Attorney General William Barr should resign because of the “grave threat to the fair administration of justice” posed by his political interference in the sentencing of Donald Trump associate Roger Stone, more than 1,100 former Justice Department lawyers have written in a public statement. “But because we have little expectation he will do so,” they continue, “it falls to the Department’s career officials to take appropriate action to uphold their oaths of office and defend nonpartisan, apolitical justice”—in line with the Justice Department’s own rulebook for lawyers.
The Justice Department alumni, 85% of whom served under Republican presidents, and more than 100 of whom served under Trump, were crystal-clear about what’s at stake here: “Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies.”
What would it mean for current Justice Department lawyers to “take appropriate action to uphold their oaths of office and defend nonpartisan, apolitical justice”? The statement is specific on that front: It means following the “heroic example” of the four prosecutors who withdrew from the Stone case or even resigned from their jobs. Officials looking to follow that example should “be prepared to report future abuses to the Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Congress; to refuse to carry out directives that are inconsistent with their oaths of office; to withdraw from cases that involve such directives or other misconduct; and, if necessary, to resign and report publicly—in a manner consistent with professional ethics—to the American people the reasons for their resignation.” Moreover, officials in other branches of government should “protect from retaliation those employees who uphold their oaths in the face of unlawful directives.”
In case you missed the import of the earlier warning that “Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies,” the statement ends by emphasizing the point. Officials need to follow the example of the former Stone prosecutors because “The rule of law and the survival of our Republic demand nothing less.”
Sign and send the petition to your U.S. senators: Call on Bill Barr to resign.
