Four Department of Justice prosecutors working on the case of Roger Stone, a close friend of President Trump, withdrew from legal proceedings Tuesday after Attorney General William Barr overruled their sentencing recommendations. The president had complained about the long sentence.

Barr denied that President Trump asked him to intervene and claimed he wouldn't be "bullied or influenced by anybody." He said Thursday that the president should stop tweeting about DOJ criminal cases. The president took to Twitter Friday to say he has the "legal right." Shortly therafter, the DOJ dropped their probe into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Before you think this is more than theater, keep in mind that Barr also set up a process to vet information that Rudy Giuliani is gathering in Ukraine. And he tasked prosecutors to review the case of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

This is the last episode of Pardon Me. We think it's fitting to end the series on endings: the end of functioning institutions, the end of trust in government, the end of fact-based reality, the end of freedom for the press -- the end of democracy, itself.

We remain hopeful.

GUESTS:

• Frankie Graziano - A reporter at Connecticut Public Radio
• David Plotz - CEO of Atlas Obscura, co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest
• Jay Rosen - A media critic and a professor of journalism at NYU
• Philip Rucker - White House Bureau Chief at The Washington Post, co-author of A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America
• Chion Wolf - A producer, photographer, and announcer at Connecticut Public Radio

Thanks to Catie Talarski and Tim Rasmussen.

Pardon Me is a production of The Colin McEnroe Show on Connecticut Public Radio.

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