U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson recently issued a scathing ruling in which she ordered the Justice Department to release a memo from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel which helped support former Attorney General William Barr’s decision not to prosecute failed, one-term former President Donald Trump on charges of obstruction of justice, making it clear that she believed Barr had lied to maintain a narrative that the Mueller report cleared Trump, which it most certainly didn’t.
Judge Jackson wrote:
“The review of the document reveals that the Attorney General was not then engaged in making a decision about whether the President should be charged with obstruction of justice; the fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given.”
Barr had made up his mind prior to receiving the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller: He would declare that Trump had been cleared by Mueller and urge the country to move on.
But it turns out Barr didn’t pull off his deception alone. Instead, he had lots of help from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Remember Rod Rosenstein? He’s the one who appointed Mueller after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself because he had a conflict of interest. Rosenstein was seen as a steady, reliable man who would do what was right, not what was politically expedient.
However, as attorney Dirk Schwenk points out in a fascinating Twitter thread, Judge Jackson also exposed Rosenstein as a co-conspirator who had better hope he has a good criminal attorney on retainer:
Be sure and read the above tweet very carefully. Rosenstein and Barr had the OLC memo drafted to help cover up a decision the AG made regarding the Mueller investigation: No matter what Mueller found, Trump would be protected at all costs. That was the prime objective.
Barr, Rosenstein, and the Office of Legal Counsel were all in on the fix from the beginning. They would declare Trump exonerated even if Mueller said otherwise. Mueller was used as a pawn in a larger criminal scheme to assure that Trump wasn’t found guilty.
Rosenstein set the cover-up in place; Barr took the ball and carried it over the goal line. The upper echelons of the DOJ were used to protect Trump instead of protecting the Constitution those same Justice Department officials had sworn to uphold.
Rod Rosenstein is a criminal. So is Barr. So are others at the DOJ who were part of the conspiracy. It’s time to charge them and try them in a court of law.
