Attention to the Unseen

The Washington Post reports: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday urged federal judges who are in their mid-to-late 60s to step aside so that Republicans, increasingly nervous about holding the Senate majority in the November election as they eye President Trump’s poll numbers, can fill the vacancies now. Graham made the comments in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “This is an historic opportunity,” Graham said. “We’ve put over 200 federal judges on the…

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Politico reports: President Donald Trump has removed State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and replaced him with an ally of Vice President Mike Pence — the latest in a series of moves against independent government watchdogs in recent months. Trump informed Congress of his intent to oust Linick, a Justice Department veteran appointed to the role in 2013 by then President Barack Obama, in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday night. The president said he “no…

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CNN reports: Nearly three decades ago, John Gleeson made his name by successfully prosecuting the man known as “The Teflon Don.” Now he finds himself mixed up in a case tied to the modern-day inheritor of that nickname. On Wednesday, Gleeson became the latest participant in the turbulent criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, after the federal judge overseeing the case appointed Gleeson to oppose the Justice Department’s effort to drop it. An esteemed…

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Elie Honig writes: Just when it seemed that Attorney General William Barr would get away with intentionally tanking his own Justice Department’s conviction of President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a federal judge on Wednesday slammed on the brakes and now is demanding real answers. There’s a common saying that the courts are the final bulwark against tyranny. “Tyranny” may be a bit much here, but Judge Emmet Sullivan certainly seems to be taking a stand against…

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Politico reports: Sen. Richard Burr will step down temporarily as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee while under investigation by the FBI for his stock trading, a political earthquake that shocked Republican senators on Thursday and upended the Senate’s daily business. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Burr informed him he would step aside at the end of the day on Friday, news that followed the FBI serving him a search warrant and seizing his cell phone Wednesday evening…

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Yahoo News reports: The FBI inadvertently revealed one of the U.S. government’s most sensitive secrets about the Sept. 11 terror attacks: the identity of a mysterious Saudi Embassy official in Washington who agents suspected had directed crucial support to two of the al-Qaida hijackers. The disclosure came in a new declaration filed in federal court by a senior FBI official in response to a lawsuit brought by families of 9/11 victims that accuses the Saudi government of complicity in the…

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Jonathan Kravis writes: Three months ago, I resigned from the Justice Department after 10 years as a career prosecutor. I left a job I loved because I believed the department had abandoned its responsibility to do justice in one of my cases, United States v. Roger Stone. At the time, I thought that the handling of the Stone case, with senior officials intervening to recommend a lower sentence for a longtime ally of President Trump, was a disastrous mistake that…

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ABC News reports: Nearly 2000 former Justice Department officials have signed onto a letter calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign over what they describe as his improper intervention in the criminal case of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. Last week, the DOJ moved to drop charges against Flynn who had pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the former Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. The letter, signed mostly by former…

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The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump is hoping to persuade a Supreme Court with two of his appointees to keep his tax and other financial records from being turned over to lawmakers and a New York district attorney. The justices are hearing arguments by telephone Tuesday in a pivotal legal fight that could affect the presidential campaign, even with the coronavirus outbreak and the resulting economic fallout. Rulings against the president could result in the quick release of personal…

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Politico reports: Asked if he was doing Trump’s bidding [by dismissing charges against Michael Flynn], Barr said: “I’m doing the law’s bidding.” The proclamation rang hollow to numerous Justice Department employees. “There seems to be a different set of rules for political appointees,” said one longtime DOJ official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I was surprised. I didn’t think it would end like this — and this quickly.” The official said Barr’s move was another signal to career officials…

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In an editorial, the New York Times says: It can be hard to recall, since so many members of President Trump’s inner circle have been indicted, convicted of federal crimes and even sent to prison, but the first felon to emerge from this administration was Michael Flynn. Mr. Flynn, who served less than a month as the national security adviser before resigning in disgrace, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to F.B.I. investigators about his communications with the Russian…

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