By not complying with Judge Sullivan’s demand for documents, Barr threatens to provoke a constitutional crisis. If so, it’s one in which he is going to lose.
@BarbMcQuade — who is by instinct on the right side of these issues —
points out that one prosecutor, who is in the DOJ’s national security division and who was formerly on Mueller’s team, 1/5
was involved in the decision to withhold all but a small part of the materials Judge Sullivan had requested. McQuade suggests that the government might be trying to protect “intelligence equities.” 2/5
Maybe so, but 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) gives Judge Sullivan the right — indeed the obligation — to see all the govt’s materials.
It’s his call. And it’s also his call — or a higher court’s call, if the govt appeals — to decide how much of it should be public. 3/5
If Barr continues to defy the courts — the third branch of government — we really will be in a full-blown constitutional crisis.
So it is hard to imagine that the courts, including SCOTUS if it comes to that on appeal, will not have Judge Sullivan’s back on this. 4/5
And it is politically really, really stupid for the Trump Administration, via Barr, to blow off the House of Representatives, which impeaches, AND the courts, too.
I continue to believe that Bill Barr is a nitwit. 5/5
