Lev Parnas just made his move against Attorney General Bill Barr
Last week, Ukraine scandal figure Lev Parnas went on television and made a number of serious accusations of criminal misconduct against Attorney General Bill Barr – including the assertion that Barr was in on a plot to drop the case against a Kremlin oligarch in exchange for dirt on Robert Mueller. Now Parnas is formally making his move against Barr.
Lev Parnas and his attorney Joseph Bondy have filed a letter aimed at forcing Bill Barr to recuse himself from the criminal case against Parnas, and forcing the appointment of a special prosecutor from “outside the Department of Justice” to take over the case. The letter alleges that Barr’s DOJ has been withholding key evidence and information from Parnas that could help him at trial. Here’s the thing.
Parnas didn’t just send this letter to the DOJ. He also sent it to the judge in his criminal case. It’s up to the judge’s discretion whether to get involved in the matter. But this is the same judge who recently gave Parnas permission to hand over the evidence in his criminal case to the House Intelligence Committee, so this judge has already shown a willingness to play ball with Parnas’ requests.
Even as Attorney General, Bill Barr doesn’t have a magic wand for being able to just do whatever he wants. If he concludes that the court pressure, public pressure, and media pressure on him is such that his best option for surviving this is to recuse himself, he could end up having little choice but to do it. Parnas could then cut a cooperating plea deal with the special prosecutor and formally flip on Rudy Giuliani, Bill Barr, Donald Trump, and others. Stay tuned on this one.
