#William Barr memo may explain DOJ rationale on tr*mp rulings

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+ The liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed its opposition to the Justice Department's motion to stay a federal judge's order to release the document, which laid out the legal rationale for essentially clearing former pres-ident Tr*mp of wrongdoing in relation to the special counsel investigation. + The DOJ said this week it would be appealing the order from District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, though it apologized in response to her accusations that former Attorney General William Barr had been "disingenuous" and asked her to stay her decision while it filed an appeal. + In a brief filed on Friday (5-28-2021), CREW accused the DOJ of seeking to protect its "parochial interest in preventing embarrassing information from becoming public that would cast the agency and individual agency actors in a bad light." + "By contrast, continuing to deprive the public of critical information to evaluate the conduct of former Attorney General Barr and former pres-ident Tr*mp, who still plays an outsize role on the political stage and has yet to be held accountable for his many misdeeds in and since leaving office, would cause harm to Plaintiff and the public," the court filing reads. "Under any

analysis, the public interest in disclosure outweighs any interest DOJ has in continuing to keep this information secret." + The Justice Department revealed its intention to appeal Jackson's decision this week.  "In retrospect, the government acknowledges that its briefs could have been clearer, and it deeply regrets the confusion that caused," the DOJ said in a court filing Monday (5-24-2021). + The decision disappointed Tr*mp critics and Democrats in Congress who had called on the new administration not to block the document's release following Jackson's blistering decision earlier this month. + CREW filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in 2019, seeking to obtain a memo prepared for Barr, that is said to lay out the reasoning for the former attorney general's conclusion that the conduct described in the report from former special counsel Robert Mueller did not support obstruction of justice charges against Tr*mp. + Jackson had accused the DOJ of misrepresenting the Mueller report's conclusions to the public in 2019 during the brief period after it had been submitted to the department but before it had been released to Congress.  She also criticized the department's attorneys for misrepresenting the memo in a way that would support keeping it out of public view. special counsel 

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+ U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the release of a 2019 legal memorandum to a government accountability group, ruling the document prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr as he considered his decision did not qualify as protected attorney-client communications. + In the ruling, Jackson characterized the memo as a "strategic" document, asserting that Justice Department officials had come to a predetermined conclusion that Tr*mp would not be charged with obstruction of justice. + "In other words, the review of the document reveals that the Attorney General was not then engaged in making a decision about whether the Pres-ident should be charged with obstruction of justice; the fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given," Jackson ruled.  The memo had been requested by

the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government under the Freedom of Information Act. + Jackson, who presided over Mueller prosecutions involving former Tr*mp campaign manager Paul Manafort and political adviser Roger Stone, also aimed scathing criticism at Barr for his handling of the Mueller report, citing the attorney general's decision to issue a brief summary of its findings only days after receiving the voluminous 448-page report. ... + The decision by Barr and senior Justice Department leaders to clear the former pres-ident of obstruction prompted Tr*mp to declare that he had been vindicated even though Mueller had not made such a declaration. + Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a public records request seeking communications about the obstruction decision after Barr said that he and other senior officials had reached that conclusion (that sitting presidents could not be charged with obstruction of justice) in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal opinions to executive branch agencies. + Jackson ruled that one of the documents requested by the group, described by a Justice Department official as an "untitled, undated draft legal analysis" that was submitted to the attorney general as part of his decision-making, was properly withheld from the group. But she ordered the release of the memo, which concluded that the evidence assembled by Mueller's team would not support an obstruction prosecution of Tr*mp.

#William Barr the Tr*mp attorney general #William Barr dubious AG to Tr*mp #Donald Dunce #crooked donald #Dunce and his swamp #judge orders release of tr*mp obstruction memo #judge orders release of 2019 DOJ memo #tr*mp had faced obstruction of justice charges #Barr's DOJ let tr*mp skate on obstruction charges #William Barr memo may explain DOJ rationale on tr*mp rulings #Robert S. Mueller III ex-FBI director #Robert S. Mueller III #special counsel Robert S. Mueller III #mueller investigation #Paul Manafort #Roger Stone the GOP provocateur #Roger Stone corrupt political villain