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Bill Barr, large dildo.


Hugo Stiglitz

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Chatter around the web seems to mirror the consensus here that it is for show.

Watched this 5 minute blast from the past and it is fairly obvious he thinks the President should be king. The section of the video where he says, "it's my baby," is ugh. Note who is sitting next to Whitehouse is Amy Klobucher.

 

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Hey look, Barr has appointed an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the Michael Flynn case.  Totes norms.

Grey Lady = Deep State

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
6
Spoiler

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter.

The review is highly unusual and could trigger more accusations of political interference by top Justice Department officials into the work of career prosecutors.

Mr. Barr has also installed a handful of outside prosecutors to broadly review the handling of other politically sensitive national-security cases in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, the people said. The team includes at least one prosecutor from the office of the United States attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen, who is handling the Flynn matter, as well as prosecutors from the office of the deputy attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen.

Over the past two weeks, the outside prosecutors have begun grilling line prosecutors in the Washington office about various cases — some public, some not — including investigative steps, prosecutorial actions and why they took them, according to the people. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.

 

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The intervention has contributed a turbulent period for the prosecutors’ office that oversees the seat of the federal government and some of the most politically sensitive investigations and cases — some involving President Trump’s friends and allies, and some his critics and adversaries.

 

This week, four line prosecutors quit the case against Roger Stone Jr., Mr. Trump’s close adviser, after Mr. Barr overruled their recommendation that a judge sentence him within sentencing guidelines. Mr. Barr’s intervention was preceded by criticism of the original sentencing recommendation by Mr. Trump and praised by him afterward, and Mr. Barr on Thursday publicly asked Mr. Trump to stop commenting about the Justice Department.

The moves amounted to imposing a secondary layer of monitoring and control over what career prosecutors have been doing in the Washington office. They are part of a broader turmoil in that office coincided with Mr. Barr’s recent installation of a close aide, Timothy Shea, as interim United States attorney in the District of Columbia, after Mr. Barr maneuvered out the Senate-confirmed former top prosecutor in the office, Jessie K. Liu.

Mr. Flynn’s case was first brought by the special counsel’s office, who agreed to a plea deal on a charge of lying to investigators in exchange for his cooperation, before the Washington office took over the case when the special counsel shut down after concluding its investigation into Russia’s election interference.

Mr. Flynn’s case has been bogged down in recent months by his lawyers’ unfounded claims of prosecutorial misconduct; a judge has already rejected those accusations. Mr. Flynn then asked to withdraw his guilty plea, which he first entered in December 2017. His case has become a cause célèbre for Mr. Trump’s supporters.

 

On Tuesday, Mr. Barr and Mr. Rosen overruled career prosecutors’ recommendation that a judge sentence Mr. Trump’s friend Roger Stone Jr. to seven to nine years in prison after a jury found him guilty of witness intimidation and several false statements charges, in accordance with standard sentencing guidelines, and insisted on a lower recommendation.

After Mr. Trump complained that the sentence for Mr. Stone — who had refused to cooperate with prosecutors by telling the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, what he knew about Mr. Trump and WikiLeaks — all four career prosecutors quit the case.

Mr. Barr on Thursday gave an interview in which he publicly called on Mr. Trump to stop commenting on the Justice Department, saying it was making it impossible for him to do his job. But Mr. Trump said on Friday he had every right to tell the Justice Department what to do in criminal cases.

President Trump had nominated Ms. Liu for a top Treasury Department position in December, and she initially told her colleagues that she would stay on until her confirmation. But Mr. Barr then asked her to leave early, and she was given a temporary role at the Treasury Department, clearing the way for him to instead Mr. Shea in her place.

 

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Wheeler offers a roundup:

THE SIZE OF BILL BARR’S COVER-UP HINTS AT THE MAGNITUDE OF WHAT HE’S COVERING UP    

The breadth and scale is pretty staggering. DOJ whistleblowers have to come forward and at a minimum we need testimony from those recently resigned and/or ousted officials.  Barr scheduled to testify to Congress March 31st defines a now 6 week window for evidence to come to light for that hearing.
 

 

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10 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

Bolton’s book “The Room Where It Happened” has a set March 17th release date.  Barr testifies to Congress March 31st, so it’s definitely setting up.

St. Patrick's Day? Well, Mr. Bolton here's a good Irish *toast for yourself:

If your crop is tall,

May your meitheal be small.

 

*it's actually a curse. (May he have no friends when he needs them most.)

 

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There's potentially a firestorm brewing that Bolton could set off re Barr/Trump DOJ abuse and corruption and coverup.  Remains to be seen, but it's not hard to envision Bolton playing a bigger role here than he could have in the impeachment for Trump/Ukraine.  If you knew in advance Senate was gong to acquit for Ukraine abuse (we did), having Bolton testify for that would have been more or less a waste and blunted his potential impact in this DOJ matter.  If it ends up being bad enough to warrant further consideration of further articles, I have to think the Senate doesn't want to have to perp an obvious cover-up to absorb the hit for Trump a second time.  They tried to pass off Ukraine as fair turnabout, but that will be harder to do when involving the DOJ specifically.  In recent days, Trump already is laying out his role as 'king' of the Executive Branch - if the he does it, it's not illegal.  This is much bigger than Roger Stone sentencing, however - see Wheeler's post I linked above.  Bolton could come in hot, and even though it's shitty, it'd be a bonanza for his March/April book sales.

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1,100 Former DOJ Employees Call On Barr To Resign After Intervening In Stone Case

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/16/806525297/1-100-former-doj-employees-call-on-barr-to-resign-after-intervening-in-stone-cas

More than 1,100 former Department of Justice officials are calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign after his department lowered the prison sentence recommendation for Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump, in a move that's led to accusations of political interference. 

In a letter released Sunday, the former DOJ officials, who have worked across Republican and Democratic administrations, wrote that Barr's intervention in the Stone case has tarnished the department's reputation.

"Such behavior is a grave threat to the fair administration of justice," the former officials wrote. "In this nation, we are all equal before the law. A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the President. Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies."

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2 hours ago, triplehorn said:

There's potentially a firestorm brewing that Bolton could set off re Barr/Trump DOJ abuse and corruption and coverup.  Remains to be seen, but it's not hard to envision Bolton playing a bigger role here than he could have in the impeachment for Trump/Ukraine.  If you knew in advance Senate was gong to acquit for Ukraine abuse (we did), having Bolton testify for that would have been more or less a waste and blunted his potential impact in this DOJ matter.  If it ends up being bad enough to warrant further consideration of further articles, I have to think the Senate doesn't want to have to perp an obvious cover-up to absorb the hit for Trump a second time.  They tried to pass off Ukraine as fair turnabout, but that will be harder to do when involving the DOJ specifically.  In recent days, Trump already is laying out his role as 'king' of the Executive Branch - if the he does it, it's not illegal.  This is much bigger than Roger Stone sentencing, however - see Wheeler's post I linked above.  Bolton could come in hot, and even though it's shitty, it'd be a bonanza for his March/April book sales.

Book sales were guaranteed after he decided not to testify.

Nothing will happen. If the House impeaches again, the pubs will scream witch hunt, election is 5 months away let the people decide, and the Senate will furrow brows and vote to acquit. 

We've turned a corner and it's not looking good. Come out to the ledge before all of the good seats are taken.

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2 hours ago, Grade of D as in David said:

Book sales were guaranteed after he decided not to testify.

Nothing will happen. If the House impeaches again, the pubs will scream witch hunt, election is 5 months away let the people decide, and the Senate will furrow brows and vote to acquit. 

We've turned a corner and it's not looking good. Come out to the ledge before all of the good seats are taken.

Let me back up.  The big win here would be if this leads to Barr's resignation, or impeachment.  It would arguably be worse for GOP Senate trying whitewash or pull off a coverup for Barr than for Trump.  But Barr has to get stopped.  If evidence comes out that is completely off the rails corrupt, especially regarding the Turkish bank/gold trader/Iran deal that likely directly implicates Trump, House may not have a choice but to consider additional articles.  It's right there dangling in our faces screaming for scrutiny.

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Given the timing with Stone’s sentencing Thursday, it’s be nice if it blunts Trump’s attempt have DOJ intervene to go easy on the guy who lied and obstructed to keep Trump’s active complicity hidden.  And hopefully it gives Stone’s judge some support should she opt put him away for a good bit.

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17 minutes ago, The People’s Elbow said:

...but it won’t matter. The groundwork and talking points for a pardon have been laid. 

But you still make DOTARD do it.  You make him put his name to everything--he doesn't like to put his name on paper to anything, which is why he tweets and implies.  You make him do it every time regardless.  What are the odds that all these guys don't go on to more corrupt causes?  And they'll have DOTARD to thank and he'll be forever tied to their criminality.  It will come out eventually, there's too much money and noteriety involved.  I imagine there will be all kinds of tell alls should we survive his presidency.  And you let it be known that a large group of Americans supported a criminal.  

Edited by Mdhorn
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17 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

Good interview with Deputy AG of Bush 41's DOJ:

 

 

That interview was actually too charitable to Barr, suggesting he has consistently viewed the man who heads the executive branch as being above the law and that Trump is simply the first president to exercise these authoritarian powers, when in fact Barr has defended Clinton's impeachment in the Whitewater investigation where there was no underlying crime by Clinton and in which he lied under oath, as totally appropriate.

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2 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

And after Barr, someone worse for sure.

Like Spivey>Shrek>That female goebbels press secretary who doesn’t hold press conferences.

It always gets worse.

Well, now Trump is in recycle mode, so at least we probably know what's coming.

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9 minutes ago, TXSG8R said:

That and he will get pardoned, doesn't matter if the judge gives him the max.  

Don't know about that.  I imagine Stone's co-conspirators (Trump, for one) would rather Stone get a light sentence and be done with it than pardon him and have Stone then be compelled to testify to Congress under penalty of perjury.  Maybe some with legal chops here can speak to real world  examples of individuals spilling the truth under compelled testimony (or perjuring again) after a pardon when they can't plead the Fifth, but I'm not aware of any.  What Stone is covering up is a huge deal.  It was an elaborate deal and it involved a lot of different actors, foreign and domestic.  If there was ever a case where an individual was pardoned to protect the pardoner, this is it.  Drag his ass in front of the House if Trump pulls out a pardon.

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On 2/16/2020 at 9:48 AM, Biff Tannen said:

Seriously, Barr has to be impeached right?  I mean, this can't continue.

HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN CONFIRMED.   A poxy on every person that voted to confirm him.

Anyone could have seen most of this coming.  I only credit him with going even about 20 steps further than I thought he was capable when confirmed.

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28 minutes ago, deech said:

HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN CONFIRMED.   A poxy on every person that voted to confirm him.

Anyone could have seen most of this coming.  I only credit him with going even about 20 steps further than I thought he was capable when confirmed.

Nevermind his daughter getting moved to the Financial Crimes unit of Treasury, and his son-in-law is now at the White House Counsel's office.  SWAMP....DRAINED!

Seriously, on the one hand the MAGATS cheer about draining the swamp...and on the other hand they rabidly support a group that has turned the US government (and the executive branch in particular) into a family business.  The Swamp is more fetid and deadly than it's ever been.  Fuck all these fucks straight to hell.

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A common physical trait with all of these cheap hucksters and con artists is gross, floppy jowls.  It has gotten to the point where I don't trust old, white dudes with gross, floppy jowls anymore.  This is unfair to all the honest men who have gross, floppy jowls.  I must do better moving forward.

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On 2/18/2020 at 8:50 AM, triplehorn said:

Don't know about that.  I imagine Stone's co-conspirators (Trump, for one) would rather Stone get a light sentence and be done with it than pardon him and have Stone then be compelled to testify to Congress under penalty of perjury.  Maybe some with legal chops here can speak to real world  examples of individuals spilling the truth under compelled testimony (or perjuring again) after a pardon when they can't plead the Fifth, but I'm not aware of any.  What Stone is covering up is a huge deal.  It was an elaborate deal and it involved a lot of different actors, foreign and domestic.  If there was ever a case where an individual was pardoned to protect the pardoner, this is it.  Drag his ass in front of the House if Trump pulls out a pardon.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but in this scenario wouldn't it just be a lot easier for Dotard to simply allow Stone to begin serving his sentence and then have him Epsteined while he believes that a pardon is imminent? 

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