Wednesday, October 23, 2019

NY bar wants to bar Barr from Ukraine matters



The New York City Bar Association in a statement Wednesday called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr to stand aside in any ongoing or future review by the Department of Justice of issues stemming from the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine, in which Barr has allegedly involved.

  New York Law Journal
They are absolutely right. He IS involved by virtue of Trump telling Ukraine to deal with him. He'll no doubt claim that he didn't, and therefore doesn't need to recuse himself. He's as corrupt as Trump.
The New York City Bar’s statement said that Barr has been mentioned, most notably, in a whistleblower report of a July 25, 2019 telephone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that call Trump, according to the whistleblower, said Barr would be in touch with Zelensky to follow up on his request that Ukraine initiate an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, who was on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company.

The bar association took no position on the legality of the phone call or merits of the whistleblower’s complaint. But it said the mention of Barr’s name was enough to require his recusal from the probe.

[...]

“Regardless of whether Mr. Barr was in fact aware of or part of the President’s plans, either before, at the time of, or after the July 25, 2019 telephone call, it is clear that Mr. Barr was obligated to recuse himself from any involvement in DOJ’s review of either the whistleblower complaint or the substance of the President’s actions once the President offered Mr. Barr’s services to President Zelensky. ”

[...]

If Barr does not recuse himself, the bar association’s statement said, “he should resign or, failing that, be subject to sanctions, including possible removal, by Congress.”
If it's up to the Senate, that won't happen.

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