Gregg Jarrett: Barr shouldn’t criticize Trump’s Roger Stone tweet – AG should clean up Justice Department mess
White House responds to Attorney General Barr’s concerns with Trump tweets
In a statement, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham says President Trump wasn’t bothered by Barr’s comments at all.
By Gregg Jarrett | Fox News
Democrats and the mainstream media are in the grips of mass hysteria – again. This time, their psychogenic illness was triggered by a presidential tweet. Even Attorney General William Barr seems to have been affected.
Exercising his First Amendment right of free expression, President Trump used his thumbs to tweet late Monday night and state the obvious: it was “horrible and very unfair” for federal prosecutors to seek a seven- to nine-year prison sentence for Roger Stone.
Stone – a former Trump confidant – was convicted in November by a jury in Washington of making false statements, obstruction and witness tampering in a case that arose from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
By any reasonable standard, the sentencing recommendation for Stone was excessive and overly punitive. Stone is 67, has no criminal history, and was convicted of nonviolent offenses. Yet, overzealous prosecutors asked that he serve twice as much time behind bars as those who are found guilty of more serious crimes such as armed robbery, rape, sexual assault, and even negligent manslaughter.
The moment Trump hit the “send” button on his tweet, collective hysteria swept through the halls of Congress and liberal newsrooms everywhere.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., undeterred by his humiliating impeachment defeat just days earlier, was at it again. He accused Trump of an “abuse of power.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., repeated the tired and preposterous meme.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., a chronic impeachment enthusiast, refused to rule out another attempt to remove Trump from office.
Is there something in the drinking water in California that turns the brains of politicians to mush?
The unhinged harangues were all predicated on a brazen assumption that Trump had directed Attorney General Barr to overrule the trial prosecutors and recommend a more appropriate and equitable sentence for Stone of three to four years.
The Justice Department said the decision to seek a lesser sentence for Stone was made Monday, when the leadership there first learned what the prosecutors had done – before Trump’s tweet. The president, the White House, the Justice Department and the attorney general himself all insist that there were no communications about the case. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise.
It appears that the prosecutors who demanded an unduly harsh sentence for Stone misrepresented their intentions to senior officials at the Justice Department. An official there told Fox News that “the sentencing recommendation was not what had been briefed to the Department.”
The Justice Department then moved to correct an injustice. In so doing, Barr became a political punching bag, and the president’s tweet only exacerbated matters.
Democratic presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., demanded that Barr “resign or face impeachment.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Barr “ought to be ashamed and embarrassed and resign.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., called Barr an “all-purpose flak jacket” for Trump and warned that “this is how democracies die.”
The anti-Trump media piled on by cheering the notion that Stone might die in prison and condemning the attorney general for choosing fairness over vindictiveness.
It is no wonder that Barr, under siege, felt frustrated enough to give an interview to ABC News Thursday in which he complained that the president’s tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.”
Impossible? No. Difficult? Yes. Importantly, Barr underscored that Trump “has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.”
While it may be unwise for a president to comment about a criminal case still pending, Trump’s tweet was driven by his own understandable frustration. He sees prosecutors, led by a key member of Mueller’s team of partisans, advocate for a draconian punishment well beyond the norm. Had Stone not been associated with Trump, it is inconceivable that he would have been targeted in such a severe way.
The disparity in treatment of those connected to the president is striking. None of the people who falsely accused Trump of being a Russian agent and who perpetuated their imaginary case of “collusion” with Russia against him have been prosecuted.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz filed criminal referrals against former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Yet, no action has been taken against them.