William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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President Donald Trump has decided to nominate former attorney general William Barr to be the next permanent head of the Justice Department, the President told reporters Friday.

Barr, a former attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, has been emerging this week as a consensus candidate to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general, two sources familiar with Trump's thinking told CNN on Thursday. Trump picked Matthew Whitaker to be acting attorney general after Sessions was fired last month.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/07/politics ... index.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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With all the crap coming out about Whitaker cooler heads figured they need somebody that will be easy to get confirmed. Barr is a middle of the road conservative in the old Republican tradition. I don't see Barr doing anything to change the Mueller investigation.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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Another sycophant as AG and a tyro at UN. What's not to like??

I'm guessing they're scraping the bottom of the barrel to find "competent" help to work with this shithead administration.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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New Attorney General Nominee William Barr’s Record on Guns Revealed
Barr has said little about firearms or gun control during his career, but he is widely considered to be the author of PL 101-647, The Crime Control Act of 1990.

The Crime Control Act of 1990 had a number of firearms provisions. The Gun Free School Zone Act is the biggie, but probably the work of Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin – not Barr. The GFSZA’s strange rules set the context for MGO v. AAPS, despite SCOTUS finding much of it unconstitutional in Lopez.

The ban on domestic assembly of semiautomatic rifles prohibited from importation is Barr’s big aggravation in The Crime Control Act of 1990. This was a follow on to Bush 41’s 1989 prohibition of ‘unsporting’ long arms importation. Other provisions:

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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I happened to tune in to the hearings for a little while. If anyone has been listening in to the nomination hearing, are you effing frightened yet? I was horrified! Sessions is an obvious problem who knows what he is doing. This guy is clueless about his own racism. He believes he knows everything about everything and no one will tell him about other "facts" or "statistics".

No surprise - he is no 2A fan. Especially for non-whites. He doesn't seem to like armed non-wealthy whites, either.

His attitude seems to be stuck in the days of the "War on Drugs" and he doesn't seem to realize it is 2019. He likes mass incarceration a LOT for those "drug" offenders in "cities" like Chicago (they always bring up Chicago). When he was called out on his wording (that he really means black & brown people should be locked up), he just seemed oblivious and talked about the old days. He wants law and order and prisons. He believes the 1990s laws were a help to minority communities - regardless of what they actually say about it.

And, for some reason, he stated he will ignore any ethics/IG folks if he disagrees with them regarding recusals or whatever. He brushed aside any facts or statistics that disprove his ideas about incarceration, marijuana, minorities, "illegal" immigrants, or anything else. He is an arrogant, arrogant human being.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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Somethings already coming out or should come out tat would disqualify hime.
Former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne told MSNBC on Tuesday that she was concerned that attorney general nominee Bill Barr wasn’t asked whether he was sorry for supporting the Iran-Contra pardons, saying that his response could help clarify his stance on a president pardoning himself or family members for illegal acts.

“I’m concerned that he’s backing away from the amount of information and the transparency he’s going to have on the Mueller report and what he’s going to give people,” Alksne said, adding that Barr’s comments and attitude had “migrated” throughout the hearing.

“I’m interested that we haven’t talked as much about pardons,” she added. “Nobody’s asked him yet, ‘what about those Iran-Contra pardons? Are you sorry those went through?'”

“Nobody has asked him if the president can pardon himself and what is his legal opinion about that,” Alksne continued. “Nobody’s asked him about what would happen if the president pardoned family members in order to shut down investigations.”

As attorney general during the Iran-Contra investigation, Barr backed President George H.W. Bush’s decision to pardon the Reagan administration officials caught up in the scheme before they could stand trial. Barr boasted later that he had “favored the broadest pardon authority”, which was strongly criticized by independent prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, who led the investigation.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/willia ... c-analyst/
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) on Tuesday grilled attorney general nominee William Barr over his apparent support for a Mexican border wall — and got him to admit that he doesn’t know as much as he thought about the situation at the border.

“You mentioned that we need barriers across the board to deal with drug trafficking,” Harris noted. “Are you advocating a wall?”

Barr responded by saying that he is “advocating a system, a barrier system in some places” before admitting that he would need to “find out more about the situation since I last visited the border.”

The California Democrat pointed out that most drugs that enter the US through Mexico do so at legal ports of entry — and then asked him when the last time he’d visited such a port was.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/kamala ... umps-wall/
Senators probed Barr’s legal history and tried to establish whether he’d maintain proper independence from the Trump administration.

In the afternoon, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) pressed Barr on his problematic attitudes and writings about criminal justice and race.

“You literally wrote the book on mass incarceration or at least this report, The Case for Mass Incarceration,” Booker said, as well as interrogating him on his positions on the Cole memo and marijuana legalization.

Citing gang violence in cities like Chicago, Barr defended tough-on-crime policies.

Booker then berated the nominee for claiming that blacks and whites get fair and equal treatment in the US criminal justice system.

Barr acknowledged that while he admits there are pockets of racism, overall race does not effect sentencing outcome.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/cory-b ... ce-system/
The acting attorney general received more than $1.2 million in salary from a conservative nonprofit that does not reveal its donors, and Whitehouse asked nominee William Barr whether he would investigate the payments.

“In my letter to you I expressed my concern that Mr. Whitaker was paid $1.2 million through what I consider to be a front group that has very little reality to it,” Whitehouse said, “and that the funding that came to that front group to pay him, the million dollars came through another entity that is essentially an identity-laundering operation that has no independent business operation.”

Whitehouse said the payment’s mysterious origins made it impossible to comply with ethics regulations.

“The result of all of this is that somebody out there arranged to get over a million dollars to Mr. Whitaker,” the senator said, “and we have no idea who that somebody is, and as I mentioned to you in our conversation, I don’t see how we do a proper recusal and conflict analysis for somebody when the player who delivered the million dollars is still hidden behind the curtain. Is that something that you will help us fix?”

Barr said that he did not believe Whitaker had done anything wrong, and Whitehouse cautioned the nominee that there weren’t enough facts in evidence to make that determination.

“You know, I think that that raises a very interesting point that I think I would like to review with the ethics people and experts in even (the Office of Government Ethics) to talk about that,” Barr said, “because the more I thought about that, the more I thought that the trick is going to be deciding what kind of entities and how far back you go, because that can be said of a lot of different kinds of entities.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/senato ... ar-payoff/
William Barr, President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, on Tuesday suggested that journalists could be put in jail if they “hurt the country” with their reporting.

At a Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asked for the nominee’s view on protections for a free press.

“I want to ask you something that I asked Attorney General [Jeff Sessions],” Klobuchar said. “If you’re confirmed, will the Justice Department jail reporters for doing their jobs?”

“I can conceive of situations where as a last resort and a news organization has run through a red flag or something like that, knows that they’re putting out stuff that will hurt the country,” Barr said, “there might be a situation where someone would be held in contempt.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/ag-nom ... t-country/
In an exchange on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Bill Barr, admitted to California’s Dianne Feinstein that he didn’t understand the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The clause is meant to protect the United States system of government from “corrupting foreign influences” by restricting government officials from receiving “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Many Democrats and legal scholars believe the president has frequently violated the Emoluments Clause.

Barr said the president had a right to intervene in investigations as long as he had no personal stake.

“An easy, bad example would be if a member of the president’s family or a business associate or something was under investigation and he tries to intervene,” Barr said. “That would be a breach of his obligation under the Constitution to faithfully execute the laws.”

“Including the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution?” interjected Feinstein. Barr began stammering after a brief pause.

“Well, I think there’s a dispute as to what the Emoluments Clause relates to,” he replied as he fiddled nervously with his tie. “I have not personally researched Emoluments Clause. I can’t tell you what it says at this point.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/cant-t ... stitution/

And on and on and so forth. this guy has no business being the AG. But don't fret the Turdle will bow down kiss Orange Stains Ass and push this trough the Reptilian Senate.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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OMG... he is such a partisan hack. He is spouting views on "The Wall" and the shutdown that parrot Faux News. I will admit that it is like a car wreck and I cannot stop listening.

And in other news (Washington Post News Alert)....

Trump's attorney general nominee suggests Mueller’s long-awaited Russia probe report might not be made public
William P. Barr threw cold water on the notion that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report might be made public.

“As the rules stand now, the rules I think say the special counsel will prepare a summary report on any prosecutive or declination decisions, and that shall be confidential and be treated as any other declination or prosecutive material within the department,” Barr said.

Declination memos are written by Justice Department officials when they decline to file charges against individuals, essentially ending an investigation. Those memos are held closely inside the government and not released to the public.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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Barr lied his ass off, dodged the critical questions, and will sail through ratification. He still believes that the harsh, draconian policies he advocated that put a disproportionate number of Black people in prison. And he kept saying that a wall was needed to stop drugs...when drugs from Mexico come through portals, not unfenced, un-walled sections of the border.

He also claimed ignorance about KEY policies and laws that are crucial right now. He couldn't even say he'd follow the recommendations by the ethics officers.

But he'll still sail through the Judicial Committee and will easily be confirmed.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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This guy is 30+ years behind the times. I wonder how he will react to punks like Stephen Miller or Jared Kushner?

Barr is old school 1980s, but I cannot wait to see how this know-it-all gets along with the "stable genius" of DJT. This might actually be entertaining.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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K9s wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 2:40 am This guy is 30+ years behind the times. I wonder how he will react to punks like Stephen Miller or Jared Kushner?

Barr is old school 1980s, but I cannot wait to see how this know-it-all gets along with the "stable genius" of DJT. This might actually be entertaining.
He'll cave or quit, like they all do. Or Trump will fire him long distance by proxy, being too fucking gutless to fire anyone in person.
Barr is just another neo-con, like Bolton and other GHWB retreads Poppy Bush palmed off on Dubya.

Trump want someone to find a way to fire Mueller and bury his report deeper than the Vatican's oldest and most secret archives. It won't work. The man who made sure in 2 years there haven't been ANY unplanned leaks, will make sure it all leaks out to the House if Barr buries the report. In this data age, you cannot, ultimately, hide anything that big.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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YankeeTarheel wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:35 am
K9s wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 2:40 am This guy is 30+ years behind the times. I wonder how he will react to punks like Stephen Miller or Jared Kushner?

Barr is old school 1980s, but I cannot wait to see how this know-it-all gets along with the "stable genius" of DJT. This might actually be entertaining.
He'll cave or quit, like they all do. Or Trump will fire him long distance by proxy, being too fucking gutless to fire anyone in person.
Barr is just another neo-con, like Bolton and other GHWB retreads Poppy Bush palmed off on Dubya.

Trump want someone to find a way to fire Mueller and bury his report deeper than the Vatican's oldest and most secret archives. It won't work. The man who made sure in 2 years there haven't been ANY unplanned leaks, will make sure it all leaks out to the House if Barr buries the report. In this data age, you cannot, ultimately, hide anything that big.
Agreed. Barr is just so arrogant, I wonder how he thought this was going to work? Oh, well. Maybe he was nominated with the thought he wouldn't be confirmed so Whittaker could stay?
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: William Barr nominated as next Atty Gen

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Senate Democrats forced a one-week delay Tuesday in the Judiciary Committee vote on William Barr’s nomination to become attorney general so they could gather more information about how he planned to oversee the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Democrats' had legitimate questions about whether Barr's broad views of presidential power would lead to his keeping parts of special counsel Robert Mueller's anticipated final report secret. The delay is relatively routine for nominees and Graham still expects Barr to be confirmed. "I urged this president to pick (Barr) because I think he's a steady hand when we need one," Graham said. "We'll have a lively debate next Tuesday and hopefully we'll send the nominee to the floor."

Barr has told senators that he would release as much detail as possible about Mueller's findings. But Barr also had cited a Justice Department policy to avoid publishing derogatory information about people who aren’t charged criminally. The department’s Office of Legal Counsel has an opinion that a sitting president can’t be indicted, and several Democrats worried that the combination of those two things could lead Barr to keep confidential parts of the report dealing with President Donald Trump.

“We're both lawyers and we know there are weasel words that can be put into sentences,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. "The question of what transparency is consistent with the law is a ginormous loophole in his transparency pledge." Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she was concerned about Barr’s broad claims of executive privilege, potentially allowing Trump to block the Mueller report or fire a prosecutor. “This memo is of serious concern to me and appears to be seminal to his appointment,” Feinstein said. “If this were applied, there would be little check on the president’s actions.”

Graham said Whitehouse raised good points and said he would ask Barr about those issues. “The OLC office being used to knock out information to the public is really a legitimate question," Graham said. "Executive privilege claim by any White House not to divulge information is a legitimate question."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 703583002/
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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