AG Barr says Trump tweets 'make it impossible for me to do my job'
Attorney General William Barr on Thursday issued a rare criticism of President Donald Trump, telling ABC News that the president's tweets about Justice Department matters "make it impossible for me to do my job."
"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 and to assure the courts and the department that
we're doing our work with integrity," Barr said.
Barr's comments came days after the department overruled federal prosecutors in Roger Stone's criminal case, a decision that resulted in all four prosecutors quitting the case.
The
prosecutors on Monday had recommended that Stone get seven to nine
years in prison, a decision Trump lambasted on Twitter as "disgraceful"
overnight.
"This is a horrible and very unfair situation," the president wrote in a followup post on Twitter. "Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"
Barr
told ABC News that he and his staff had decided to recommend a lower
sentence before Trump tweeted because they thought the recommended
sentence was too long — but the president's criticism put them in a
tough spot.
"Do you go forward with what
you think is the right decision, or do you pull back because of the
tweet? And that just sort of illustrates how disruptive these tweets can
be," he said.
Barr also told the network that he was "a little surprised" the prosecution team withdrew from the case.
Trump praised Barr for the lower recommended sentence Wednesday, tweeting,
"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."
Trump has also mocked the original prosecutors in the case and even tweeted criticism of the judge presiding over it.
Barr told ABC News, "I think it's time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases."
White
House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that "the
president wasn't bothered by the comments at all," but she indicated
that Trump would not curb his tweets. She said Trump "has the right,
just like any American citizen, to publicly offer his opinions.
President Trump uses social media very effectively to fight for the
American people against injustices in our country, including the fake
news."
Sources told NBC News this week that Barr has made several moves in recent weeks to take control of legal matters of personal interest to the president.
They include removing
the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., and replacing her with a Barr
pick, as well as recommending a lighter sentence for Trump's former
national security adviser Michael Flynn.
He
also said Monday that the department had "established an intake
process" for vetting information from Trump's personal lawyer Rudy
Giuliani on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son and their
interactions with Ukraine.
Barr insisted that Trump has not tried to interfere in Justice Department cases.
"I'm happy to say that, in fact, the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case," he said.
"I'm
not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody ... whether it's
Congress, a newspaper editorial board or the president," Barr told ABC
News. "I'm going to do what I think is right. And you know ... I cannot
do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary
that undercuts me."
Barr, who has long held a broad view of the powers of the presidency, has had a much warmer relationship with Trump than the president had with his predecessor, Jeff Sessions. Trump repeatedly slammed Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Barr told NBC News
in December that he believes the FBI may have operated out of "bad
faith" when it investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with
Russia. He's also been personally involved with an ongoing Russia
investigation being led by John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, who was Barr's hand-picked choice.
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