Bill Barr: "All prosecutorial power is invested in the attorney general"
17 September 2020
Attorney General Bill Barr dismissed accusations of political interference in criminal cases involving figures connected to President Trump during a speech at Michigan's Hillsdale College Wednesday night.
Details: "What exactly am I interfering with? Under the law, all prosecutorial power is invested in the attorney general," Barr said, per the Washington Post and CNN.
Why it matters: The Department of Justice inspector general's office is investigating Barr's role in the lighter sentencing recommendation for Trump associate Roger Stone, who was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress — after career prosecutors had recommended he serve seven to nine years in prison. The prosecutors resigned over the action.
- Meanwhile, a retired judge appointed to review the DOJ's motion to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn — who pleaded guilty in the Mueller investigation in 2017 to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with the former Russian ambassador — said last Friday "pressure campaigns" led to the action.
What else he's saying: "Name one successful organization where the lowest level employees’ decisions are deemed sacrosanct. There aren’t any," Barr said to the conservative institution, per his prepared remarks.
- "Individual prosecutors can sometimes become headhunters, consumed with taking down their target. Letting the most junior members set the agenda might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it’s no way to run a federal agency.
- "Good leaders at the Justice Department — as at any organization — need to trust and support their subordinates. But that does not mean blindly deferring to whatever those subordinates want to do."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.