Retiring Federal Prosecutor Goes Public With Harsh Criticism Of AG William Barr

Speaker 1: 00:00 Phil Halpern has fled the U S justice department. Halpern was a prosecutor at the San Diego us attorney's office for 36 years, under six presidents and 19 different attorneys, general helper, and worked on the corruption cases of former congressmen do Cunningham and Duncan Hunter Halpern told KPBS is Amica Sharma that he quit his job because of what he calls current attorney general William Barr's resentment of rule of law. Prosecutors. Here's that interview? Speaker 2: 00:30 What I meant by rule of law is that every single prosecutor in the department of justice is sworn to follow the laws of the United States. That's the very fundamental bedrock of our democracy. When we have an attorney general, the head prosecutor who thinks it's more important to follow the dictates of a president than it is to follow the laws of the United States. We have a problem. Speaker 3: 00:57 So tell me specifically, why did you decide to leave the us attorney's office in San Diego? Speaker 2: 01:03 I was hoping when the attorney general selectively quoted from the Mueller report, it was a mistake. He wasn't trying to mislead the American people. However, it became clear when I saw what happened in the Manafort case, the Flynn case, the stone case, the imposition of the president's will threw him on the normal course of justice. This became too much, and it just continued from there. His representing of Donald Trump's personal interests, whether it was trying to stop Michael cone from publishing a book, trying to prevent the president's tax returns from being public, his representing his wife's interests in a tell all book about her, his representing the president in a sexual harassment lawsuit by EEG and Carol, that had happened more than a decade before he was president attorney general BARR was working as Donald Trump's personal lawyer, as opposed to the lawyer for the people of the United States, which is his job. This is outrageous he's acting as the president's consigliore his mafia attorney. The better question is almost why did I stay as long as I did? And I stayed because I felt it was imperative to complete the prosecution of Duncan Hunter and his wife, president Trump made it clear in an early tweet that he was upset at the attorney general for indicting, both Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, two of his most ardent supporters in Congress, given that I was very, very concerned that there'd be meddling from the department of justice. If I left Speaker 3: 02:34 Some might say bars, predecessor, former attorney general sessions acted more egregiously. When he went along with the Trump plan in 2018 to prosecute all undocumented immigrants, even if children had to be separated from their parents. And many of these children ended up in cages in detention. Did you think about leaving the justice department? Then it bothered me, Speaker 2: 03:00 But at the time I waited and I said, as long as I personally would have nothing to do with it, I could do more good on the inside. I was what I think Donald Trump would refer to derisively as the deep state. And I want you to know that's a term that the career people in the department of justice and every other agency now wear with pride. Speaker 3: 03:27 Several federal prosecutors have quit the justice department under Bard, including the four who worked on the Roger Stone case. Why did you go public with your criticism of BARR? Speaker 2: 03:39 Well, I'm towards the end of my career and I had less to lose. Even that was a serious decision. It was something that troubled me greatly. I loved the department of justice. I've made my entire career. There. It's people are some of the best you could find anywhere. And in many ways, going against the department of justice is seen as an attack. Now I want to make it clear. I went against the attorney general and the leadership of the department of justice, not the department, but no prosecutor wants to walk that narrow line. I also felt because I weighed being silent, but at the end of the day, silence is really the enemy of democracy. Unless people speak up, we won't have a democracy. Speaker 3: 04:23 How widely shared are your reviews within the us attorney's office in San Diego Speaker 2: 04:28 In one simple word widely, I have to tell you one of the best things that have come from this, because obviously some people are upset at me, but that's balanced by the hundreds of emails, text messages, phone calls telling me that they're happy with what I did. They're proud of me that I gave them a voice. And because of that, I am forever grateful. And it's my hope that more prosecutors may speak out Speaker 3: 04:57 What have been the consequences for you as attorney's offices, across the country of having attorney general BARR at the helm, Speaker 2: 05:05 The consequences have to do with morale. Somebody says, who's your boss. If you have to say bill BARR, you're not going to hold your head up high. When people see how he's politicized the department. Speaker 3: 05:16 So us attorney Bob brewer in San Diego, your former boss sent out a press release this week, designating prosecutor, Christian Norio as the election officer for the Southern district. And the goal is to deter election fraud and discrimination at the polls. What's your take on this move. Speaker 2: 05:36 I have nothing bad to say about Bob brewer and doing something like this. The fact of the matter is Chris Tenorio has been our election fraud coordinator for years and years. He's a loyal public servant. He's a great guy. He's going to do a good job. My problem is not with that. My problem is with the department of justice and bill BARR for the first time, since I can remember decades changing our policies to say that he is going to attempt to bring charges regarding election fraud before the election, that's very, very dangerous. Now, the reason that's so dangerous is because bill BARR is likely at the president's command to bring those charges selectively. The people need to see a department of justice. That's not taking sides. Speaker 3: 06:30 What's your prediction for the justice department. If president Trump wins the election next month, Speaker 2: 06:36 If you had asked me the same question a year ago, maybe even six months ago, I'd say, don't worry to meet there. We have a strong democracy. We don't have anything to worry about in this country. We have the courts. We have to press. We're going to be fine. I can't say that. Now. If bill BARR is put in charge of the justice department and Donald Trump of this country for another four years, I think our democracy and risk, I think this country could slip into tyranny. A president who asks for his political opponents to be indicted in jail is a dictator. This is reprehensible. People can't lose track of this. No democracy can have the president asked for the jailing of his political opponents. If we do, we're going to be more like Russia or Turkey that we're going to be like the United States. Speaker 3: 07:23 So if vice-president Joe Biden wins the presidential election next month, what happens at the justice department? Speaker 2: 07:31 Simple. We're going to have an attorney general installed, who follows the rule of law. We know what type of person Joe Biden is. Cause we've seen that in eight years as vice president, we're going to have the people of the United States be represented by the attorney general. And we're going to have an attorney general who is not a lapdog of the president. Speaker 3: 07:50 Go help her. And thank you so much for speaking with me today. It's been my pleasure.