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‘Emergency meeting’ of Fed Judges critical of Trump and Barr abruptly postponed, indefinitely

February 20, 2020 | | Print Article

An “emergency meeting” called by a group of federal judges over actions by President Trump and the Justice Department has reportedly been postponed.

After initially rescheduling the meeting, the Federal Judges Association indefinitely postponed the conference call between 14 judges, according to Megan Cruz, the executive director of the national group of more than 1,000 federal judges, CNN reported.

(Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

The teleconference meeting, originally set for Tuesday, was to address concerns from the volunteer organization representing more than 1,100 federal judges over Attorney General William Barr and the DOJ intervention in cases involving Roger Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The group’s president, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, had said they “could not wait” until their annual conference in the spring to discuss the controversy following an open letter from former Justice Department officials calling for Barr to resign.

“There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about,” Rufe, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, said. ‘We’ll talk all of this through.”

But the conference call involving the judges who serve as officers on the association’s executive committee was moved to Wednesday afternoon and then postponed altogether. CNN reported that “Cruz offered no further details and did not respond to questions asking whether the group had been asked to reschedule the meeting.”

Trump had targeted the group in a tweet on Tuesday, calling them to look into the FISA fraud in the “Mueller Investigation Scam” against him and his administration.

The president has said that Stone deserved a new trial and had been treated “very unfairly.” The longtime Trump ally was found guilty on all seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering back in November and the prosecution’s recommendation of a seven to nine year sentence was slammed by Trump and others as excessive.

But the DOJ overruled the prosecutors and the president questioned the impartiality of the presiding judge, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was appointed by former President Obama. Stone’s legal team has also requested a new trial in light of revelations that the jury foreman in his trial was former Tennessee Democrat congressional candidate Tomeka Hart, who had been posting negative remarks about Trump and had posted about Stone’s case before she had even voted to convict him.

Barr came under attack by liberals when he admitted last week that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job,” during an interview with ABC News, adding that the president “has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.”

The White House made it clear in a response that Trump “wasn’t bothered” by the attorney general’s remarks and that he has “full faith and confidence” in Barr.

The attacks on Barr continued as the Washington Post reported he was thinking of resigning over Trump’s tweets, a rumor quickly squashed by the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, as liberals cheered the original “emergency meeting” called by the Federal Judges Association to address Barr and the president’s actions, many Twitter users weighed in on the cancellation.

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Frieda Powers
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