US President Donald Trump believes he has “the legal right” to interfere in current legal affairs. He thereby ignores the plea of Justice Minister William Barr, who criticized Trump and his tweets.
Following the lawsuit against Trump’s former advisor and campaigner Roger Stone, William Barr had criticized some Twitter messages from the US president. Trump thinks it is +wrong because he says he has the right to interfere with legal matters.
Stone was found guilty in November for, among other things, lying to Congress and obstruction of justice in the context of the 2016 election campaign. But Trump doesn’t want to see his friend disappear behind bars for so long and expressed his displeasure on Twitter. “This is a terrible and very unfair situation,” he said. “Cannot allow this judicial error!”
The US Department of Justice then said that the sentence should be reduced. Trump was delighted on Twitter and congratulated Barr for the interference. The federal judge will determine the penalty for Stone on February 20. “Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted. Even Bob Mueller lied to Congress!”
“Puppet” by Trump
Trump placed him in a pretty tricky position, Barr thought. ‘Public announcements and tweets about the department, about people in the department, our men and women who work here, about matters the department is dealing with and about judges handling our cases, make it impossible for me to do my job to do,’ explained Barr two days ago, “and to guarantee to the courts and prosecutors in the department that we work with integrity.”
Barr himself said that the penalty was too high for Stone, but did not want to appear like a puppet of the president. Trump never directly asked him to get involved in a lawsuit, Barr said.
The president confirms this with his recent Twitter message. He is explaining that he never asked him to do anything about the criminal case. And that doesn’t mean that he, as president, doesn’t have the legal right to do that. “I chose not to do it myself.”
