DOJ ‘firewall’ may have prevented Bill Barr from knowing of Bannon indictment: legal analyst

Attorney General Bill Barr two months ago fired former Southern District of New York prosecutor Geoffrey Berman, who only agreed to step down after he was assured that deputy Audrey Strauss would take over his job in an acting role.

On Thursday morning, it was Strauss who announced that charges had been filed against former Trump White House official Steve Bannon for his role in allegedly defrauding donors to a crowdfunding campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Appearing on MSNBC, legal analyst Glenn Kirschner was asked by host Stephanie Ruhle whether Barr knew that the indictment of Bannon was imminent.

"It depends on how covert the prosecutors of the Southern District of New York wanted to be," he said. "Sometimes, Stephanie, when we're getting ready to indict somebody or unseal an indictment, we want to hold our cards very close to our chest."

Kirschner then said it was possible that DOJ officials put up a "firewall" that would have blocked Barr from knowing about the case on the grounds that he had already interfered to lower the sentencing guidelines of Trump ally Roger Stone and to drop charges against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Watch the video below.