The Briefing Room
General Category => Trump Legal Investigations => Topic started by: mystery-ak on May 04, 2021, 07:30:19 pm
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Judge orders release of Trump obstruction memo, accuses Barr of being 'disingenuous'
By Harper Neidig - 05/04/21 02:28 PM EDT
A federal judge has ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release a March 2019 legal memo that advised then-Attorney General William Barr that the special counsel's investigation did not support prosecuting former President Trump, issuing a scathing decision that accused Barr and department lawyers of deceiving the public.
District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Monday ordered the DOJ to release the legal memo in two weeks in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.
The DOJ had argued in court that the full memo, portions of which have already been released, should be withheld because it fell under exceptions to the public records law for attorney-client privilege and deliberative government decisionmaking.
But Jackson said on Monday that those claims were not consistent with her own review of the unredacted memo or the timeline revealed by internal emails among top Justice Department officials.
more
https://thehill.com/regulation/551755-judge-orders-release-of-trump-obstruction-memo-accuses-barr-of-being-disingenuous
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Is this a nothing burger or does this present trouble for Trump??
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Golly Gee, who would have guessed Judge Amy was appointed by Bathhouse Barry.
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Federal Judge Slams Barr, DOJ As ‘Disingenuous’ While Ordering Release Of Mueller Report Memo
https://dailycaller.com/2021/05/04/amy-berman-jackson-slams-william-barr-doj/
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Is this a nothing burger or does this present trouble for Trump??
Well, seeing as though the article is
a) from The Hill,
b) amplifies a negative assertion concerning a member of Trump's inner circle but is extremely muddled regarding the thrust of the charge, and
c) relates to the Mueller investigation which has already been totally discredited
I'd say the former. Totally.
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OLC memo to Barr: We wouldn't have charged Trump with obstruction even as a private citizen
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2021/05/25/olc-memo-to-barr-we-wouldnt-have-charged-trump-with-obstruction-even-as-a-private-citizen-n392329 (https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2021/05/25/olc-memo-to-barr-we-wouldnt-have-charged-trump-with-obstruction-even-as-a-private-citizen-n392329)
After a scathing ruling from Judge Amy Berman Jackson, critics of Donald Trump and William Barr expected a smoking gun from this internal Department of Justice memo. Instead, it looks like a dud — another in a series involving the Russia-collusion hypothesis and subsequent special-counsel probe.
Jackson accused Barr of being “disingenuous” about the advice he received from the Office of Legal Counsel on prosecuting Trump for obstruction of justice, a question Robert Mueller pointedly left open for Barr:
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The DoJ admitted that they hadn’t characterized the discussions very well in an appeal to keep the memo under seal. Apparently that didn’t work, as the DoJ ended up releasing part of the memo, which the Washington Post reviewed last night — and predicted would be “frustrating” to critics of Barr and Trump. In the body of the memo, OLC attorneys make clear reference to continuing consultations with Barr on the issue of prosecution of presidents, among other points of law. That is what angered Jackson after Barr had previously indicated that he relied on the document itself to make his decision.
However it happened, the OLC arrived at the same conclusion as Barr:
A narrative-crushing THUD! This cat is so dead it won't even bounce.