Now that Geoffrey Berman’s book, Holding the Line, is out, there is a clear description of how the DOJ, under former AG Bill Barr, tried to kill cases that threatened Trump. Berman says that Barr’s DOJ pressured SDNY to remove references to Individual-1 in the Cohen case. There are other allegations of DOJ abuse of power, including pressuring SDNY to investigate John Kerry after a Trump tweet and to “indict a Democrat” to “even things out” politically.
This politicization of the DOJ must not be governed by norms or OLC memos that can easily be ignored by future DOJ political appointees. That clearly does not work. This politicization must be made illegal under a new law, with clear penalties for those who break it or encourage others to break it.
Senator Dick Durban, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called the allegations “astonishing” and wrote AG Garland to get all DOJ communications concerning the politically motivated interference. Presumably that committee will consider how to prevent this from happening again.
I also suggest they suspend the statute of limitations for the duration of the Presidency for any crimes committed by the President including those committed before he gained office. Why have Mueller investigate crimes if they’re never going to be charged? Winning election must never again be a get-out-of-jail-free card.
And just for the record, here’s the comment I posted on Sept 1 raising this issue.
Whenever DOJ policy treats a class of people, such as Presidents, former Presidents or candidates for President, differently than regular people, we need to think about whether that’s fair.
DOJ policies that refuse to indict a sitting President and refuse to indict a former President for what he did in office, clearly put one type of person above the law.
If the DOJ hesitates to indict a former President (for what they did after leaving office) 26 months before an election, then they are again putting that person above the law. If the DOJ won’t indict such a person before an election they’re not in, then they are putting him above the law.
These ‘above the law’ DOJ policy exceptions are unfair. It is hypocrisy when the DOJ writes policies exempting Presidents from indictment and then says “no one is above the law”.
Congress needs to pass a law that takes away some DOJ discretion in these cases. Congress should study these DOJ policies and pass a law to remove unfair political protection from indictment. If the law and the evidence supports an indictment at the same standard of confidence as a regular person, even after considering dishonest political attacks, then the DOJ should be required to indict by law, without delay regardless of election cycle.