CREW statement on DOJ blocking release of Trump obstruction memo
In a scathing decision earlier this month, Judge Amy Berman Jackson found that the Department of Justice misled the court and Attorney General Bill Barr misled the country and ordered the Department to disclose a memo Barr used to help justify saying the Mueller Report did not support obstruction charges against Donald Trump. Following the DOJ’s decision not to release the memo, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington President Noah Bookbinder released the following statement:
“We are deeply disappointed in the Justice Department’s decision. The Department of Justice had an opportunity to come clean, turn over the memo, and close the book on the politicization and dishonesty of the past four years. Last night it chose not to do so. In choosing to fight Judge Jackson’s decision, the DOJ is taking a position that is legally and factually wrong and that undercuts efforts to move past the abuses of the last administration. We will be fighting this in court.”
The part of the memo that the DOJ did turn over may have been more revealing than they intended it to be. Bookbinder continued:
“The limited portion of the memo that the Justice Department did disclose provides further evidence that Attorney General Barr’s efforts were not aimed at making any real legal determination, but were instead aimed at publicly spinning the damning findings of the Mueller Report into a vindication of Donald Trump. The deception needs to end now.”