There’s a pattern whereby these district court judges are trying to usurp the responsibility of the president in the national security area. . . The president is absolutely right to be frustrated and concerned about the way the courts are handling this. . . The Constitution gives the president the power to make the judgments about how we deal with foreign nationals when we are animated by national security concerns . . . It’s his call, not a district court judge’s call.
As Sir Bedevire (Terry Jones) might say, who is this who is so wise in the ways of the law? Why it’s former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, not exactly a big fan of President Trump.
During the Biden-Harris administration, Barr backed FBI harassment of Donald Trump, including the armed raid on Mar-a-Lago in which FBI agents pawed through Melania Trump’s garments. For Barr, it was the FBI that was being “jerked around,” not the former President and First Lady.
Barr, who began his career with the CIA, is the author of One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, basically an amicus brief for the deep state. As the people may recall, after Jeff Sessions recused himself, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein suddenly appointed Barr’s longtime pal Robert Mueller as the special counsel to investigate duly elected President Donald Trump. Democrats charged that Trump colluded with Putin to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton.
“Few can appreciate the complexities Rod faced during that tumultuous time,” writes Barr, “and even fewer will know the important contributions he made to the administration and the country.” Just what these important contributions might be the author does not explain. Barr appointed John Durham but “I made it clear that neither President Obama nor Vice President Biden were in Durham’s crosshairs.” Here’s an Attorney General who holds some people above the law.
Barr is also friendly with James Comey, the FBI boss who said no reasonable prosecutor would charge Hillary for mishandling classified information and such. The former AG also admires Christopher Wray, who denied the FBI spied on Trump and contended it was “shrapnel,” that hit Trump last July, not one of the seven bullets unleashed by Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Back in 1992 during the Ruby Ridge incident in Idaho, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shot the unarmed Vicki Weaver through the head as she held her infant child. Snipers are trained carefully to acquire their target, so little chance this was an accident as the FBI claimed. Attorney General Barr spent two weeks organizing former attorney generals to defend Horiuchi, who already had government lawyers working on his behalf. Nothing about that in One Damn Thing After Another, like those “important contributions” of Rod Rosenstein to the nation.
Meanwhile, a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit disagrees with Barr that deportation of Tren de Aragua criminals is the president’s call. This should be appealed to the Supreme Court and Congress should get busy impeaching James Boasberg. A judge who gives probation to FBI forger Kevin Clinesmith is unfit for any court in the land.
You left out that smiling Judge Boasberg showed up as an observer when Donald Trump was indicted for attempting to overthrow the election results on January 6, 2020. There was no comment or censure from Judge Roberts. My hunch is they have a weekly racket ball date or card game.
Impeachment and conviction of Boasberg is not going to happen. The GOP controls Congress and the White House. They should reach back to the 1801 Judiciary Act for a model. They could start by abolishing the DC circuit and by splitting the 9th. They will no doubt need to kill the filibuster along the way, and they should since they've been steadily losing for 70 years because of it. It the GOP wants to get the attention of John Roberts, this will do it.