D21 Files 6th DOJ Complaint Against AG Barr, This Time for Appointing Former Trump Aide to Lead Criminal Investigation into Obama Administration ‘Unmasking’
The complaint also requested an investigation of “Bash’s failure to recuse himself from the appointment in light of his apparent conflict of interest in doing so.”
This is the sixth Justice Department complaint filed by Democracy 21 against AG Barr since April 2019. The previous complaints were filed on April 15, May 7, and October 1, 2019, and January 17 and February 27, 2020.
“Attorney General Barr has repeatedly misused his office to advance the partisan political interests of President Trump,” according to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer, who filed the complaint for the group.
“AG Barr opened a criminal investigation into Obama Administration ‘unmasking’ just months before the presidential election, and appointed a former Trump Special Assistant and Associate White House Counsel to lead the investigation. This is just one more example of Barr’s misuse of his office to benefit Trump’s partisan political interests and of his failing to comply with the Justice Department’s core mission ‘to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans,’” according to Wertheimer.
According to the Democracy 21 complaint:
John Bash is the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas. He was nominated by President Trump and sworn into that position on December 11, 2017. Prior to his appointment, Bash served in the White House as Special Assistant to President Trump and Associate White House Counsel.An individual who has worked as a Trump Special Assistant and White House Counsel has no public credibility to head a criminal investigation about the “unmasking” of Michael Flynn by Obama Administration officials. President Trump has been attacking the “unmasking” as part of his undefined and unexplained assertions about “Obamagate,” which appears to be nothing more than a label created for the purpose of damaging his presidential opponent, Joe Biden, who served as Vice President in the Obama Administration.
It is plainly inappropriate to name a former Special Assistant and Associate White House Counsel to Trump to conduct this politicized investigation, all the more so just months before a presidential election in which Trump is a candidate.
The fact that Attorney General Barr has opened this investigation at all plays into Trump’s use of the pejorative “Obamagate” label and furthers Trump’s efforts to discredit the Flynn investigation by Obama Administration officials, despite the fact that Flynn pleaded guilty and admitted his guilt under oath on multiple occasions.Any Department investigation of such a politically charged matter should not be opened at all just months before the presidential election, but if it is, the investigation must be undertaken in a manner that leaves no room for questioning the fairness, impartiality and credibility of the investigation or the investigators.
In this light, Attorney General Barr’s appointment of U.S. Attorney Bash to lead the investigation and Bash’s acceptance of the assignment is self-evidently improper, and in direct conflict with the Department’s core mission “to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.”
This unmasking allegation is publicly associated with President Trump and his allies, and with Trump’s efforts to damage and defeat Vice President Biden. Trump thus has a “specific and substantial” political interest in how the investigation of that allegation is undertaken and resolved, within the scope of the Justice Department’s conflict of interest and recusal rules.Thus, under DOJ conflict of interest rules, Bash has a “political relationship” with President Trump, and Trump has a “direct and substantial” interest in the conduct and outcome of the unmasking investigation.
Under DOJ conflict of interest rules, Barr should not have appointed Bash to lead this investigation and Bash should never have accepted the position. Bash is prohibited from conducting the “unmasking” investigation and must withdraw immediately from doing so.
According to The Washington Post,It was the FBI, not the NSA, that wiretapped Kislyak’s calls and created the summary and transcript, the former officials said.
“When the FBI circulated [the report], they included Flynn’s name from the beginning” because it was essential to understanding its significance, said a former senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive intelligence. “There were therefore no requests for the unmasking of that information.”
The decision to appoint Bash, with his close ties to President Trump, to lead an investigation initiated just months before a presidential election – an investigation that serves Trump’s partisan political aim of damaging his opponent in the coming presidential election – could not be more improper and in apparent violation of the Justice Department rules.Democracy 21 strongly urges you to open an immediate investigation of this matter and to take appropriate action to have U.S. Attorney Bash comply with the Justice Department’s recusal rules and to hold Attorney General Barr and Bash accountable for their apparent violation of the Department’s conflict of interest rules.
