Thomas Veil
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We’ve said they’re pretty naked lately in their contempt for the law. Here it is again.
Barr blasts his own DOJ prosecutors, equates them to preschoolers and 'headhunters'
I think we all agree that there are overzealous prosecutors, but that’s not the problem with this administration. This administration’s problem is overzealous lawbreakers...and their apologists.
Barr blasts his own DOJ prosecutors, equates them to preschoolers and 'headhunters'
In scathing remarks against his own staff, Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that the Justice Department has recently acted "more like a trade association for federal prosecutors than the administrator of a fair system of justice" and equated some prosecutors to preschoolers and "headhunters."
Too much deference is given to career prosecutors, rather than to politically appointed leaders who can be held accountable at the ballot box, he said in remarks likely to further strain relations between Barr and some of the Justice Department's career prosecutors.
..."The notion that line prosecutors should make the final decisions within the Department of Justice is completely wrong, and it is antithetical to the basic values underlying our system," Barr said. Prosecutors too often become "headhunters, consumed with taking down their targets," he said.
"In case after case, we have advanced and defended hyperaggressive extensions of the criminal law. This is wrong, and we must stop doing it," he said in a speech at Hillsdale College’s annual Constitution Day Celebration, which this year was held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA.
Barr said he is annoyed by the claim that political officials interfere in criminal prosecutions, given that all prosecutorial power is vested by law in the attorney general.
Some career attorneys are not partisan, he said, but they are often less experienced than their supervisors.
"Name one successful organization where the lowest-level employees' decisions are deemed sacrosanct," he said. "There aren't any. Letting the most junior members set the agenda might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it's no way to run a federal agency."
A lot to unpack there, particularly Barr’s tired old comparison of government to a business. Even if we allow that argument...what business gets anywhere when the supervisors constantly undercut employees who are following good procedure? Is a store’s loss prevention officer wrong for nabbing a shoplifter if the manager comes over and tells him to let the shoplifter go (because he’s the manager’s friend)?Barr did not mention Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation in his prepared remarks. During the speech, however, he noted that the Trump administration has sometimes been described as lawless even though, he said, it had a better record of wins in the Supreme Court than the Obama administration.
I think we all agree that there are overzealous prosecutors, but that’s not the problem with this administration. This administration’s problem is overzealous lawbreakers...and their apologists.