U.S. attorney general says calls for coronavirus lockdown are the 'greatest intrusion on civil liberties' other than slavery in US history
Attorney General William Barr took sharp aim at federal line prosecutors in remarks at Hillsdale College's"Constitution Day" celebration Wednesday evening, describing them as improperly working to take law enforcement decisions into their own hands in contravention of the traditional chain of command.
"Name one successful organization or institution where the lowest level employees' decisions are deemed sacrosanct -- there aren't. There aren't any letting the most junior members set the agenda," Barr said."Letting the most junior members set the agenda might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it's no way to run a federal agency.
Barr recounted what he described as his own meetings with FBI agents where he posed them the question,"Whose agents do you think you are?" "Line prosecutors ... are generally part of the permanent bureaucracy," Barr said."They do not have the political legitimacy to be the public face of tough decisions and they lack the political buy-in necessary to publicly defend those decisions."
Barr argued that the DOJ in recent years"has sometimes acted more like a trade association for federal prosecutors than the administrator of a fair system of justice based on clear and sensible legal rules." Story continuesThe remarks also mark a continuance of Barr's recent unapologetic tour where he has freely expressed openly partisan positions while accusing his opponents of being responsible for tearing down the norms in U.S. society. All the while, he has spent much of the time defending his own extraordinary and sometimes unprecedented actions intervening in department matters of direct political interest to Trump.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Attorney General William Barr accuses some DOJ prosecutors of becoming 'headhunters'In remarks Wednesday night, Attorney General William Barr accused some DOJ prosecutors of becoming 'headhunters, consumed with taking down their target.'
Read more »
William Barr takes aim at prosecutors inside his own Justice DepartmentAttorney General William Barr is taking aim at his own Justice Department, criticizing prosecutors for behaving as “headhunters” in their pursuit of prominent targets and politically charged cases
Read more »
'Criminalization of politics': AG Barr says prosecutors become 'headhunters'While repeatedly castigated for shielding President Donald Trump and his allies from legal jeopardy, William Barr did not refer to specific cases. But he asserted that career prosecutors can 'sometimes become headhunters.'
Read more »
Barr Blasts His Own Prosecutors: 'All Power Is Vested In The Attorney General'In remarks Wednesday, the attorney general also said restrictions imposed during the coronavirus are 'the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history' since slavery.
Read more »
300 and counting: Push by feds to arrest in US protestsAn AP analysis of hundreds of federal protest arrests show while many are accused of serious crimes like burning police cars and injuring law enforcement, others are not - prompting criticism the arrests are politically-motivated.
Read more »
Barr blasts his own DOJ prosecutors, equates them to preschoolers and 'headhunters'In scathing remarks against his own staff, AG Barr says the US Justice Dept. has recently acted “more like a trade association for federal prosecutors than the administrator of a fair system of justice,' and equated them to preschoolers and 'headhunters.'
Read more »