Friday, July 03, 2020

The Never Ending US Attorney Massacre.

AllYourArchieCoxesAre
GroundhogsNowVille


First it was Washington, on May 18th:

Attorney General William P. Barr has installed a new top deputy at the federal prosecutor’s office in Washington, raising concerns that a key U.S. attorney’s office handling multiple investigations that are of interest to President Trump is becoming further politicized...

{snip}

...The upheaval comes as Barr has opened a criminal review of the handling of the 2016 inquiry into Trump’s campaign, and taken steps to facilitate the president’s calls to investigate his likely 2020 Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, and his family.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington is a traditional choice to handle such cases. The office has 300 lawyers and jurisdiction to prosecute both national security cases and political corruption across the federal government along with local and federal felonies in the District.

Accusations that Justice Department leaders were exerting control over the office were galvanized in February when Barr shifted out initial Trump appointee Jessie K. Liu as U.S. attorney before (Roger)Stone’s sentencing. Liu had become a focus of Trump’s anger after a grand jury balked at indicting former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe.

Barr replaced Liu with his own counselor, Shea, as interim U.S. attorney. Shea brought in another aide of Barr’s top deputy to serve as the D.C. office’s chief of staff, and the pair immediately stumbled into a crisis in Stone’s case.



Then it was Manhattan, on June 20th:

President Trump on Saturday fired the federal prosecutor whose office put his former personal lawyer (Michael Cohen) in prison and is investigating his current one (Rudolph Giuliani), heightening criticism that the president was carrying out an extraordinary purge to rid his administration of officials whose independence could be a threat to his re-election campaign...


And yesterday, it was Brooklyn:

The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, New York, is moving to high-ranking post at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, giving Attorney General William Barr a chance to put a fresh stamp on another of the nation's top prosecutors' offices.

Richard Donoghue, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York since January 2018, will become principal associate deputy attorney general, reporting to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, a spokesman said....



But that last one, it's just a promotion, so nothing to worry about there, right?

Well, there is that most interesting thing that Mr. Donoghue, formerly of the borough that the Dodgers and Mr. Kotter built, and his team of prosecutors were involved with:

Escalating one of the investigations into President Trump’s inaugural committee, federal prosecutors ordered on Monday that its officials turn over documents about donors, finances and activities, according to two people familiar with the inquiry...

{snip}

...The United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn is separately investigating whether inaugural officials helped foreigners illegally funnel donations to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee using so-called straw donors to disguise their donations, people briefed on that inquiry said...



Gosh.

It sure would be a shame if something were to happen to that nice little US Attorney's office you have there.

OK?


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Can't quite remember the details of the original US Attorney massacre on a certain Saturday night?...Here's a nice, little six minute primmer...

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4 comments:

Lew said...

How will all this look in the cold late January light of 2021 in Washington DC?

I believe that’s when Mr. Barr and his ilk will finally realize the rope of authority they used was long enough to hang themselves.

RossK said...

I sure hope you're right Lew.

However, even if our USian friends to the South manage to overcome their electoral college in November....Well?


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Scotty on Denman said...

Not only is this still looking desperate, it’s looking more and more desperate almost every single day.

I’m still convinced that tRump will be thrashed at the polls. Every day goes by, I tend to revise that prediction to an even bigger thrashing than I’d previously thought. Last night’s absolutely cringing Mount Gushmore speech featured a nob gallery of shit-eating smiles and knowing smirks that would not recommend these Ivanka-scented (“Complicit” perfume) corrupters to most people. As usual, the spray-dough presidunce waxed inanely about the country’s history, the “threat” it’s under from “socialists” and “anarchists” and, curiously, I thought, some ramblings (although semi-literate prompting was apparent) about the brave soldiers who gave their lives to protect the country—only it was in context with the Civil War. I asked my significant other if she thought the anti-pro-historical-hysterical drop-out’s base, largely composed of states of the Lost Cause, mightn’t be offended—and she said they were too stupid. Well, I’m not so sure it’s stupidity as much as mutually suspicious virtue signalling.

And she said: how many masks do you see in the adoring crowd?

This morning she gleefully informed me DJTJr’s new squeeze has tested positive for Covid, that she’d been hob-nobbing with well heeled, turkey-necked, geriatric tRump financial supporters during the past few days, but that, nob-gobbling notwithstanding, she remains asymptomatic. Gosh! Wouldn’t that be something! A Covid outbreak in the Whitehouse Gang AND a fire-cracker ignited ponderosa pine conflagration (S.Dakota doesn’t rake the forest floor, as far’s I’m aware) all at the same time! I reminded: don’t forget the thrashing...

Then, upon reflection, I said: don’t let’s be so nasty, the bastard’s gonna lose, anyway. Don’t let’s forget what our bonnie Dr Henry tells us—and why we here contrast so much with the rest of the continent—to “be kind.”

I won’t repeat what she said next. About Barr, too. Goodness me!

Enjoy the ride, everybody! And be kind!

RossK said...

Thanks, as always Scotty, especially for watching the travesty on Lakota land so that we didn't have to.


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