Just Another Quid Pro Quo

Barring Justice: Yesterday during an interview with ABC News’ Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas,  Attorney General Barr asserted that Trump had never asked him to weigh in on any case or investigate any of his political enemies, that he would never do such things even if he was asked and that he made the decision to request a lighter sentence for Trump crony Roger Stone without any input from Trump.  He then took things one step further, moaning about Trump’s incessant tweeting saying that Trump should stop tweeting about the Justice Department because his tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.”  The interview got a lot of attention but few other than the truly gullible believe that Barr meant any of what he said because it’s fairly obvious that he does takes direction from Trump, because if Trump was truly frustrating him so much and inhibiting his ability to do his job properly, he would quit and he doesn’t appear to have any interest in doing that and, most telling, after the interview, Trump didn’t complain about his remarks.  In all likelihood, Barr gave the interview to try to calm the troops at the Justice Department, his attempt to prevent more embarrassing departures.  It’s not that Barr cares all that much if those unwilling to adhere to his instructions leave, it’s just that he doesn’t want their departures, and parting shots, to further tarnish his already damaged reputation. As to Roger Stone, the original sentencing recommendation, the one that Trump slammed and that Barr revised, was harsh but only because it stuck to Federal sentencing guidelines for Stone’s crimes.  Barr’s amended recommendation argued for a lesser sentence by saying that despite the jury’s conclusions Stone didn’t really mean it when he threatened one of the witnesses. The revised recommendation also failed to mention that Stone threatened Judge Amy Berman Jackson by circulating a picture of her with a target on her head, however it’s highly likely that she hasn’t forgotten about that.  So far Judge Berman hasn’t said anything about this fracas, nor has Chief Justice Roberts, but Beryl Howell, the DC District Court Chief Judge has and she’s hardly impressed by Trump and Barr’s shenanigans.  Yesterday she said that the “Judges of this Court base their sentencing decisions on careful consideration of the actual record in the case before them; the applicable sentencing guidelines and statutory factors; the submissions of the parties, the Probation Office and victims; and their own judgment and experience, criticism or pressure is not a factor." Stone is due to be sentenced on Thursday.  As to the very emboldened Trump nothing seems to be stopping him lately, yesterday he started in on the woman who served as jury foreperson in Roger Stone’s case, suggesting that she was obviously biased and then for good measure he admitted that his administration’s decision to drop New York State from the trusted traveler programs had nothing to do with security but a lot to with getting the state’s lawmakers to promise not to move forward with any of those investigations into him and his business interests.  He did that by tweeting that “New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harassment, start cleaning itself up, and lowering taxes,” just another quid pro quo from the bully in chief who got away with his last one.   

Revolving Door:  And by revolving door, think spinning like crazy.  When last seen Hope Hicks was working for Fox in California as the company’s Chief Communications Officer, a job she obtained with the help of her good buddies Ivanka and Jared.  Whether that LinkedIn line item was all just a ruse to get her away from probing eyes in Washington DC for a while, or it didn’t work out, or she just missed the White House doesn’t matter much because Trump’s fave Hopey is returning to the Trump saga to work as Jared Kushner’s sidekick.  Also returning is former Trump body man  John McEntee, another Trump favorite who was booted and frog marched out of the White House by former Chief of Staff John Kelly after he failed to pass his security check, something to with  debts incurred by excessive online gambling. Apparently, with Kelly gone, no one cares about security issues anymore so McEntee has been invited back in to run the White House Personnel Office.  He’s totally unqualified for that position but Trump views him as the ultimate loyalist and  who doesn’t love a well-managed March Madness pool?  On another note, Jessie Liu, the  US attorney whose nomination for a top Treasury Department post was yanked because she ran the office responsible for Roger Stone's prosecution has resigned because with her previous position reassigned to a Barr loyalist she had nothing to go back to,  just another casualty of Trump and Attorney General Barr’s collaborative efforts to rid the Justice Department of any senior attorneys unwilling to tow their line.      

Democratic Showdown:  The Democratic nomination process is getting harder and harder to watch.  Trump and his people at Fox are continuing to attack all the candidates focusing on those they view as the most threatening and they’re getting lots of help from the liberal media.  Everyone seems to have focused in on all of Mike Bloomberg’s old interviews, in addition to his contradictory messages on “stop and frisk,” yesterday’s news included an old interview where he discussed redlining, the practice of depriving loans to people who live in underprivileged, mostly minority neighborhoods.  In that interview, Bloomberg partially blamed the 2008 financial crisis on the push to lend more money to borrowers from those areas.  My view is that Bloomberg, never one to mince words, was stating a fact, that loans to riskier credits were more likely to default and that just opening up the loan spigot to underprivileged populations wasn’t an adequately comprehensive remedy for dealing with a much bigger societal problem: how to increase home ownership among minority populations.  However, no one is much into nuance these days and of course, Elizabeth Warren whose campaign is flailing, was more than happy to weigh in, using her expertise in consumer finance and bankruptcy to jump on the Bloomberg feeding frenzy.  Anyway, Bloomberg like everyone else near the top of the Democratic pile needs to come up with good answers to tough questions because those tough questions are going to keep coming. As to Mayor Mike, like him or not he is awfully good at getting under Trump’s skin and those barbs the two keep exchanging are fairly entertaining, and right about now who doesn’t enjoy watching the “short” guy knock the intellectually challenged one down a few pegs. The Nevada caucus takes place on February 22, Bloomberg won’t be on the ballot there but everyone else will be.  Bernie Sanders did not get an endorsement from the influential Nevada Culinary Workers Union because their members like their health care benefits and do not want to give them up to a Bernie  Medicare For All plan.  The good news for Bernie, who will probably do well in Nevada anyway, is that the union decided not to endorse anyone, a big disappointment for Joe Biden who hoped that he would get their blessing.  As to Bernie, though he keeps on trying to distance himself from the contingent of his diehard supporters who are badmouthing the other candidates, he doesn’t appear to be doing much to stop them which isn’t much of a surprise because that’s how he rolls.