Attorney General Garland needs to assist Congress in drafting legislation that will end these secretive practices in the DOJ.
It is all fine and good to have the political discussions this news spawns, but, there needs to be something done about the ability of the DOJ to carry on unlawfully in secret. I know there is a lot to be said about ethics, but, the ability of the DOJ to carry out secret political agendas is out of the question. There needs to be someone, like the Inspector General, that screams bloody murder over law-breaking within the department itself.
This cannot be allowed to exist at all anywhere in the USA government or any state or local government either.
The professions are supposed to police themselves with state organizations that remove licenses and bring about fines for unethical practices, but, there is every indication professional organizations were made mute during the Trump years. Nothing they did or stated mattered.
This news from Judge Jackson is alarming in the worst possible way. The DOJ under the direction of Bill Barr, then Attorney General, conducted itself in a corrupt and illegal way that undermined even the investigation of the relationship Russia had with the Trump campaign. I don't care if the meetings were haphazard, the nexus existed and it has to be put to an end.
What is even more disturbing is the fact the transfer of power to a new president was met with real challenges. The State of Georgia had it not been for the Secretary of State could have been corrupted and lost to the electoral count. Vice President Pence, if it had been someone else, could have effected the actual electoral count. The fact that the insurrection even occurred, let alone resulted in violence at the US Capitol which actually did delay the electoral vote count; are all factors the Congress must address to prevent such problems from manifesting again.
Perhaps, stenographers need to be assigned to the Attorney General that records every word spoken in meetings and then submitted to the Inspector General and/or an Inspector General assigned to record and evaluate the Attorney General's decisions.
There must be a way of policing the DOJ that removes the ability to maintain a veil of secrecy to undermine the USA Constitution. The DOJ must be prohibited from acting as an adjunct to the President's political agenda. The DOJ must retain the right to prosecute the Executive Branch for unlawful acts while in office.
By William S. Schmidt
...The department (click here) had argued that the memo was exempt from public records laws because it consisted of private advice from lawyers whom Mr. Barr had relied on to make the call on prosecuting Mr. Trump. But Judge Jackson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011, ruled that the memo contained strategic advice, and that Mr. Barr and his aides already understood what his decision would be....
