One of the more than 1,000 former career DOJ officials who signed a letter demanding Attorney General William Barr’s resignation went on cable news on Monday afternoon and explained his position. He said that it was important for the history books to show that “everything Barr touches dies.”
Gene Rossi, a Law&Crime Network trial analyst and former federal prosecutor with more than two decades of experience, emphasized “history, history, history” and the importance of “send[ing] a message to the American people” when discussing the purpose of signing a letter that will not result in Barr’s resignation.
“You had a segment the coronavirus, the Department of Justice–and I am being somewhat facetious, has a virus of its own called E-B-D-T: Everything Barr touches dies. And the Stone sentencing is one symptom of that virus,” Rossi said, before shifting attention to former George H.W. Bush Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer’s article in The Atlantic.
Ayer also signed the aforementioned letter even though he used to supervise Barr; he called Barr “un-American.”
“I just met Don Ayer. Don Ayer also signed that letter, and why is he important? Don Ayer was a U.S. attorney, a deputy Solicitor General and a deputy Attorney under President Ronald Reagan and President George Herbert Walker Bush, he supervised Bill Barr,” Rossi said. “These are his words, not mine, he said ‘it’s not too strong to say that Bill Barr is un-American.'”
Rossi said he completely agreed with the logic of Ayer’s take, reciting chapter and verse the controversies of recent weeks and the last year.
“Now here’s the reason why he said that–and I agree with his thinking and his logic. Bill Barr has decimated the esprit de corps and the rule of law in the Department of Justice,” he said. “And it’s not just the Stone backtracking–which was disgraceful because he reacted to a tweet by the president–it’s what he did whitewashing the Mueller Report, and what he did that there was spying by the FBI and CIA. He’s now opening up a re-evaluation of the Michael Flynn guilty plea? Come on.”
“He is destroying the esprit de corps and the fabric of the Justice Department which is this: to look at a case fairly and impartially and regardless of whether you are a ‘R,’ a ‘D’ or an independent, and if you have broken the law, nobody is above the law–including the President of the United States,” Rossi concluded.
You can watch this in the video embedded above.
[Image via CNN screengrab]