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Trump Ignores AG Barr's Request to Stop Tweeting About DOJ

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday ignored his attorney
   general's public request to stop tweeting about the Justice Department,
   saying he had the legal right to ask the agency to intervene in a
   criminal case, but he's so far "chosen not to."

     "The President has never asked me to do anything in a criminal
     case." A.G. Barr This doesn't mean that I do not have, as President,
     the legal right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!
     -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) [1]February 14, 2020

   Trump's Friday morning tweet came just hours after Attorney General
   William Barr said in a striking interview with ABC News that the
   president's tweets were making it "impossible'' to do his job,
   especially following the department's bungled handling of the
   sentencing recommendation for Trump ally and confidant Roger Stone.
   Trump, in his tweet, also left open the possibility that he would ask
   Barr for something in a criminal matter in the future.
   While technically as the president, Trump has the right to compel the
   Justice Department to investigate as an executive branch agency. But
   historically, the Justice Department has functioned as an independent
   agency, unmoved and unbound by political sway. And that reputation is
   important to Barr, as he made clear in the interview.
   "I'm happy to say that, in fact, the president has never asked me to do
   anything in a criminal case," Barr told ABC. "However, to have public
   statements and tweets made about the department, about our people ...
   about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we
   have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the
   courts and the prosecutors in the department that we're doing our work
   with integrity."
   Barr was directly asked whether he believed Trump had the authority to
   direct him to open an investigation.
   "Terrorism or fraud by a bank or something like that where he's
   concerned about something, he can certainly say I think someone should
   look into that. That's perfectly appropriate," Barr said. ''If he were
   to say, you know, go investigate somebody because - and you sense it's
   because they're a political opponent, then an attorney general
   shouldn't carry that out, wouldn't carry that out."

References

   1. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1228311415192215553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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