The Biden admin released the reason then Attorney General Barr for NOT charging then President for trying to impede the Russia investigation by the FBI for Special Counsel Robert Mueller….
Both the Trump Justice Dept and the Biden Justice Dept lost the withold argument in a Freedom if Information tussle with the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington….
Trump fired then FBI Director Comey in connection with this….
And?
Of course Bill Barr was the AG who gave Mueller this memo to call off the dogs…..
Most white collar lawyers dealing with sort of thing see it as Barr NOT acting as the Attorney General of the United States Government , but as Barr acting to keep his boss from being involving criminal case as President….
(Could we have a repeat of this sort of thing again in the ex-President’s NUMEROUS possibe criminal cases to preserve the Office of Presidency ?)
The Justice Department under both the Trump and the Biden administrations fought unsuccessfully in court to avoid releasing the full text of the memo, which was the subject of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
After losing in court on Friday, the Justice Department had the option to appeal the case. But the department’s senior leadership decided to release the document, according to a senior official in federal law enforcement. The leadership never opposed airing its contents, but had contested its release on narrower legal grounds, the person added.
The memo’s release in 2022 — long after the Mueller investigation and its aftermath — is largely significant for historical reasons. While Mr. Barr immediately pronounced Mr. Trump cleared of any obstruction of justice offense, he never discussed in detail his rationale for rejecting many of the episodes in the Mueller report.
The memo to Mr. Barr was signed by Steven A. Engel, the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and Ed O’Callaghan, the principal associate deputy attorney general who had been the main liaison between the Justice Department and the special counsel’s office.
Outside specialists in white-collar law greeted the disclosure of the memo with some skepticism, describing its tone as essentially that of a defense lawyer in a trial rather than an even-handed weighing of the law and evidence.
“Not impressed,” said Samuel Buell, a Duke University law professor and former federal prosecutor. “It reads more like a defense lawyer’s brief than a full and balanced analysis citing the legal authorities.”