What? Me worry?
(Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
Phillip Halpern explains why he’s quitting the Department of Justice after 36 years:
“Maybe I should’ve seen this coming, but like many of my colleagues, I fervently hoped that Attorney General William Barr’s preemptive misrepresentation of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was an honest mistake or a solitary misstep — rather than a deliberate attempt to conceal potential presidential misconduct. After all, Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case. He’s a well-trained bureaucrat but has no actual experience as a prosecutor.”
“Unfortunately, over the last year, Barr’s resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases. In each of these cases, Barr overruled career prosecutors in order to assist the president’s associates and/or friends, who potentially harbor incriminating information. This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.”
This is the kind of institutional brain-drain that will be so hard for the next administration to fix. It is not an exaggeration to say that Comrade Trump the Russian Usurper has destroyed the United States from within.
It makes me sick that the terrible people from the Trump party have driven out the decent people from previous administrations. “Drain the swamp” my ass.
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Yep, he drained it right into DC.
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Barrbarr the Effluent (mocking adaptation of Babar the Elephant from books I used to read to my kids).
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Hopefully- these experts will be among those who volunteer to sign back up after this travesty has ended. Perhaps they will not mind serving with people who actually wish to govern. Perhaps they won’t mind stepping back up to help prosecute the current administration for their criminal activities. Nothing like coming out of retirement to serve up some whipass on people who seriously deserve it.
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The rebuilding of integrity and trust internationally, as well as just literally rebuilding in general of all federal agencies contaminated with tRump stink, is going to be monumental, expensive, and critical. I think of people like Marie Yovanovitch, who I admit I’d never heard of until tRump forced her into the public eye, a smart dedicated effective highly-regarded public servant – what a loss!
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Marie Yovanovitch, the Vindman brothers, …. We have a lot of damage to undo.
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