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Tag: michael horowitz
Former Attorney General William Barr

Justice Officials Launch Probe Of Barr’s Surveillance Of Democratic Lawmakers

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

The Inspector General of the Department of Justice has announced he will launch an investigation into the DOJ spying on prominent Democratic members of Congress during the Trump administration's time in office. Those incidents include obtaining subpoenas for communications data from at least 12 people, including Democratic lawmakers, their staff members, family members, and at least one minor child.

Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr, according to a New York Times report Thursday, were central to these incidents of spying taking place.

Among those targeted by Sessions and Barr were Democratic Congressmen Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both of California.

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, Axios reports, made the announcement on Friday. Horowitz was first appointed to that position by President Barack Obama. The announcement says the investigation will include DOJ's similar efforts on members of the media.

"The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating a review of DOJ's use of subpoenas and other legal authorities to obtain communication records of Members of Congress and affiliated persons, and the news media in connection with recent investigations of alleged unauthorized disclosures of information to the media by government officials. The review will examine the Department's compliance with applicable DOJ policies and procedures, and whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations. If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider other issues that may arise during the review."

Inspector General’s Report Destroys Fake News Narratives

Inspector General’s Report Destroys Fake News Narratives

Whenever President Donald Trump is caught doing wrong, he answers with categorical denial and a fervent claim that he was wronged. Almost since the day he won election in November 2016, that is how Trump and his minions in politics and media have sought to obscure the glaring and indecent fact that he was sponsored by a Russian dictator who remains deeply hostile to our country.

So we have a president who gaslights his benighted followers with every variety of fable, myth and slander designed to distract from the ugly truth.

That is why Trump insists we should credit winking denials of election interference by Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russians over the factual findings and warnings of the U.S. intelligence community, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee and reliable European allies such as the Dutch intelligence service, which recorded the Kremlin machinations in real time.

That is why he maligns U.S. federal law enforcement personnel. He repeatedly accuses them of crimes and political bias, and even charges with treason, because they prosecuted crimes by his crooked campaign aides.

That is why he and his deranged associate Rudy Giuliani have fabricated a fraudulent story about “Ukrainian interference” in the 2016 election on behalf of his opponent, and why the most abject politicians in his camp knowingly echo such lies. And that is why Trump and those same politicians concocted “Spygate,” a tale about partisan espionage against the Trump 2016 campaign ordered by then-President Barack Obama and perpetrated by federal agents.

But now the Justice Department’s thoroughly professional and nonpartisan inspector general, Michael Horowitz, has delivered an exhaustive report that should put a steel girder through Spygate. After months of examining detailed evidence and interviewing relevant witnesses, Horowitz found no evidence at all to support the president’s fevered accusations. (Is anybody really surprised?)

Both in his report and in Senate testimony on Wednesday, Horowitz firmly rejected the Trump tale of a malicious “deep state” conspiracy against him. To the contrary, said the inspector general, the opening of “Crossfire Hurricane,” code name for the Russian-interference investigation, went strictly according to regulations and without political bias of any kind. Horowitz stands by that finding, despite bizarre attempts at counterspin by both Attorney General William Barr and special counsel John Durham, assigned by Barr to investigate Crossfire Hurricane. (Durham may soon ruin his credible reputation by serving as a lackey to Barr, whose own reputation is already in tatters.)

It is true that Horowitz also found troubling errors or worse in the applications to surveil Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser with a history of connections to Russian intelligence. But Page was never indicted, and Horowitz found no similar problems in the surveillance of other Trump associates, several of whom have been convicted of felonies. Until now, most Republicans have ignored the civil liberties issues raised by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the special court that administers that law. Predictably, they’ll return to ignoring those issues when FISA’s faults can no longer be deployed to shield Trump.

What matters more — amid impeachment over Trump’s attempt to promote Kremlin propaganda and undermine Ukraine — is keeping a steady focus on the aggressive Russian campaign against Western democracy. In recent months, Giuliani and his associates have served as the principal vectors of that campaign, with their nefarious dissemination of fake “evidence” against former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and their bumbling effort to exonerate former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort of his crimes in Ukraine.

With increased visibility into Giuliani’s strange maneuvers has come fresh and disturbing evidence that he is advancing a Kremlin operation, wittingly or not. First, reports emerged that his legal and business associates are seeking to assist the Putin-affiliated Ukrainian gas oligarch Dmytro Firtash.

And now the Southern District of New York has asked the court to revoke bail for Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the disreputable pair of Giuliani (and Trump) associates under indictment for laundering Russian money into a Trump political committee. Prosecutors were alarmed to discover that Parnas had received $1 million “from Russia” — and it was Parnas who made a $500,000 payment to Giuliani.

Not only was there collusion between Trump Tower and the Kremlin in 2016 but that collusion apparently continues to this day. Our country and its values are under unrelenting attack in an information war waged by Putin — and some of our fellow Americans are giving aid and comfort to the other side.

To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Sen. Harris Urges Probe Of Barr By DOJ Inspector General

Sen. Harris Urges Probe Of Barr By DOJ Inspector General

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a member of the Judiciary Committee and a 2020 presidential candidate, followed up her noteworthy performance on Wednesday questioning Attorney General Bill Barr with an aggressive move: calling for an investigation by the Justice Department inspector general.

In an exchange she had transcribed for a letter to the department, Harris asked the attorney general if the White House had ever asked or suggested that Barr or the Justice Department open any specific investigations. He struggled to answer her clearly:

Senator Harris: Attorney General Barr, has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone?
Attorney General Barr: Um. I wouldn’t … I wouldn’t. uh—

Senator Harris: Yes or No?
Attorney General Barr: Could you … could you repeat that question?
Senator Harris: I will repeat it. Has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no please, sir.
Attorney General Barr: Urn, the President or anybody…
Senator Harris: Seems you would remember something like that and be able to tell us.
Attorney General Barr: Yeah, but I’m, I’m trying to grapple with the word ‘suggest.’ I mean, there have been discussions of, of matters out there that, uh — they have not asked me to open an investigation. But…
Senator Harris: Perhaps they’ve suggested?
Attorney General Barr: I don’t know. I wouldn’t say suggest…
Senator Harris: Hinted?
.Attorney General Barr: I don’t know.
Senator Harris: Inferred? You don’t know?
Attorney General Barr: No.

Harris’ letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said that she had “grave concern about the independence” of Barr, and that the White House directing the opening of investigations “strikes at the very heart of the rule of law and threatens to undermine the longstanding independence of the Justice Department.” She also noted that there’s good reason to think the president might be trying to corruptly influence the department.

“Such inappropriate requests by the President have been well documented,” she wrote. “For instance, in addition to investigating the Russian influence operation, Special Counsel Mueller also examined the President’s conduct with regard to the Russia probe and documented a disturbing pattern of behavior on the part of the President—repeated attempts to target his perceived opponents using the power of federal lass enforcement.”

In particular, Mueller documented Trump asking then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions at least three times to open an investigation into Hillary Clinton. Some, including Lawfare’s Ben Wittes, have argued that this request alone is an impeachable offense.

She noted that Barr was “unable or unwilling [to] answer the question” of whether such requests have been made of him. She, therefore, asked that the inspector general investigate “whether the Attorney General has received or acted upon requests or suggestions, whether implied or explicit, to investigate the president’s perceived enemies.”