William Barr Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Donald Trump Pressed Justice Department To Reverse The Election Results, Documents Show

By NPR News June 15, 2021

Former President Donald Trump addresses the North Carolina Republican Party's annual state convention on June 5. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

A batch of emails released by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee appears to paint a clearer picture of how former President Donald Trump and his allies attempted to pressure the U.S. Justice Department to investigate unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.Read More

DOJ Moves To Block Full Memo On Trump Obstruction Decision From Release

By NPR News May 25, 2021

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks last month

The Justice Department released a portion of an internal memo cited by former leaders as part of their decision concluding that former President Donald Trump did not obstruct justice, but in a court filing late Monday said it would seek to block the full document from release.Read More

32 Years Later, U.S. Charges Alleged Bomb-Maker In Pan Am Flight 103 Attack

By NPR News December 21, 2020

A police officer walks on Dec. 21, 1988, by the nose of Pan Am Flight 103 near Lockerbie, Scotland, where it lay after a bomb aboard exploded, killing a total of 270 people. CREDIT: Martin Cleaver/AP

U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced Monday — exactly 32 years after that deadly flight — that the department is charging Abu Agela Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi.Read More

On The Way Out, Barr Says No Need For Special Counsel For Hunter Biden Probe, Election Fraud

By NPR News December 21, 2020

Attorney General William Barr holds a news conference on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. Michael CREDIT: Reynolds/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Attorney General William Barr said Monday he sees no reason to appoint a special counsel to lead the ongoing federal investigation into Hunter Biden or to further probe President Trump's claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.Read More

William Barr To Step Down As Attorney General Before Christmas

By NPR News December 14, 2020

Attorney General William Barr after a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police Officer Safety and Wellness Symposium on Feb. 27 in Miami. Brynn Anderson/AP

Trump said he and Barr had a "very nice meeting" Monday and that their "relationship has been a very good one." Barr started out as a loyalist, but his relationship with the president frayed.Read More

Ex-FBI Lawyer To Plead Guilty In Case Linked To Alleged Abuse Of Surveillance Power

By NPR News August 14, 2020

The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse is home to the secret court that oversees surveillance on Americans. An ex-FBI lawyer has been charged in connection with filings to the court. CREDIT: Susan Walsh/AP

A former bureau attorney is alleged to have doctored evidence to enable the surveillance of an ex-junior foreign policy aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.Read More

President Trump Fires Top U.S. Prosecutor Who Investigated His Allies, Barr Says

By NPR News June 20, 2020

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks to reporters last year about two Florida men associated with President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the Ukraine investigation. CREDIT: Seth Wenig/AP

The attorney general said Trump removed Geoffrey Berman as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. But the president quickly sought to distance himself from the decision.Read More

U.S. Justice Department Is Dropping Its Case Against Ex-Trump Adviser Michael Flynn

By NPR News May 7, 2020

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn leaves the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in late 2018. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

After months of wrangling following the Russia investigation, prosecutors aren't going ahead with the case based on the former national security adviser's false statements to the FBI.Read More

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr Tells Prosecutors To Look For Unconstitutional Virus Rules From States

By NWPB News April 27, 2020

President Trump has congratulated Attorney General William Barr for "taking charge" of the Roger Stone case. Susan Walsh/AP

Attorney General William Barr on Monday ordered federal prosecutors across the U.S. to identify coronavirus-related restrictions from state and local governments “that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.”Read More

Roger Stone Sentenced To More Than 3 Years Amid Controversy Over President Trump And DOJ

By NPR News February 20, 2020

Roger Stone, former adviser to President Trump, arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on Thursday in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Nydia. CREDIT: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

President Trump's political adviser was found guilty on all counts by a federal jury last year after he was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing its investigation.Read More

1,100 Former DOJ Employees Call On AG Barr To Resign After Intervening In Roger Stone Case

By NPR News February 16, 2020

William Barr's Justice Department lowered the prison sentence recommendation for Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump, in a move that's led to accusations of political interference. Read More

Attorney General Says Trump’s Tweets About DOJ Make His Job ‘Impossible’

By NPR News February 13, 2020

Attorney General William Barr, pictured during a news conference on Monday, tells ABC News that President Trump should stop his commentary about ongoing Justice Department cases. CREDIT: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

William Barr told ABC News that he wishes the president wouldn't offer commentary about cases the Justice Department is handling or judges before which its attorneys are arguing.Read More

Chinese Hackers Charged In Alleged Cyber-Theft Of 145 Million Americans’ Data

By NPR News February 10, 2020

Attorney General William Barr and top law enforcement officials announced what they called a huge cyberattack on Monday at the Justice Department. CREDIT: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

The credit agency Equifax was compromised by a cyberattack that permitted China's military to steal names, Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information.Read More

Email Trail On Citizenship Question Is Longer Than Trump Administration Officials Said

By NPR News November 27, 2019

President Trump and U.S. Attorney General William Barr announce the Trump administration's decision to back down from its push for a citizenship question in the White House Rose Garden in July. CREDIT: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The Justice Department told a court it has realized there are more internal documents that it inadvertently failed to disclose before lawsuits over the now-blocked census citizenship question ended.Read More

Attorney General Announces DOJ Plan To Address Crisis Of Missing And Murdered Native Americans

By NPR News November 25, 2019

Attorney General William Barr speaks with Myrna DuMontier (left) and Charmel Gillin (right), councilwomen with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on Friday on the Flathead Reservation in Pablo, Mont. CREDIT: Patrick Semansky/AP

Studies find that Native Americans, especially women, are victims of disproportionate levels of violence, and state and federal databases inadequately track the crisis.Read More

Judge Orders DOJ To Hand Over Mueller Material, Validates Impeachment Probe

By NPR News October 25, 2019

A judge has ruled that the Justice Department must turn over grand jury material as part of the House impeachment inquiry. Liam James Doyle/NPR

Chief District Judge Beryl Howell rejected the Justice Department's case that the grand jury material must stay secret and Republicans' argument that a vote was needed to launch impeachment.Read More

Justice Department Announces Plan To Collect DNA From Migrants Crossing The Border

By NPR News October 21, 2019

Attorney General William Barr speaks at an event in Washington earlier this month. On Monday, he issued a proposed rule seeking to allow the federal government collect DNA samples from more than 740,000 immigrants every year. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Immigrant advocates are denouncing the proposal, arguing that collecting genetic information of border crossers could have implications for family members residing in the U.S. Read More

Researching Medical Marijuana May Soon Get Easier With DOJ Allowing More Applications

By NPR News August 29, 2019

Cyndi Michael, a former medical marijuana grower, holds the last syringes of cannabis tincture she will process for sale in Rickreall, Ore., after deciding to no longer grow medical marijuana. The number of medical marijuana growers participating in Oregon's 20-year-old medical cannabis program has plummeted after the state legalized cannabis for all adults. Michael, who once grew for eight patients, could no longer make ends meet and also lost her business selling supplies to other medical marijuana growers.

Researchers hoping to study marijuana for scientific and medical purposes are one step closer to expanding their limited supply of the plant. This week, the federal government announced it would begin processing dozens of pending applications for permission to cultivate the plant for scientific research.Read More

Americans Are Divided On Federal Executions. Why Is The Trump Administration Reviving Them?

By PBS Newshour July 26, 2019

The execution chamber at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence is shown in a screen grab from a video provided by the Arizona Department of Corrections on March 4, 2015. Courtesy Arizona DOC-REUTERS

The first federal inmate scheduled to be executed under the newly re-opened policy is Danny Lewis Lee, a white supremacist from the Spokane, Wash., area convicted of three murders in Arkansas and bombing Spokane City Hall in 1996.Read More

Federal Government To Resume Capital Punishment After Nearly 20-Year Hiatus

By NPR News July 25, 2019

U.S. Department of Justice - Office of Attorney General sign. CREDIT: Patrick Semansky/AP

"The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system," Attorney General William Barr said.Read More

Special Counsel Robert Mueller Makes Closing Statement, Steps Down After Leading Russia Inquiry

By NPR News May 29, 2019

Special counsel Robert Mueller makes a statement about the Russia investigation on Wednesday at the Justice Department. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Special counsel Robert Mueller stepped down Wednesday after concluding Donald Trump didn't conspire with Russia's interference in the 2016 election — but also detailing what critics called a range of troubling conduct.Read More

Mueller Report: Team Couldn’t Rule Out Obstruction … Or Firmly Establish It

By NPR News April 18, 2019

Attorney General William Barr speaks about the redacted version of the Mueller report as U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (right) and U.S. Acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O'Callaghan listen at the Department of Justice Thursday before the document's release. CREDIT: Win McNamee/Getty Images

But the 448-page document, released after a nearly two-year-long inquiry, depicts a president deeply worried about the investigation and aides stopping his attempts to influence it.Read More

READ: The Mueller Report, With Redactions

By NPR News April 18, 2019

Special counsel Robert Mueller leaves following a meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 21, 2017. CREDIT: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Attorney General William Barr has released a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election to Congress and the public. The special counsel spent nearly two years investigating attacks on the 2016 presidential election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russians behind it.Read More

Robert Mueller’s Russia Report Is Coming Thursday. Here’s What You Need To Know

By NPR News April 16, 2019

The questions and answers you need in order to prepare for the arrival of the hottest new 400-page document in Washington.Read More

Attorney General Nominee William Barr Vows To Let Mueller Finish His Work, Promises ‘Transparency’

By NPR News January 14, 2019

Attorney general nominee William Barr met with senators including Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, last week. Barr has vowed to preserve special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. CREDIT: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP

President Trump's nominee to serve as attorney general vowed to permit Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller to complete his work and said it was "very important" for the public and Congress to know the results.Read More