Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign, accusing him of bending the work of her former workplace, the Department of Justice, to do the bidding of President Donald Trump.
Durkan, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington from 2009 to 2014 under President Barack Obama, joins over 1,100 of her fellow Justice Department alumni who have called on the federal government’s top lawyer to step aside after he intervened in the prosecution of Roger Stone, a close ally of President Donald Trump.
Durkan was not initially listed with those who signed a widely distributed letter released by former Justice Department lawyers and officials accusing Barr of showing favoritism toward a friend of the President’s. But when reached Sunday, Durkan said she endorsed the letter.
“President Trump’s interference in the fair administration of justice in repeated matters is another example of severe misuse of power under this administration,” Durkan said. “Unfortunately the President seems to have been enabled where he should have been restrained. This is why I’m proud to sign on to a letter with hundreds of other Department of Justice alumni calling on the resignation of Attorney General Barr.”
Durkan’s predecessor in the Western District, John McKay, signed the letter before it was released on Sunday. McKay served under President George W. Bush. The statement is signed by a mix of officials who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations.
The open letter is an extraordinary statement from a wide swath of former DOJ employees. It accuses Barr of “doing the President’s personal bidding” after he personally stepped in to lower the sentencing recommendation against Stone.
“Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice’s reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign,” the letter reads.
When Obama appointed her to lead the Western District in 2009, Durkan became the country’s first openly LGBT U.S. Attorney. After a brief stint in the private sector, Durkan ran for and won the Seattle mayor’s office in 2017 in large part on her experience in that office. She argued throughout her campaign that she was the best equipped to stand up to Trump.
As mayor, Durkan has continued to call back to her time as U.S. Attorney, even once personally arguing the city’s case for police reform in front of a federal judge. She has also been a consistent voice in the chorus of blue-state politicians condemning the Trump administration for its actions, especially surrounding immigration. Last fall, Seattle joined a lawsuit against the administration over fees to apply for naturalization.
The controversy around Stone is an extension of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Stone was a witness in that investigation and was charged with obstructing a congressional inquiry. Prosecutors for the Justice Department initially recommended he receive up to nine years in jail.
The recommendation was met with outrage from Trump, a longtime friend of Stone’s. The next day, Barr stepped in to lower the recommendation. The timing of his involvement, rare for the country’s top lawyer, led to immediate speculation that Barr was bending to Trump’s wishes. The four prosecutors assigned to the case withdrew in protest and one left the department altogether.
Barr went on television last week to dispute that his decision was politically motivated, even going so far as to say that Trump’s tweets are harmful to his department.
“I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” he said on ABC Thursday.
For her part, Durkan has at least one direct professional connection to the controversy. Mueller served as director of the FBI until 2013, overlapping and working with Durkan. Durkan keeps of photo of the two of them together in her office.