Neal Katyal slams Biden’s DOJ for keeping Barr memo secret: ‘Not the right call’

Former Obama administration acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal on Monday had harsh words for Joe Biden's Department of Justice.

"We have breaking news," MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell reported. "Minutes ago, the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal saying the United States Department of Justice hereby appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia the ruling of Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who had ruled that a memo written in the Trump Justice Department for Attorney General William Barr must be released. The Biden Justice Department is now protecting that memo through the appeals process, trying to keep it as an internal memo."

"Neal, what do you make of this literally not last-minute, but last-hour -- they had about 60 minutes left to file this -- last-hour decision to appeal this ruling that would have otherwise made that memo to William Barr public tonight?"

"Yeah, so, Lawrence, I've read the DOJ filing," Katyal said. "And this is disappointing to me. I think this is the people's memo, I think this is the wrong decision.

"We will have to study the decision. Right now, my sense is, this is not the right call. The people need to see and understand what happened at this Justice Department over the last four years," he said. "We waited and waited and waited and to bury this is, I think, detrimental to what American democracy is all about."

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