into the origins of it shut down. Funny how that works!
Liberals aren't everyone - far from it!
Eric Holder is a black supremacist who as AG described himself as "Obama's wingman".He is currently working on democrats winning elections and smearing the current AG..
please post something that indicates, in his own words, that Holder is a black supremacist. I say his own words because I'm not sure you have any reliable sources (pundits) to fall back on.
[removed]
I said EVERYONE WHO ISN'T A tRUMP SUPPORTER.
You asked for it:
WTF?
Epic fail on your part Vic.
Then you share Holder's views?
[removed]
So you have nothing that indicates Holder is
a black supremacist except the title of an edited piece of a you tube recording of a Congressional hearing?
btw the 5 featured GOP Senators seemed sincere and knowledgeable in their questioning of the proposed new statute.
One wonders what the rest of the hearing entailed...maybe other GOP senators not sounding as reasonable or non GOP Senators also making good points or Holder making a better argument for the law with other members of the Senate?
As far as "proof" that Holder is a racist, the you tube is a total failure.
The best of Friends.....Just like Barr and Trump ?
Prove it.
Yes he did and you sure as hell didn't provide it. That edited video has NOTHING to do with Black Separatists. WTF Vic?
And these guys:
Right …..Trump Loved him some Comey so much.....He Fired him.
Just like the Democrats hoped for ….. Until they DIDN'T.
A new schtick on your part is Needed here !
Comey was fired because he didn't kiss tRump's big fat stinky greasy ass.
Did you ever see the exchange in the White House? It looked like tRump went to hug Comey.
What a fucking moron!!!!
Gee, what a surprise that Vic posted a doctored and heavily edited youtube video!
That's one of the exchanges I was just thinking of!
It looks like tRump is leaning in for a hug that becomes a handshake.
AWKWARD!
You should get out more !
You saw nothing wrong with an AG who dosen't think hate crime status could ever extend to white victims of hate? Really?
And what about how he handled the "new black panther party" intimidating white voters at polling stations?
And what about his slapping consent decrees on police departments, whenever there was a so called "racial incident"?
What about it?
You first.
That was GREAT …… Again !
Well done Vic. You've devolved to a strawman in breakneck time.
Seriously, Sandy didn't even infer any of that bullshit.
Now, how about you admit that your allegation against Holder is bullshit too?
So where in that video is any evidence of that ( other than the title )?
I watched the edited video and he never excluded white people.
He said the proposed law would protect American hate crime victims on the basis of color, sexual orientation or religious beliefs...
Are there no hate crimes against White Americans?
Certainly seems that is possible in certain cities as well as white religious minorities or white LGBTQ people.
You were asked to prove a point and failed.
But maybe I just don't have the proper victim hood decoder ring operating system.
So are you claiming that Barr is giving foreign countries top secret intelligence access to investigate the CIA and FBI? Doesn't that pretty much match Trump's definition of a spy?
Well based on the Mueller report, Trump was the only one who asked the CIA to take any action.
As for the FBI, Trump and Barr COULD have appointed a FBI legat to the Ukraine Embassy who could be tasked to investigate what the FBI was doing in Ukraine. Instead they sent Rudy...
BTFW, Rudy isn't looking into anyone but Biden. PERIOD full stop.
Never happened.
When this nightmare is all over, and Trump is viewing the world from a really tiny enclosed space, I hope I never again have to read or hear the terms 'witch hunt', 'Russia hoax', 'Fake media', 'Fake news', 'Rudy Giuliani' or 'Hey, I have an idea, let's fill a moat with snakes and alligators'.
It's just beginning for some!
[removed]
[deleted]
[deleted]
Off topic. Moderators please remove.
[removed]
[removed]
I don't appreciate any off topic comments because you have just given permission to Vic to do the same. I'm not allowed to flag anything on my articles or any one else's so I can't even appropriately moderate my own seeds.
If there's time to do so John, I'd appreciate you deleting your comment.
Otherwise, nothing I can do about it.
[Removed]
I'll let you slide John because you're not a serial offender.
Thanks.
[removed]
[Removed]
[Removed]
Moderators, please remove John and Vic's off topic comments.
[Removed]
[Any further meta comments or blatant off topic will result in points towards suspension.]