US President Donald Trump called on Attorney General William Barr on the 20th to immediately investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Trump told the American “Fox and Friends” program that day: “We must get the Attorney General to move, he must act and be fast.” In Trump’s view, Biden and his son “are suspected of major corruption and must Make it public before the election”.
The Associated Press reported that Trump recently continued to promote a report in the New York Post, identifying an official of the Ukrainian state-owned natural gas company where Hunt had arranged for him as a director in 2015 to meet with his father Biden in Washington. The Biden campaign insisted that the schedule records at the time showed that then Vice President Biden did not meet with the official.
Trump did not specify the crime committed by the Biden father and son, but recently hinted at a campaign rally that the father and son should go to jail. The Associated Press said that with only about two weeks left before the November 3 presidential election day, Trump publicly asked for the investigation of Biden and his son for the first time. He has repeatedly mentioned Hunter’s unconfirmed scandal as a reason why voters should not allow Bai to enter the White House.
In addition to pressure on Barr to investigate Biden and his son, Trump is dissatisfied with the slow progress of the Department of Justice in tracing the source of the “Russia” investigation. Trump and his allies previously had high expectations for the “source” investigation led by Connecticut federal prosecutor John Drum, hoping to discover the “inappropriateness” of the FBI’s initial “Russia” investigation. However, in the year and a half since the investigation, only one former FBI lawyer has pleaded guilty, and the investigation could not be completed before the election.
According to the Associated Press, Barr was privately frustrated with Trump’s public remarks. Although he agrees to trace the source of the “Russia” investigation, he often complains that the president does not understand the complexity of the US judicial system and the cumbersome procedures of investigation.
As the election approached, Barr reduced his contact with the media and avoided answering media questions about Trump’s request for more involvement in the election by the Justice Department. However, he had previously “standing in line” with Trump on controversial issues such as election fraud, and even refused to admit that the president’s practice of requiring voters to vote twice was illegal because of his unfamiliarity with the laws of the states.
The day before Trump’s “call”, 11 Republican members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Barr, calling on the Department of Justice to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Biden received foreign political contributions during his term as vice president and whether he would allow Hunter to provide foreign business entities. Sell opportunities to be close to yourself.
Princeton University presidential historian Julian Zelizer believes that Trump’s pressure on Barr adds uncertainty to the direction of the presidential election, and it is difficult to judge whether Barr will deviate from the rules of conduct established by the US judicial system since the Watergate incident.
Michael Cassidy, an expert on legal ethics at Boston College, also believes that the US Department of Justice has never been involved in electoral politics, but Barr, like Trump, is willing to “subvert” traditions.
