The Department of Justice (DOJ) has dismissed reports that claimed Attorney General William Barr had told people close to him that he was considering resigning from his role over the president’s Twitter posts about the department.
During an interview on Feb. 13, Barr issued criticism to the president about his Twitter posts in the wake of one of Trump’s posts about the sentencing of former campaign adviser Roger Stone. The DOJ’s handling of the Stone case has received extensive scrutiny after the department requested a lighter sentence for the Trump associate. Top department officials intervened in the case after deeming the original recommendation of seven to nine years as “excessive.” The attorney general maintains that the decision to revise the sentencing recommendation came before Trump’s Twitter post.
“To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job,” Barr said, “and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we’re doing our work with integrity.”
“I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” he added.
“I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think that’s true,” Trump said. “He’s a very straight shooter. We have a great attorney general and he’s working very hard. He’s working against a lot of people that don’t want to see good things happen, in my opinion.”
Meanwhile, former senior members of the department have also publicly criticized Barr’s handling of matter, including Donald Ayer, the former deputy attorney general under George H. W. Bush. Ayer wrote an op-ed published in The Atlantic accusing Barr of acting more as the “president’s personal advocate than as an attorney general” and being “un-American.”
“Suggestions from outside groups that the attorney general has fallen short of the responsibilities of his office are unfounded,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) wrote.
“The attorney general has shown that he is committed without qualification to securing equal justice under law for all Americans,” the statement said.
“The nation is fortunate that President Trump chose such a strong and selfless public servant to lead the Department of Justice. We expect that, as always, efforts to intimidate the attorney general will fall woefully short.”
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