Trump's DOJ Was More Dangerous Than We Knew

[DonViejo]

Revelations since Biden’s inauguration are adding detail to a portrait of ethical decay at the department.

By David A. Graham

About the author: David A. Graham is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Sometimes, the actions a government takes look bad at the time, but posterity treats them kindly. Other times, a president might look good in the moment but see his reputation sink in retrospect. Then there’s the Trump administration, and especially its Justice Department, which looked bad when it was in power and now looks even worse.

Late yesterday, The New York Times reported that the Justice Department subpoenaed Apple to try to obtain data from accounts belonging to Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, their aides, and even one of their children as part of an investigation into leaks about Trump associates’ ties to Russia. Even after the probes produced few results, Attorney General Bill Barr insisted that prosecutors keep them alive.

This is only the latest ugly revelation about the Trump Justice Department to emerge since January 20—sometimes despite the best efforts of the Biden team to keep things secret. We now know that prosecutors sought to compel records of reporters from |The Washington Post], CNN, and the Times; failed to prepare for right-wing violence because of a focus on antifa; and even saw a plot by the assistant attorney general and the president to oust the acting attorney general in order to overturn the result of the presidential election.

The scope of the subpoenas disclosed last night by the Times is still not clear. Schiff and Swalwell were perhaps natural suspects for the White House, because they were among the noisiest of the president’s critics. Yet if that’s the case, that makes the subpoenas only more troubling, because they then smack of political retribution. It is not unusual for members of Congress to be investigated by federal law enforcement—corruption cases against members are distressingly common and warranted—but a leak hunt has seldom if ever targeted members in this way. (The subjects only recently learned of the subpoenas from Apple, which had previously been under a judicial gag order.)

more
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/trumps-doj-was-more-dangerous-we-knew/619178

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[StarfishSaver]

2. This is one of the reasons I'm giving Garland and DOJ a huge benefit of the doubt

We have no idea what they're dealing with internally and how much that needs to be balanced with our desire to know everything they're doing and eagerness to see indictments and prosecutions yesterday.

[Ms. Toad]

3. Note that this article was written 6/11 - so references to "yesterday" are to 6/10

I read the headline and assumed new revelations - especially when I got to the "late yesterday" line - were new. But they seemed familiar . . . so I clicked through to the article and found the publication date.

(Not suggesting it isn't worth reading - just that it isn't the brand new news the excerpt suggests.).

[TheBlackAdder]

4. Trump gutted every department and replaced them with stooges. The CIA, DOJ, FBI & NSA no different.

[samsingh]

5. i think its worse - i think a lot of information is being kept from us

[kentuck]

6. They need to hunt down the embedded comrades he installed throughout the government.

That should be the job of every Department head that Biden appoints.

[StarfishSaver]

14. How do you know this is not already happening?

It's not something that would be announced in press briefings.

[kentuck]

17. We don't know that.

Do you assume that it is?

[StarfishSaver]

18. I don't know that it's happening any more than you know it's not. We're both making assumptions

The difference is that my assumption does not lead to a conclusion that the Democratic president is corrupt, complicit or clueless.

[kentuck]

19. So, what's your point?

[UpInArms]

7. More from the NYT's link

Prosecutors, under the beleaguered attorney general, Jeff Sessions, were hunting for the sources behind news media reports about contacts between Trump associates and Russia. Ultimately, the data and other evidence did not tie the committee to the leaks, and investigators debated whether they had hit a dead end and some even discussed closing the inquiry.

But William P. Barr revived languishing leak investigations after he became attorney general a year later. He moved a trusted prosecutor from New Jersey with little relevant experience to the main Justice Department to work on the Schiff-related case and about a half-dozen others, according to three people with knowledge of his work who did not want to be identified discussing federal investigations.

[malaise]

8. I want to know if Wray was also part of Slobfather's secret sting n/t

[New Breed Leader]

9. "slobfather" I'm totally stealing that lol

[malaise]

10. I stole it from a DUer

[niyad]

11. The Biden administration is trying to keep this secret?

[Stuart G]

12. I think the Biden adminstration is waiting for the correct time to release this secret.

...(My opinion only)...Sometimes timing is very crucial in releasing information. But I could be wrong
on this one...Not the first time to be wrong, and it won't be the last time.....

[StarfishSaver]

15. I think you're right this time

This is not the kind of information that's broadcast as it's happening.

[C_U_L8R]

13. The crimes are still in progress.

I expect they are scooping up all the evidence.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. Open a full criminal investigation into post-election actions

Link to tweet