President Donald Trump acknowledged on Tuesday that his social media posts are making Attorney General William Barrs job harder, but added that social media is very important to the president because it gives him a voice.
The president comments come after Barr issued rare criticism to the president about his Twitter posts in the wake of one of Trumps posts about the sentencing of former campaign adviser Roger Stone. The Justice Departments (DOJ) handling of the Stone case has received extensive scrutiny after the department requested a lighter sentence for the Trump associate. Top department officials intervened in the case after deeming the original recommendation of seven to nine years as “excessive.”
Barr said during an interview on Feb. 13 that the presidents public statements and Twitter posts made about the department and pending cases “make it impossible for [him] to do [his] job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that were doing our work with integrity.”
While responding to a reporters question about Barrs comments, the president agreed with the assessment saying that his social media posts are making Barrs job harder.
“I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think thats true,” Trump said. “Hes a very straight shooter. We have a great attorney general and hes working very hard. Hes working against a lot of people that dont want to see good things happen, in my opinion.”
“But I will say this: Social media for me has been very important because it gives me a voice because I dont get that voice in the press, in the media. I dont get that voice. So Im allowed to have a voice,” he added.
Trump added that he thinks that Barr is still able to do his job with integrity even with the presidents social media posts while also saying that he has “total confidence” in the attorney general.
“Hes a man with great integrity. The attorney general is a man with incredible integrity,” Trump said. “Just so you understand: I chose not to be involved. Im allowed to be totally involved. Im actually, I guess the chief law enforcement officer of the country, but Ive chosen not to be involved.”
Barr has received widespread criticism over his handling of cases related to Trump associates. Over 2,000 former DOJ officials have signed an online letter urging Barr to resign following his intervention in the Stone case. The online letter was organized by Protect Democracy, a nonprofit advocacy group staffed by former government officials, political operatives, and activists who have been opposing Trumps agenda via legal means.
Similarly, Donald Ayer, the former deputy attorney general under George H. W. Bush, wrote an op-ed published in The Atlantic accusing Barr of acting as the “presidents personal advocate than as an attorney general” and being “un-American.”
Moreover, USA Today reported that a national group of federal judges, the Federal Judges Association, had called an emergency meeting on Monday to address concerns about Barrs handling of cases related to Trump associates. The association did not retuRead More – Source
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