AG Bill Barr to resign before Christmas

On Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted that Attorney General Bill Barr will resign from his position just before Christmas.

The revelation came moments after the Electoral College affirmed President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Tensions between Trump and Barr had already been running high and the Wall Street Journal reported that Barr had worked “for months” during the campaign to conceal a federal investigation of Hunter Biden which further enraged the president.

Trump for weeks had privately discussed replacing Barr with somebody more willing to do his bidding.

The president was said to be in a rage when Barr’s comments to the Associated Press earlier in December undercut Trump’s claims of a “rigged election” by saying the Justice Department had not found evidence of widespread fraud that would change the outcome.

President Trump reportedly had grown frustrated over the delays in the release of the so-called Durham report, which he hopes will contain bombshell revelations about the Obama administration’s handling of the Trump-Russia investigation.

According to a source, Barr resigned without Trump having to

request his resignation.

Axios reported that speculation that Trump would fire Barr temporarily subsided after the attorney general visited the White House the day that the AP interview was published.

Trump began re-exploring options for replacing Barr after the Hunter Biden story broke, Axios reported.

Trump was privately venting about Barr on Friday, Dec. 11, sources familiar with the discussion told Axios.

And the president tweeted on Saturday morning: “Why didn’t Bill Barr reveal the truth to the public, before the election, about Hunter Biden?”

News outlets have reported that Trump has a history of dropping his own announcements at moments when cable news is running stories that he hates — in this instance, the Electoral College affirming Biden’s victory.

Trump said Barr will be replaced by Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, who will serve in an acting capacity.

Barr, the second Senate-confirmed attorney general appointed by Trump, has been a fierce critic of the Russia probe and one of the most loyal members of the president’s Cabinet — filling a role vacated by Jeff Sessions, who was unceremoniously fired by Trump for failing to stop the Mueller investigation.

Barr has frequently been a target of criticism by Democrats who claim he has politicized the Justice Department by intervening in cases involving the president’s allies.

But like many top Trump officials, even Barr has failed to go far enough to satisfy Trump’s obsessions.