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THREAD: AG Barr has abused his office & corrupted the DOJ. This latest abuse of DOJ to cast doubt on the results of our election fits into a disturbing pattern I call #BarrGate. He serves Trump, not the law, not the people. Here’s a partial list of his horrific abuses of power:
June 2018: Barr auditions to be Trump’s AG by sending him a memo criticizing the Mueller probe. This is better understood as a signal to the President that he will be working for Trump and not the American people. #BarrGate https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2018/12/20/read-bill-barrs-19-page-memo-ripping-mueller-probe/
January 2019: Barr refuses to say if he will recuse himself from supervision of the Mueller probe during his confirmation hearing–depriving the Senate of a key piece of information before the vote. Regardless, he is confirmed. #BarrGate
Spring 2019: Barr meddles in the case of former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen. Cohen pleaded guilty and implicated the president in a campaign finance violation but Barr demanded memos be written to undercut the conviction. #BarrGate https://www.salon.com/2020/06/26/william-barr-tried-to-interfere-in-michael-cohens-case-before-abruptly-firing-prosecutor-report/
March 2019: Barr withholds the Mueller report from the public for days. At the same time, he releases a letter that grossly mischaracterizes the Special Counsel’s findings and warps public perception to falsely exonerate Trump. #BarrGate https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/barr-misled-the-publicand-it-worked/588463/
March 2019: Barr also makes the determination that Mueller’s evidence is not sufficient to establish a crime. This political whitewashing of Trump’s actions ignores multiple clearly established instances of obstruction of justice in the report. #BarrGate
April 2019: Barr initially refuses to release a full version of the Mueller report. Instead, he states that he will only be releasing a redacted version. #BarrGate https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/438648-barr-releases-redacted-mueller-report
April 2019: Barr lends credence to the Trump conspiracy theory that the Obama administration “spied” on the Trump campaign—a dangerous and baseless claim. #BarrGate https://apnews.com/eac9c8f45ed84fb9a3c1f5c486f5c09e
April 2019: Barr advances Trump’s war on immigrants by ordering immigration judges to stop allowing asylum-seekers to participate in the bail system, despite OIG finding 99% of people with help showed up for court appearances and ICE check-ins. #BarrGate https://www.npr.org/2019/04/17/714381003/ag-barr-orders-immigration-judges-to-stop-releasing-asylum-seekers-out-on-bail
April 2019: Barr undermines the core checks and balances of our democracy by ordering a Justice Department official to refuse to comply with a lawful congressional subpoena. #BarrGate https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/justice-department-refuses-to-comply-with-congressional-subpoena-for-testimony-on-citizenship-question-and-2020-census/2019/04/24/d132996a-66a6-11e9-a1b6-b29b90efa879_story.html
April 2019: Once again acting as a Trump lackey, Barr starts up a politically-motivated probe into the origins of the Russia investigation. #BarrGate https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/438154-barr-forms-team-to-probe-fbi-actions-in-russia-investigation-report
May 2019: Barr appears before a Senate committee. @SenKamalaHarris asks whether Trump has ever asked for an investigation into his political rivals. Barr refuses to answer. https://time.com/5581550/kamala-harris-william-barr/
June 2019: Barr attempts to crush a federal investigation into a state-owned Turkish bank suspected of violating U.S. sanctions law and that reports suggest may have been seeking to peddle influence with the president. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/us/politics/trump-erdogan-halkbank.html?referringSource=articleShare
July 2019: Barr overrules the Justice Dept’s Civil Rights Division on bringing federal civil rights charges against the murderer of Eric Garner. #BarrGate https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/16/justice-department-will-not-charge-police-in-death-of-eric-garner.html
July 2019: Barr reinstates the death penalty for federal crimes, despite decades of evidence that innocent Americans—disproportionately Black Americans—have ended up on Death Row. #BarrGate https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/ag-barr-orders-reinstatement-federal-death-penalty-n1034451
February 2020: Barr’s Justice Dept suddenly changes course and seeks to soften the sentence of Trump ally Roger Stone. This abrupt and suspicious change causes career persecutors to quit in protest. #BarrGate https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/doj-backpedalling-sentencing-recommendation-trump-ally-roger-stone-n1134961
May 2020: Barr moves to drop charges against Michael Flynn, who admitted his guilt. No proper cause is cited and a move of this kind is unprecedented. #BarrGate https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/barr-drops-flynn-charges-doj-backlash-justice-officials
June 2020: Barr sends federal troops to tear gas peaceful protestors in Lafayette Park to clear the way for a Trump photo op. #BarrGate https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/politics/barr-protests-white-house/index.html
June 2020: Barr echoes Trump in attacking vote by mail. Specifically, he claims that foreign countries will send counterfeit ballots by mail. Another dangerous lie. #BarrGate https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/election-officials-contradict-barrs-assertion-that-counterfeit-mail-ballots-produced-by-a-foreign-country-are-a-real-worry/2020/06/02/5ac8d664-a43e-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html
June 2020: Barr seeks to clear out the leadership of the SDNY by announcing that U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman is stepping down. Berman himself disputes that characterization. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/manhattan-u-s-attorney-geoffrey-berman-who-investigated-trump-associates-n1231628
August 2020: Barr accuses peaceful protestors fighting for racial justice and accountable policing of trying to “tear down the system.” He goes on to say “They’re essentially Bolsheviks. Their tactics are fascistic.” #BarrGate https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/10/barr-fox-antifa-blm/
September 2020: The DOJ moves to take over Trump’s defense in a personal lawsuit. This is a corruption of the DOJ to – once again – serve the interests of Donald Trump, not of the American people. #BarrGate https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-08/doj-seeks-to-take-over-trump-defense-in-e-jean-carroll-lawsuit
September 2020: Barr lies to the American people and sows further doubts about the integrity of our election by saying a man in Texas was caught with 1700 ballots. #BarrGate https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/09/04/ag-barrs-claim-of-1700-fraudulent-ballots-in-2017-dallas-city-council-race-not-true-prosecutor-says/
September 2020: In the same interview, Barr covers for Trump by claiming on national TV he does not know if it is a crime to vote twice in the state of North Carolina, as Trump called for his supporters to do. (It is & it is a felony at that.) #BarrGate https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/barr-cnn-blitzer-vote-twice-logic-fraud-voting-trump.html
September 2020: In a speech, Barr denigrates the men and women of the DOJ. He compares them to preschoolers and asserts his ultimate authority of decisions—a disgusting dig at career public servants. #BarrGate https://www.vox.com/2020/9/17/21441358/bill-barr-speech-prosecutors-justice-hillsdale
September 2020: In the same speech, he also equates life-saving pandemic response to the horrors of human bondage. In doing so, he shows his complete lack of empathy with historical abuses & continuing struggles of marginalized communities. #BarrGate https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/barr-justice-department-speech/index.html
September 2020: We learn that Barr tried to have American protestors charged with sedition. #BarrGate https://www.wsj.com/articles/barr-tells-prosecutors-to-consider-charging-violent-protesters-with-sedition-11600276683
September 2020: Barr doubles down on abusing his office to punish political opponents, trying to cut off federal funding for Democratic-led cities including New York, Seattle, and my home city of Portland. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/21/politics/doj-anarchy-jurisdictions/index.html
Throughout his time as AG: Barr pushes the lawsuit to strike down Obamacare, seeking to deny millions access to insurance and protections for preexisting conditions. #BarrGate https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/25/trump-supreme-court-overturn-obamacare-340851
Yesterday: Barr attempts to cast doubts on the results of the election and tells federal attorneys to probe unsupported claims of voting irregularities. A top DOJ official for election crimes quits in protest. #BarrGate https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/william-barr-voting-irregularities/index.html
The American people have put an end to #BarrGate by electing Joe Biden to be president. But this intense corruption of our justice system should be fully investigated, never forgotten, and never repeated.
