ABC Correspondent on Why Barr Spoke Out: To Have Respect in DOJ, You Need ‘Some Level of Independence’ from WH

Last week, as questions rose about the DOJ reversing Roger Stone’s sentencing recommendation following President Oonald Trump‘s tweet, Attorney General Bill Barr sat down with ABC News chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas for an interview critical of the president.

Barr told Thomas POTUS should stop tweeting about criminal cases and that “I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me.”

THomas was on the This Week panel today and told Martha Raddatz after speaking to a number of people at the DOJ, it’s clear they feel he’s “under pressure.”

“He had a week where he overruled the prosecutors who wanted to give Roger Stone seven years to nine years in jail. Four of them left the case. One of them quit the Justice department completely. Never seen that in all of the years covering the Justice Department and then you had the president tweeting over and over again about the case,” he continued. “The Attorney General had to do something. To have respect in that building at the Justice Department you have to have some level of Independence from the White House.”

He said there was some “surprise” at the DOJ because of Barr’s criticism, though he noted there has been skepticism too.

You can watch above, via ABC News.