Over 1,100 former US Justice Dept. officials call on Attorney General Barr to resign

WASHINGTON - More than 1,100 former Department of Justice officials are calling on US Attorney General William Barr to resign, local media reported on Monday.

Barr has been under fire on allegations of "misuse of the criminal justice system" due to controversy surrounding the Justice Department's decision to lessen a sentence for President Donald Trump's ally Roger Stone after Trump tweeted about his displeasure with the gravity of the original sentence recommendation.

The former DOJ officials have signed a letter saying it is "outrageous" the way Barr interfered in the Roger Stone case, said an ABC News report on Monday, quoting the nonpartisan, nonprofit group Protect Democracy.

Barr has done the president's bidding and that those actions have caused damage to the Department of Justice, said the former officials, who were appointed from both Democrat and Republican administrations.

"Political interference in the conduct of a criminal prosecution is anathema to the Department's core mission and to its sacred obligation to ensure equal justice under the law," they wrote.

Also on Monday, Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general under George H.W. Bush and former US Attorney, said Barr needed to resign in an article issued by the Atlantic.

"All of this conduct -- including Barr's personal interventions to influence or negate independent investigations or the pursuit of criminal cases, and his use of the department's resources to frustrate the checks and balances provided by other branches -- is incompatible with the rule of law as we know it," Ayer wrote.

After four career federal prosecutors resigned in protest after the Justice Department overruled them on the Stone case last week, Barr said on ABC News on Thursday that Trump "has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case" but should stop tweeting about the Justice Department because the president's tweets "make it impossible for me to do my job."

A senior adviser to the president told ABC News that while Trump is not happy with Barr's remarks, his confidence in the attorney general remains steadfast.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate what pressure Trump and Barr might have exerted behind the scenes.