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FBI's Top Lawyer Ousted By Bill Barr Amid Fox News Criticism
Another pillar of the FBI’s independence wrecked by Bill Barr's Department of Justice, working on behalf of Trump, not the American people.
After a 38-year career with the Justice Department, the FBI's top lawyer Dana Boente was [forced] to resign on [May 30, 2020].
Two sources familiar with the decision to dismiss Boente said it came from high levels of the Justice Department rather than directly from FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Wray formally asked for Boente's resignation, but the decision to end his tenure at the FBI came from Attorney General William Barr's Justice Department, which oversees the FBI....
Since the founding of the FBI, its Director has determined whom to pick and when to replace its General Counsel. Now the DOJ has swooped in.
His departure comes on the heels of recent criticism by Fox News for his role in the investigation of former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Boente also said in a recently leaked memo that material put into the public record about Flynn was not exculpatory for the former national security advisor. The memo undermines the Justice Department's latest position that material about Flynn was mishandled by prosecutors.
Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said on April 27 that, "Shocking new reports suggest F.B.I. General Counsel Dana Boente was acting in coordination with F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray to block the release of that evidence that would have cleared General Flynn."
Is Barr trying to drive out Boente because he is independent? He played a key role at DOJ in the early days of the Trump Administration, when the Mueller investigation first began.
In a joint statement on Sunday, Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both D-Va., said Boente was a “dedicated and experienced career civil servant.” They said that if Boente was pushed out as retribution for his role in the Flynn investigation, “[he] appears to be one more victim of the Attorney General’s disturbing crusade to turn the Department of Justice into another arm of the president’s political campaign.”
"Few people have served so well in so many critical, high-level roles at the Department," Wray said in a statement. "Throughout his long and distinguished career as a public servant, Dana has demonstrated a selfless determination to ensure that justice is always served on behalf of our citizens. We should all be grateful for his dedication to the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the American people..."
If Boente was driven out of FBI, Congress needs to investigate why and what happened.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/30/politics/dana-boente-fbi-top-lawyer-resigning/index.html