90 Miles From Tyranny : Campaign Donations Show Letter Demanding Barr’s Resignation Comes From Leftist Hacks Pretending To Be ‘Bipartisan’

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Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Campaign Donations Show Letter Demanding Barr’s Resignation Comes From Leftist Hacks Pretending To Be ‘Bipartisan’




Had liberal outlets bothered to act like journalists, they would have quickly discovered evidence of a partisan bias underlying the letter calling for William Barr’s resignation.

“More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Attorney General William P. Barr on Sunday to step down after he intervened last week to lower the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation for President Trump’s longtime friend Roger J. Stone, Jr.,” The New York Times reported on Sunday—if you can call it reporting.

Not once in the 800-word article did the Times address the overwhelming evidence that the thousand-plus signatories were politically motivated critics of President Donald Trump. In fact, to the contrary, the Times claimed “the former Justice Department lawyers” “came from across the political spectrum” to sign the open letter that condemned “President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice.” Those actions, the much-touted letter claimed, “require Mr. Barr to resign.”

The letter and the charge that Barr interfered “in the fair administration of justice” focused on the decision last week by senior Department of Justice officials to override the recommendation lower-level prosecutors had made for a nine-year prison sentence for Roger Stone. The AG’s office viewed a nine-year sentence recommendation as too severe for Stone’s non-violent offenses but did not make a specific recommendation for an appropriate prison sentence.

Barr denied politics played any role in the DOJ’s decision and the Justice Department stressed that no one had discussed the Stone case with anyone at the White House. And there is no evidence to the contrary. Nonetheless, several Democrats pounced, pushing for Barr to resign, or, as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren threatened, be impeached.

Over the weekend and earlier this week, left-leaning media outlets coalesced on the latest anti-Trump conspiracy theory, using the letter of the former DOJ employees to bolster the appearance of impropriety. In addition to the Times, Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post pointed to the 1,100 signatories as evidence of Trump’s misconduct and Barr’s supposed acquiescence. (At least Rubin wrote under the opinion category, unlike the Times article.)

NPR likewise parroted the misleading claim that “the signatories on a letter have worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations,” when interviewing Julie Zebrak, one of the signatories and a former DOJ attorney of nearly 20 years. NPR did provide a tad of pushback, though, asking Zebrak what she would say to listeners who dismiss what she says as “partisanship.” Zebrak’s reply followed the same misdirection, noting that “if you look at the list, you’ll see that almost everyone on that list has served through multiple administrations, including Republican and Democrat.”

That may well be true, but as Peter Strzok and Lisa Page proved beyond doubt, you can be an extreme, left-leaning, hate-filled partisan and work in (and against) Republican administrations. Had the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, or any of the other liberal outlets bothered to act like journalists instead of the PR arms of Democratic and anti-Trump outfits, they would have quickly discovered evidence of a partisan bias underlying the letter calling for Barr’s resignation.

First, as The New York Times noted, “Protect Democracy, a nonprofit legal group, gathered the signatures from Justice Department alumni and said it would collect more.” Here’s what the Times and other outlets failed to report: Protect Democracy was founded in 2017 by Ian Bassin, who was the associate White House counsel for President Barack Obama from 2009-2011, and Justin Florence, who also served in the Office of the White House Counsel as a...

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1 comment:

capt fast said...

I have noticed Mr. Barr is a courteous person, so many of us readers and commenters would like to respond to the 1,100 former employees of the Presidents branch of government by saying to them Fuck off and Die, now.