司法部长威廉·巴尔(William Barr)已接受邀请，将于下月在众议院司法委员会就其涉嫌干预对罗杰·斯通(Roger Stone)的判决、美国检察官杰西·刘(Jessie Liu)和鲁迪·朱利安尼(Rudy Giuliani)被免职一事作证。这两人向司法部提供了有关唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统政治对手的信息。
在a信众议院委员会于2020年3月31日确认了司法部长的“作证协议”，并于周三将其发送给巴尔。议员们写道:“自特朗普总统上任以来，我们一再警告你和你的前任，出于政治目的滥用我们的刑事司法系统，对我们的民主是危险的，对众议院司法委员会也是不可接受的。”。"我们的共和党同事已经向国务院提出了同样的警告."
“在你担任司法部长期间，你在与总统有关的法律事务中的行为模式引起了本委员会的极大关注，”他们补充道。
2019年12月10日，在DC华盛顿四季酒店举行的《华尔街日报》年度首席执行官理事会会议上，美国司法部长威廉·巴尔(William Barr)谈到了美国司法部对2016年总统大选的调查。
在过去的24小时里，由于司法部(DOJ)对斯通刑事案件的处理，巴尔受到了民主党和特朗普批评者的严厉批评。周一晚上，四名检察官建议对特朗普的长期合作伙伴判处7至9年徒刑，几小时后，总统对这一决定进行了斥责，称其“非常可怕和不公平”在他发表讲话后，DOJ公开宣布他们打算放弃冗长的建议，转而寻求减刑。
DOJ很少推翻自己的检察官提出的建议，这些建议已经提交给法院。作为回应，参与斯通案件的四名职业检察官——乔纳森·克拉维斯、艾伦·泽林斯基、亚当·杰德和迈克尔·马兰多——都要求退出诉讼，其中一人从司法部辞职。
他们的建议是在斯通被判有罪后做出的，罪名包括向国会撒谎、阻挠众议院调查和篡改证人，这源于特朗普的助手参与了前特别顾问罗伯特·穆勒对总统2016年竞选活动是否与俄罗斯官员合作干涉总统选举的调查。
DOJ反对他们自己的检察官的举动促使特朗普的批评者指控巴尔和总统的政府干涉了一起刑事案件。DOJ否认这一指控，称这一决定是在总统发布推文之前做出的。
特朗普周三对记者表示，他也否认自己在政治上干预了斯通的案子，但感谢司法部减少了量刑建议。“一点也不。他受到了非常恶劣的待遇。四个人推荐了九年，也许他们是穆勒人，我不知道他们是谁，检察官，”总统在椭圆形办公室说。“我不知道发生了什么，他们都很快上路了。”
AG WILLIAM BARR WILL TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE ABOUT INTERVENING IN ROGER STONE'S SENTENCING
Attorney General William Barr has accepted an invitation to testify before the House Judiciary Committee next month about his alleged intervention in Roger Stone's sentencing, the removal of U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu and Rudy Giuliani feeding the Department of Justice information about President Donald Trump's political rivals.
In a letter sent to Barr on Wednesday, the House committee confirmed the attorney general's "agreement to testify" on March 31, 2020. "Since President Trump took office, we have repeatedly warned you and your predecessors that the misuse of our criminal justice system for political purposes is both dangerous to our democracy and unacceptable to the House Judiciary Committee," the lawmakers wrote. "Our Republican colleagues have warned the Department of the same."
"In your tenure as Attorney General, you have engaged in a pattern of conduct in legal matters relating to the President that raises significant concerns for this Committee," they added.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks about the Justice Department's Russia investigation into the 2016 presidential campaign, during the Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council meeting, at the Four Seasons Hotel on December 10, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Barr has faced significant criticism from Democrats and Trump critics in the past 24 hours over the Department of Justice's (DOJ) handling of Stone's criminal case. Hours after four prosecutors recommended a seven to nine year sentence for the longtime Trump associate on Monday night, the president railed against the decision, calling it "very horrible and unfair." Following his remarks, the DOJ publicly announced their intention to back away from the lengthy recommendation and instead seek a lower sentence.
It is rare for the DOJ to overturn recommendations made by their own prosecutors, which had already been lodged with the courts. In response, all four career prosecutors involved in Stone's case—Jonathan Kravis, Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, Adam Jed and Michael Marando—requested to withdraw from the proceedings, with one resigning from the department.
Their recommendation follows Stone's conviction on charges including lying to Congress, obstruction of a House probe and witness tampering, which stemmed from the Trump associate's involvement in former special counsel Robert Mueller investigation into whether the president's 2016 campaign coordinated with Russian officials to interfere with the presidential election.
The DOJ's move to go against their own prosecutors prompted Trump critics to accuse Barr and the president's administration of interfering in a criminal case. The DOJ denies the allegation, saying the decision was made before the president issued his tweet.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump also denied that he politically interfered in Stone's case, but thanked the department for lessening the sentencing recommendation. "Not at all. He was treated very badly. Nine years recommended by four people that, perhaps they were Mueller people, I don't know who they were, prosecutors," the president said in the Oval Office. "I don't know what happened, they all hit the road pretty quickly."
