The Billy Club
In 2018, Donald Trump famously asked, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” In 2020, he has something far more powerful and far more dangerous at his disposal. He has his Bill Barr. And his Bill Barr is acting more like Donald Trump’s personal attorney than the Attorney General (while Trump’s actual personal attorney is acting more like one of the evil masterminds you’d expect to see being chased by Inspector Clouseau in a Pink Panther movie). It’s been a week since the impeachment trial acquittal and the wheels are already coming off vital American institutions. Barr brazenly interceded in the sentencing recommendations for Roger Stone, a move that drove four prosecutors to remove themselves from the case or resign altogether. It’s been common during the Trump era to see good people leave and terrible people take over. But trading four honest, decent prosecutors for Roger Effing Stone? Break glass. Pull the lever. Sound the alarm. Do whatever you do in case of an emergency, because the wanton politicization of the Justice Department is a full on crisis. And we’re just getting warmed up. This Is What an Unleashed Trump Looks Like.
+ Let this line from the NYT story on the Stone resignations sink in. “Prosecutors were even more upset because they were told that they would be reversed only after Fox News had reported it late Tuesday morning.”
+ The Stone fiasco is not the only case making legal experts want to Barr-f. NBC News: “The U.S. attorney who had presided over an inconclusive criminal investigation into former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe was abruptly removed from the job last month in one of several recent moves by Attorney General William Barr to take control of legal matters of personal interest to President Donald Trump.” (Either you join The Billy Club or you get hit by one…)
+ The justice by tweet continued on Wednesday. “As the fallout from the controversy surrounding Roger Stone’s prison term continued Tuesday night, President Trump defended his longtime confidant by firing off a barrage of heated tweets attacking the federal judge and prosecutors involved in the case.” WaPo: Trump attacks federal judge, prosecutors in Twitter tirade defending Roger Stone.
+ “More axes are sure to fall. A senior Pentagon official appears in danger of losing her nomination to a top Defense Department post after questioning the president’s suspension of aid to Ukraine. Likewise, a prosecutor involved in Mr. Stone’s case has lost a nomination to a senior Treasury Department position. A key National Security Council official is said by colleagues to face dismissal. And the last of dozens of career officials being transferred out of the White House may be gone by the end of the week.” NYT: Trump’s War Against ‘the Deep State’ Enters a New Stage. (And the old stage was already really bad.)
+ Meanwhile, the thug in chief shares his commentary: Trump says the 4 prosecutors who resigned from the Stone case should “go back to school and learn.” (We all should go back to school and learn … how to stand up against the rise of authoritarianism.) Here’s the latest from CNN.
+ “Hi, I’d like to report a crime in progress!” OK, sir. Where is the crime taking place? “Uh, well, here’s the thing…”