Did Congressman Cicilline Threaten U.S. Attorney General Barr?
Monday, February 17, 2020
A Tweet by U.S. Congressman David Cicilline (D-1st) directed to United States Attorney General William Barr is just the latest in a growing controversy relating to interference with the U.S. Justice Department. Cicilline in his Tweet was less than subtle about who controls the Justice Department's budget.
The controversy began when President Donald Trump Tweeted that convicted felon Roger Stone should receive a lesser sentence than what federal prosecutors had proposed.
After Trump’s Tweet, Barr intervened and lowered the recommended sentencing and four members of the Justice Department resigned in protest.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” Mr. Barr said during a televised interview on Thursday with ABC News.
Over the weekend, more than 1,100 former prosecutors and officials who served in Republican and Democratic administrations signed an open letter condemning the president and the attorney general over the Stone case.
Cicilline Reminds Barr "Who Controls His Budget"
Cicilline’s Tweet said, “Bill Barr should probably remind himself that his job is to uphold the law. And also that Congress controls his budget.”
Did the member of the House leadership threaten to cut the Judiciary Department’s budget if the Barr did not take actions that the Congressman demands?
"Because the Congressman doesn’t use social media in quite the same way as the President, it’s very unlikely that his message is intended as formal communication. For that matter, I’m sure the Congressman has no expectation that the message will ever reach the Attorney General," said Val Endress, Professor of Communication at Rhode Island College.
"There’s a theory in persuasion that says that one should not act as if one possesses absolute power because you will be very quickly reminded of its limits. This is exactly that sort of reminder. Clearly Congress is looking for a way to reassert itself with the Trump Administration," said Endress.
Roger Williams Associate Dean Jared Goldstein said that it was "just a fact that Congress controls the budget."
"It has oversight authority over all federal agencies, since it provides the funds, and it can use its budgeting and oversight authority to make sure that agencies follow the laws that Congress passes and that agency heads swear an oath to carry out," said Goldstein.
Endress said, "If Democrats truly believe that Barr has placed the rule of law at risk, constituents need to be reassured. Realistically, this isn’t a message to William Barr, but to the Congressman’s Democratic constituents. Congress has had few wins with the Trump Administration of late and neither the Congressman or Congress as a whole want to be perceived as weak. Reasserting power through checks-and- balances has always been the way that Congress demonstrates that they cannot be ignored. It says, in essence to the constituents, 'I’m on this and we can do something about this.' But, we’ll have to see how far the Administration will go to test their limits of power. We are, in some ways, in uncharted territory."
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