More than 1,100 former officials of the U.S. Department of Justice (both Democrats and Republicans) have so far signed a letter demanding attorney-general William Barr resign his post because he represents "a grave threat to the administration of justice" in the United States.
The open letter, which is online at medium.com, accuses Barr of "doing the President's personal bidding" and in so doing, damaging the "Department of Justice's reputation for integrity and the rule of law." Barr has long been accused of seeing his job as defending Trump as a personal lawyer instead of impartially representing the government in all legal matters and is beyond politics.
The unprecedented condemnation of a sitting attorney-general by his peers were triggered by Barr's abuse of power decision to reduce the amount of prison time a team four DoJ prosecutors planned to seek for Trump friend Roger Stone, who was found guilty of seven criminal counts. Barr's decision prompted the four DOJ lawyers who prosecuted Stone to quit the case.
"It is unheard of for the Department's top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the President, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case," said the letter. "Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice's reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign."
The letter also said "because we have little expectation (that Barr will resign), it falls to the Department's career officials to take appropriate action to uphold their oaths of office and defend nonpartisan, apolitical justice." It also said the DoJ's legal decisions "must be impartial and insulated from political influence."
The four DOJ lawyers that resigned from the Stone case recommended an original sentence of up to nine years for Stone. President Donald Trump tweeted the recommendation was "horrible and very unfair." Within hours, Barr intervened and instead recommended three to four years.
Trump then congratulated Barr for "taking charge" of the Stone case, raising questions and criticism about Barr's independence from Trump.
Barr later ordered a re-examination of several high-profile cases. One of these was that Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty 2017 to a felony count of "willfully and knowingly" making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the FBI. Barr's reopening the Flynn investigation is bringing fresh scrutiny of the political motives behind his actions. Trump continued to praise Flynn even after the latter pleaded guilty.
"Mr. Barr's actions in doing the President's personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words," said the letter. "Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice's reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign. But because we have little expectation he will do so, it falls to the Department's career officials to take appropriate action to uphold their oaths of office and defend nonpartisan, apolitical justice."
The statement also said career attorneys should report any troubling actions they see to the department's Inspector General.
