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Barr says Trump's tweets 'make it impossible for me to do my job' – as it happened

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Thu 13 Feb 2020 20.10 ESTFirst published on Thu 13 Feb 2020 05.28 EST
Donald Trump and William Barr last year. Barr admitted the president’s comments undercut his authority.
Donald Trump and William Barr last year. Barr admitted the president’s comments undercut his authority. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA
Donald Trump and William Barr last year. Barr admitted the president’s comments undercut his authority. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

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Key events

Summary

  • Bill Barr, the attorney general, complained that Donald Trump’s tweets about justice department cases “make it impossible for me to do my job” and said he would not be “bullied” into doing the president’s bidding. The White House responded that Trump “wasn’t bothered” by Barr’s comments.
  • Critics have questioned Barr’s sincerity, given his record going along with what the president wants.
  • A federal judge dismissed Trump’s criticisms of the court’s handling of the Roger Stone case, issuing a rare statement to say, “The judges of this court base their sentencing decisions on careful consideration of the actual record in the case before them” and not based on “public criticism or pressure”.
  • The Democratic National Committee had oversight of the faulty app used in the Iowa caucuses, according to a report.
  • Nevada’s influential Culinary Union declined to endorse a candidate ahead of the caucuses next week. The union has criticized Bernie Sanders’ health plan and complained of “vicious attacks” from Sanders’ supporters.
  • Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is carrying on after placing third in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire.
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Elizabeth Warren is in Virginia, holding her first campaign event since the New Hampshire primaries.

A new chant for @ewarren from the crowd: “I believe that she will win.” pic.twitter.com/i5dBns81ZQ

— Daniella Díaz (@DaniellaMicaela) February 14, 2020

After placing third in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire, Warren is campaigning as a “consensus” candidate who can unite progressives and liberals.


Donald Trump will be the guest of honor at a fundraiser where donors are paying $580,600 per couple to attend. The Washington Post reports that the dinner on Saturday will take place at the Palm Beach estate of billionaire Nelson Peltz:

The dinner, taking place just a few miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, shows how enthusiastically Trump has embraced big-dollar fundraising in his bid for a second term — a dramatic about-face from 2016, when he criticized the influence of wealthy donors on the politicians who court them.

It also shows the special access enjoyed by many of Trump’s wealthiest donors, including business executives and lobbyists, who get the chance to air their grievances with the president’s tariffs or promote their pet projects, often while dining on Trump’s favorite foods.

The event will be the most expensive fundraising event for Trump since he took office.

A federal judge dismissed Donald Trump’s criticisms of the Roger Stone case. “Public criticism or pressure is not a factor” in the court’s decisions, said Beryl Howell, the chief US district judge of Washington.

Howell issued a rare statement in response to Trump’s criticisms of her colleague Amy Berman Jackson, the sentencing judge in the Roger Stone case.

“The Judges of this Court base their sentencing decisions on careful consideration of the actual record in the case before them; the applicable sentencing guidelines and statutory factors; the submissions of the parties, the Probation Office and victims; and their own judgment and experience,” she said.

Report: the Democratic National Committee had oversight of app that caused chaos in Iowa

The DNC was involved throughout the development of the mobile app that was meant to collect and tally results of the Iowa caucuses, according to Yahoo News. Party officials had access to the software – designed by Shadow – for testing before it was used Iowa, according to a contract obtained by Yahoo:

An unaffiliated Democratic operative in Iowa provided Yahoo News with a copy of the contract between Shadow and the Iowa Democratic Party. The contract, which was signed on Oct. 14 and refers to Shadow as the “Consultant,” specified that the company had to work with the DNC and provide the national party with access to its software for testing.

“Consultant agrees to work with the DNC Services Corporation / Democratic National Committee (‘DNC’) on an on-going basis as Consultant develops the software,” the contract reads.

The contract also specifies that Shadow agrees to “provide DNC continual access to review the Consultant’s system configurations, security and system logs, system designs, data flow designs, security controls (preventative and detective), and operational plans for how the Consultant will use and run the Software for informational dissemination, pre-registration, tabulation, and reporting throughout the caucus process.”

The DNC has tried to distance itself from the debacle in Iowa; chair Tom Perez has blamed state Democratic party, which directly oversaw the caucuses. After this election cycle, the party will “have a further conversation about whether or not state parties should be running elections”, Perez said in an interview with CNN.

In his resignation letter, the Iowa Democratic party chair, Troy Price, said, “I am deeply sorry for what happened and bear the responsibility for any failures on behalf of the Iowa Democratic party.”

Following the app’s failure in Iowa, the DNC abandoned plans to use a similar system from Shadow in the upcoming Nevada caucuses.

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On Fox News, Senate leader Mitch McConnell said the president should listen to attorney general Bill Barr. “I think the president should listen to his advice,” McConnell told Fox News host Bret Baier. “If the attorney general says it’s getting in the way of doing his job, the president should listen to the attorney general.”

Donald Trump “wasn’t bothered” by the attorney general Bill Barr’s comments, according to the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham. “President Trump uses social media very effectively to fight for the American people against injustices in our country.”

NEW: White House press sec. Stephanie Grisham says President Trump "wasn’t bothered" by Attorney General Bill Barr's comments to @ABC News. https://t.co/crNbWi6YpG pic.twitter.com/eK4dd9BdZ0

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 13, 2020

In an interview with ABC, Barr said “the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case” but added that the president’s tweets about the Roger Stone case and the Department of Justice’s work “make it impossible for me to do my job”.

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Before the president met with the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, today, he not only insulted Cuomo’s brother – the CNN political analyst Chris Cuomo – he also implied that the administration’s policies toward New York were linked to the state’s ongoing investigations into Trump’s finances.

“New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harassment, start cleaning itself up, and lowering taxes,” he tweeted, before the meeting.

The administration and New York have been at odds over a state law that allows undocumented people to apply for drivers licenses. Federal officials banned New York residents from applying to a federal program that lets travelers avoid long security lines.

Picking up on Trump’s ask that New York drop lawsuits, the representative Val Demings, one of the impeachment managers who made the case to remove Trump from office, said the president is “holding New York state hostage to try to stop investigations into his prior tax fraud”.

“The president is now expanding his abuse of power to blackmailing US,” she said.

Neither the president nor Cuomo has commented on whether they reached a resolution after today’s meeting. The acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, described the meeting as “productive”.

“New York is the only state that restricts CBP access to their data across the board – from law enforcement, customs, trade and travel facilitation purposes,” Wolf said. “Despite that, we will continue discussions with the State of New York to find a mutually agreeable solution.”

New York is one of several states that allow undocumented immigrants to have drivers licenses. Still, last week, Ken Cuccinelli, the homeland security department acting deputy secretary, said that New Yorkers would no longer be eligible to apply or reapply for the Global Entry program because the state’s policies made it harder for border agents to confirm immigration status. New York responded with a lawsuit against the administration.

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Vindman attorney: the president is ‘encouraging breaking the law’

The president claimed that “many of the people in the building started applauding” when Lt Col Alexander Vindman was escorted out after he was fired from his post at the National Security Council. Vindman and his twin brother were abruptly recalled from their positions in a campaign of retribution against officials who cooperated with the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.

“Vindman was the guy that, when we took him out of the building, the building applauded,” Trump said in a radio interview with host Geraldo Rivera. “I don’t know if you heard that.”

“Just so you understand, many of these people I’ve never met,” Trump added. “But I’m not a fan of Vindman, no question about it.”

JUST IN: Vindman’s attorney is out with a statement on Trump’s Geraldo interview. He says the president is “encouraging breaking the law” by attempting to intimidate and punish Vindman. pic.twitter.com/VsZXnW1L5J

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 13, 2020

In response, an attorney for Vindman responded that the president’s public attacks are “designed to intimidate and punish” the Ukraine expert, who provided key testimony in the impeachment case.

“By using the power of his office to repeatedly humiliate and punish those following the law, the president is encouraging breaking the law,” said attorney David Pressman.

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Evening summary

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands:

  • Attorney general Bill Barr said he would not be “bullied” into allowing the president to influence justice department decisions after Trump tweeted about the case of his former associate, Roger Stone. Barr complained that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job”.
  • The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said Trump’s comments on Stone represented “an abuse of power”.
  • The Senate passed a resolution aimed at limiting Trump’s authority to launch military operations in Iran, but the proposal seems unlikely to survive the president’s expected veto.
  • A judge has temporarily halted Microsoft’s cloud-computing work for the Pentagon in response to a lawsuit from Amazon, which claims the company lost the contract partly because of Trump’s bias against Jeff Bezos.
  • The Pentagon informed Congress it intends to shift $3.8bn in funds away from projects like fighter jets and national guard equipment to pay for Trump’s border wall.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

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Nevada's influential Culinary Union declines to endorse presidential candidate

The Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 workers in Nevada, declined to endorse a Democratic presidential candidate ahead of the state’s caucuses next Saturday.

“We’ve worked really hard to make sure members know what’s going on with the candidates, and we’re not stopping that,” the union secretary-treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline said during a press conference. “We’re going to endorse our goals, what we’re doing. We’re not going to endorse a political candidate.”

There was some speculation that the union would endorse Joe Biden, the only specific candidate Argüello-Kline mentioned during the press conference. But although she described Biden as “our friend”, the union did not offer an explicit endorsement.

The announcement comes after the union distributed a flier criticizing the Medicare-for-all plans embraced by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The union later said it was subjected to “vicious attacks” by Sanders’ supporters over the flier.

More details: @Culinary226’s spokeswoman tells me they have received “hundreds” of attacks, in the form of mentions, DM’s, calls and emails, including threats to their personal safety. She says she and Geoconda Arguello-Kline have been doxxed, their personal addresses shared.

— Megan Messerly (@meganmesserly) February 13, 2020
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The White House reportedly received little notice about attorney general Bill Barr’s comments to ABC News.

Senior level White House sources tell @ABC the president and top aides were unaware of the Barr’s intentions in today’s interview with ABC and were only informed of the content just before it aired - w/ @KFaulders

— John Santucci (@Santucci) February 13, 2020

Interestingly, Bill Barr said he hoped Trump would respond to the attorney general’s criticism of the president’s comments on Roger Stone.

“I hope he will react,” Barr told ABC News’ Pierre Thomas.

“And respect it?” Thomas asked.

“Yes,” Barr replied.

Despite attorney general Bill Barr insisting he will not be “bullied” by Trump on Justice Department matters, some commentators were skeptical that Barr was actually trying to distance himself from the president.

From an Obama-era Justice Department official:

Don't be fooled by this one, people. Barr is telling the president that his impulsiveness is making it politically harder for him to deliver the results he wants. If Trump would just shut up, Barr could take care of him much more effectively. https://t.co/6CmHHgxy9u

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) February 13, 2020

In his ABC interview, attorney general Bill Barr ackowledged his comments about Trump could leave him open to backlash from the president, who is notoriously intolerant of criticism from his aides.

But Barr said he was determined to lead the Justice Department without being influence by outside forces, including the president.

EXCLUSIVE: Attorney Gen. Bill Barr tells @PierreTABC “the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case”—but should stop tweeting about the DOJ because his tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.” https://t.co/YGa2AhcH5v pic.twitter.com/GSRRrJadSU

— ABC News (@ABC) February 13, 2020

“I think the essential role of the attorney general is to keep law enforcement, the criminal process sacrosanct to make sure there is no political interference in it. And I have done that and I will continue to do that,” Barr said. “And I’m happy to say that, in fact the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.”

The attorney general insisted he made his own decision that the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, the president’s former associate, should be revised, but Trump’s tweets on the matter complicated the issue.

“Do you go forward with what you think is the right decision or do you pull back because of the tweet?” Barr said. “And that just sort of illustrates how disruptive these tweets can be.”

Barr: Trump's tweets 'make it impossible for me to do my job'

In an interview with ABC News, attorney general Bill Barr said Trump’s tweets about Roger Stone’s case “make it impossible for me to do my job.”

“I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” Barr told ABC.

The attorney general emphasized Trump “has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case,” but he acknowledged the president’s comments undercut his authority.

“I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody ... whether it’s Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president,” Barr said. “I’m gonna do what I think is right. And you know … I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me.”

Trump suggested he may stop allowing aides to listen in to his calls with foreign leaders, a clear reaction to the Ukraine controversy.

“That’s what they’ve done over the years, when you call a foreign leader, people listen,” the president told Geraldo Rivera in a radio interview that aired today. “I may end the practice entirely, I may end it entirely.”

The impeachment inquiry was sparked by a whistleblower complaint stemming from Trump’s July phone call with the Ukrainian president, during which the US president asked for a “favor” and went on to discuss potential investigations of Democrats.

It’s a long-running practice to allow administration officials to listen in on presidential calls with world leaders to keep senior advisers updated on foreign policy.

Pentagon intends to shift $3.8 billion for Trump's border wall

The Pentagon has informed Congress of plans to shift $3.8 billion away from fighter jets and National Guard equipment, among other resources, to pay for Trump’s border wall.

Politico reports:

The surprise reprogramming of another $3.8 billion ... means the Pentagon will have forked over nearly $10 billion since last year to help pay for President Donald Trump’s border wall.

But this shift in funding marks a new phase for the administration, which until now had used money set for military construction and counterdrug operations, not combat equipment. The fiscal 2020 money will be moved into drug interdiction accounts that the Pentagon tapped last year to fund border barrier projects.

The money will be drawn from a host of procurement accounts, many of which are popular on Capitol Hill. The move includes a cut of two Marine Corps F-35B fighter jets at a cost of $223 million; $100 million from the Army National Guard’s Humvee modernization program; $650 million cut from the Navy’s amphibious assault ship replacement; and $261 million from the Expeditionary Fast Transport ship. The reprogramming also trimmed two Air Force C-130J transport aircraft for a cut of $196 million and $180 million from the service’s light attack aircraft program.

The plan sparked criticism from at least one Republican lawmaker, congressman Mac Thornberry, but he has already said he will not seek reelection next year.

Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas, the top Republican on House Armed Services Committee, says President Trump's latest raid on DOD funds to spend more taxpayer money on a Mexico border wall than Congress was willing to appropriate is unconstitutional. pic.twitter.com/JiorGw1LKt

— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) February 13, 2020

Judge halts Microsoft's Pentagon contract amid Amazon complaints

A judge has temporarily blocked Microsoft’s cloud-computing work with the Pentagon after Amazon complained that it lost the contract partly because of Trump’s bias against the company.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out against Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and owner of the Washington Post.

CNBC reports:

A judge ordered Thursday a temporary block on the JEDI cloud contract, which was awarded to Microsoft, in response to a suit filed by Amazon. Shares of Microsoft fell on the news, while Amazon’s stock rose slightly.
A court notice announcing the injunction was filed on Thursday, but wasn’t public. It’s unclear why the documents were sealed.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is instructed to earmark $42 million for any ‘costs and damages’ that could be incurred in the event that the ‘injunction was issued wrongfully,’ the filing states. Amazon must file a notice with the courts indicating it has obtained the $42 million by Feb. 20. Microsoft and Amazon must respond to the filing by Feb. 27.

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