Walton’s known to be generally sympathetic to prosecutors, with a reputation for being a “long ball hitter,” meaning that he tends to hand down sentences on the harsher side of the spectrum, according to Shanlon Wu, a former federal prosecutor who practiced in front of Walton when the judge was on the D.C. Superior Court. © 2020 TPM MEDIA LLC.
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A federal judge has sharply criticized Attorney General William Barr's handling of the Mueller report, saying Barr made misleading statements potentially to spin the report … Walton’s remarkable order noted that Barr’s “misleading public statements” about the report raise the possibility that his redactions are “tainted” and “self-serving”—and, by extension, illegal.

The judge said that the way Barr rolled out the Mueller report called into question Barr’s “credibility” and thus the claims that the Justice Department now was making about the report’s redactions. Seasoned legal experts said they had never seen anything like the opinion that U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton of Washington, D.C., issued in a Freedom of Information Act case.

Waxman called Walton’s opinion “unprecedented,” with its closest parallel being some of the judicial opinions issued against the Nixon administration. Judge Walton, who is African American, has questioned DOJ’s prosecutorial tactics in the past, and has said he became a lawyer after facing racial profiling from law enforcement while growing up in a small Pennsylvania mining town. In describing Barr’s handling of the Mueller report, Walton used specifically the term, “lack of candor.”. “For a judge to call out a prosecutor and say, ‘I can’t trust the representation you are making,’ undercuts the entire criminal justice system,” Waxman said.

What stood out to former federal prosecutors is that Walton called out Attorney General Bill Barr by name. An appointee of President George W. Bush who had served in George H.W.

And you'll never see this message again. “When a judge calls out a prosecutor for falsehoods and this prosecutor is the attorney general himself, it’s indicative of the fabric of the justice system deteriorating,” Seth Waxman, a former prosecutor in the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office, told TPM.

In a separate FOIA case — where the challengers were seeking materials related to Andrew McCabe, the former top FBI official who has long been in the President’s crosshairs — Walton suggested the DOJ was trying to pull “the wool” over the judge’s “eyes” with its indecision over whether it would bring charges against McCabe. The Justice Department did not respond to TPM’s inquiry. Department of Justice Dear Chairman … By joining Slate Plus you support our work and get exclusive content. But no matter the eventual outcome of this dispute, his order constitutes a rare and extraordinary judicial rebuke of the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

Barr’s crusade to frame the Mueller report as an exoneration may have muffled its impact. He added that if a judge had made those kinds of assertions about a low-level “line” prosecutor, that prosecutor would be referred to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, which handles accusation of prosecutorial misconduct. But the attorney general’s relentless mendacity may have undercut his efforts to protect the president by keeping many of Mueller’s findings a secret. Barr’s initial summary, he wrote, “distorted the findings in the Mueller Report” in at least two ways. “He is very law and order,” Wu said, but he “does not hesitate to speak his mind.”. You can cancel anytime.

“ We saw this with Stone and we are seeing it again here.”. Apply for a free community-supported membership, NBC: Everything Trump’s COVID Adviser Says Is False, Proclaims CDC Director, Report: Trump Repeatedly Pushed For Ivanka To Be His Running Mate In 2016, Ex-Trump Camp Manager Brad Parscale Hospitalized After Threatening Suicide In His Home, Attorney General William Barr arrives on Capitol Hill for a meeting on January 29, 2019. The actions cited by the judge include Barr’s release last March of a four-page summary of Mueller’s findings before the larger redacted report was released to the public. In proceedings in this case and others, Walton has shown signs of frustration with the Justice Department’s recent sketchy behavior. In his Thursday order, Walton took issue with both the “summary” and the press conference. When members of Congress asked Barr about Mueller’s possible objections to his summary, he flatly lied. According to Wu, that perspective showed through in Wednesday’s opinion. “I have never seen an attorney general called out this way before by a judge for making misrepresentations,” Harry Sandick, a former federal prosecutor, told TPM in an email. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. He’s sided with the government on cases challenging the president’s executive power on national security issues.

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