Judge orders Bill Barr's secret Trump memo to be released

A federal judge this week rejected the Justice Department's attempts to keep secret a departmental opinion to not charge former President Donald Trump with obstruction at the end of the Mueller investigation, calling the administration's lawyers "disingenuous."
The department had argued in court that the largely redacted March 2019 memo was legal reasoning that helped then-Attorney General William Barr make a decision about Trump. But federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she believed Barr and his advisers had already decided they wouldn't charge the President with a crime before he got the written advice, and the memo was partly strategic planning instead of legal reasoning -- and therefore could be made public.
The decision adds to the criticism federal judges and others have had about Barr and his handling of the end of the Mueller investigation. Jackson and others have repeatedly questioned Barr's motives to keep documents related to the investigation -- including Mueller's findings and Barr's reactions to them -- secret or by delaying their release.
"The agency's redactions and incomplete explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum, and the excised portions belie the notion that it fell to the Attorney General to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision was on the table at any time," Jackson wrote in a 35-page opinion released Tuesday.
"The fact that [Trump] would not be prosecuted was a given," she added.
The judge's opinion comes in a lawsuit where the government transparency group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is seeking access to DOJ documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
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[JM-xrzs]

Isn't misleading a judge in a court of law PERJURY?
I'm not a lawyer, but if I did it I would go to jail.

[RegisterRedVoteBlue]

I just want to know what the consequences are for all these things they did.

[SkyPe]

Nothing was more frustrating than watching the foxes gaurd the henhouse for four years. Time for real guard dogs to round them up.

[thomastammaro]

He weaponized the Justice Department, and turned it into an extension of his
"Piss ant" ego.☠

[DJAdikted]

Department of Injustice is what it was when Barr was at the helm.

[darrenengels]

The DOJ needs to open an investigation and if warranted Barr should be prosecuted.

[LoveyK]

Barr’s nickname back in the day was Cover-Up Barr.

[wilfredodiaz]

Finally we might getting to see what we all suspected

[cultureal]

DOJ is gonna need to hire 400 more lawyers for all these court cases to come because of previous admin corruptions

[uprightape]

Disbarment or prison? Why not both? Yay!

[richardb.]

Let's put those crooks in jail... With no pardon...

[Amber-rukj]

You can see the joy in the reporters eyes. Everything is coming to the surface, finally.

[guydegregg]

Anyone who was paying attention has known this for a long time

[pn]

Didn't we kinda know this already right after Barr issued that 4 page summary?

[TheDoorspookc]

Yes, let the charges flow like water 💧👏!

[tnnsboy]

Yet if any of us were to lie to a judge, we would be locked up quick... TF... tisk tisk tisk...

[tastethejace]

It's nice when we see little nuggets of justice every blue moon. Sadly, they're way too few and far between.

[ryanr]

We want the full and unredacted Mueller report. We paid for it and we deserve to see it.

[keeliekalayidol]

Our kids are learning that to get away with ANYTHING illegal just become a politician or Senator or attorney general, etc. Pathetic how much these people get away with. And without legal, deserved, jail time.

[htownstar]

Makes me wanna go back and watch Now Vp Harris and Barr questioning when she was in Congress. She touched on this exact thing