U.S. Attorney General William Barr listens to concerns raised about public safety in rural Alaska during at a roundtable discussion at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska. Barr did not take questions from reporters in his first public appearance after former special prosecutor Robert Mueller spoke to reporters after resigning at the completion of his report into Russian interference into the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Why it’s almost as if history were repeating itself. The New York City Bar Association has demanded that Attorney General William Barr recuse himself from the DOJ investigation into the July 25th telephone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Bar Association issued a statement on Wednesday which began:
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has a unique role in safeguarding the rule of law under the Constitution. By failing to recuse himself from DOJ’s review of the Ukraine Matter, Attorney General William P. Barr has undermined that role. To help remedy that failure, the New York City Bar Association urges that Mr. Barr recuse himself from any ongoing or future review by DOJ of Ukraine-related issues in which Mr. Barr is allegedly involved. If he fails to do so, he should resign or, failing that, be subject to sanctions, including possible removal, by Congress.
The statement reminded Barr of a statement he’d made during his nomination process. He had said, “The American people have to know that there are places in the government where the rule of law, not politics, holds sway and where they will be treated fairly based solely on the facts and the evenhanded application of the law. The Department of Justice must be that place.”
(Because Congress surely is not.)
It states that Barr “appears to have participated in the DOJ review of the whistleblower’s complaint and its decision not to forward that complaint to Congress…This is a serious violation of his obligation to protect the DOJ from reasonable questions as to its impartiality in the investigation of the Ukraine Matter.”
And it concludes with, “We hope that Mr. Barr will act promptly to remedy, at least in part, his prior failure to recuse himself from the Ukraine Matter. If, however, he chooses not to do so, we believe he must resign his position as Attorney General.”
The officers of the NYC Bar Association must think American voters are among the stupidest people in the world. They would like to see history repeat itself. ‘If we can force AG Barr to recuse himself just as his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, did in the Russia probe, we just might get Trump this time.’
Sessions fateful recusal paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to take over. The incredibly conflicted Rosenstein made the inappropriate decision to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the President’s possible collusion with Russia followed by his obstruction of justice to end it.
You may recall that President Trump had asked Rosenstein to prepare a memo which listed the reasons why then-FBI Director James Comey should be fired. After Trump had fired Comey, he released this memo and the backlash against Rosenstein was fierce. In a highly emotional state and desperately wanting to redeem himself in the eyes of the deep state, he struck back at the President with his announcement that he had appointed a Special Counsel. Rosenstein’s ill-conceived decision put the President and the country through the agony of the Mueller probe.
After it became clear that Mueller wasn’t able to deliver the goods and hellbent on finding something new with which to destroy Trump, Democrats seized upon the July 25th Trump/Zelensky telephone call.
The officers of the NYC Bar Association are very much creatures of the deep state. And their call for AG Barr to recuse himself is a purely political act.
Faced with the imminent exposure of the massive fraud they planned and executed against first candidate Donald Trump and then President Trump, Democrats have weaponized all of the resources at their disposal to prevent it.
They were especially spooked by last weekend’s news that, based on new evidence, Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham have added staff and expanded their investigation of the origins of Spygate. Durham is closing in on the truth and they are feeling the heat.
The issues raised in the NYC Bar Association’s statement would more appropriately apply to the House Democrats latest gambit to impeach President Trump based on the Zelensky call.
Adhering to the standards they cite in their statement, Adam Schiff should recuse himself from leading the “impeachment inquiry.” After all, his staffers met with the whistleblower before he submitted his complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General. Wouldn’t that make Adam Schiff a fact witness? Additionally, Schiff’s intense and obvious hatred towards the President kind of blows up the “impartiality” requirement. In the same way, Rod Rosenstein should have recused himself from oversight of the Mueller investigation. He participated in the Oval Office meeting where Comey’s firing was discussed. He even wrote the memo making the case for why he should be fired. Would that not make Rosenstein a witness in the case? And although we didn’t know it at the time, Rosenstein, as part of his idea to remove the President from office via the 25th Amendment, even discussed wearing a wire into the Oval Office to record the President. He said he was never checked when he entered the White House.
Their hypocrisy is breathtaking.
Their behavior has been so extreme, it brings to mind the story of Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI) whose attempt to rid the government of communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s, justified in the beginning, developed into a dangerous obsession. He became consumed by it. His actions became more and more ruthless and unhinged over the years.
During the spectacle of the Army-McCarthy hearings, McCarthy questioned Boston lawyer Joseph Welch, whom the Army had hired for their defense. After an unreasonable line of questioning about a lawyer who worked for his law firm:
Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy’s career: “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.” When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, “Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”
Have the Democrats no sense of decency?
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