Dear Reader,

Attorney General Bill Barr finally appeared before the House Judiciary Committee this week. As Anne and I discussed on the CAFE Insider podcast, the hearing was disappointing in myriad ways. With a few notable exceptions, Barr’s exchanges with members were not illuminating. Some of that was the fault of the Attorney General, but much of it could be laid at the feet of Democratic Representatives, many of whom asked vague questions, poor questions, or no questions at all.

One five-minute round, however, got to the heart of the matter. It shone a light on the unprecedented nature of Barr’s personal interference in a case commenced by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and then professionally handled by career prosecutors in the Department of Justice: the sentencing recommendation to the judge in the criminal case of Trump’s friend, Roger Stone.

With a tone of righteous indignation, Barr defended his last-minute order that the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office withdraw its sentencing brief, which recommended seven to nine years of imprisonment, and submit a new, lower recommendation of three to four years. As you have heard me say, reasonable people could differ on the proper sentencing range. In my own experience, 7-9 years for Stone’s conduct seemed high, and as Barr triumphantly noted, the judge who had complete discretion to go higher or lower, imposed the more lenient sentence. But that misses the point. Of all the cases in all the land, why did the chief federal law enforcement officer intervene in this case, which involved not only a Presidential friend, but misconduct that was designed to protect that President? To judge the action and whether it was inappropriate or unethical or corrupt, it would be important to know if Barr had quietly in other, less well-known cases brought his exquisite sense of justice to bear. Perhaps in a narcotics case or a robbery case or an immigration case? That would take some of the stink off the intervention. Maybe we would be surprised.