Go figure. Federal prosecutors across the country now fear political interference in their work after Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr’s intervention in the sentencing recommendations for Trump’s buddy Roger Stone led four prosecutors to quit the case or even their jobs.
Current prosecutors aren’t able to speak out publicly, of course, but anonymously they’re trying to sound the alarm. “Prosecutors across the United States, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals,” The New York Times reported, “said this week that they had already been wary of working on any case that might catch Mr. Trump’s attention and that the Stone episode only deepened their concern. They also said that they were worried that Mr. Barr might not support them in politically charged cases.” Those are fair things to be worried about!
Past prosecutors are also free to be clear about the impact of Trump’s interference and Barr’s eager participation. “In essence, the leadership of the Justice Department has commandeered the sentencing in a politically sensitive criminal matter, reversing the position uniformly accepted and promoted by the career prosecutors,” said a former head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control section.
Trump’s intervention in the Stone sentencing—the sentencing of a man whose crimes were committed as part of his role as an intermediary between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign—follows Trump having Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman fired from his White House job for testifying under subpoena before the House, and making clear that the firing was retaliation. It follows Barr setting up a smear-job pipeline for information from Rudy Giuliani attacking Trump’s political opponents, continuing out in the open the project that Trump was impeached for beginning in secret.
And it cannot be overstated how much Trump’s intervention in a federal criminal case violates the standard of behavior that presidents since Richard Nixon have worked to uphold. As Barr himself said in 2001 of the Justice Department’s independence from political pressure, “You didn’t mess around with it, didn’t intervene, you didn’t interfere.” Now Barr is at the top of the Justice Department with the reverse motto: Intervene, interfere.