Trump: Barr set to leave AG post
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is departing. Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general submitted his letter of resignation.
“As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family,” Trump tweeted.
Trump has publicly expressed his anger about Barr’s statement to The Associated Press this month that the Justice Department had found no widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the election. Trump has also been angry that the department did not publicly announce it was investigating Hunter Biden ahead of the election, despite department policy against such a pronouncement.
Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they have received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome
in the election.”
Barr’s resignation leaves Trump without a critical ally as he winds down his final weeks in office, and it throws into question open Justice Department investigations, especially the probe into Hunter Biden’s taxes.
In his resignation letter, Barr said he updated Trump on Monday on the department’s “review of voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election and how these allegations will continue to be pursued.” He added that his last day on the job would be Dec. 23.
Trump said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he labeled “an outstanding person,” will become acting attorney general. Rosen is the current second in command at the Justice Department, and his appointment is not likely to change much in the final weeks before the administration departs.
Trump spent much of the day watching the Electoral College tally and calling allies, but he broke away to meet with Barr.
One senior administration official not authorized to comment publicly and speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity said Barr had resigned of his own accord and described the meeting as amicable.
Barr, who was serving in his second stint as attorney general, sought to paint himself as an independent
leader who would not bow to political pressure. But Democrats have repeatedly accused him of acting more like the president’s personal attorney than the attorney general, and Barr had proved to be a largely reliable Trump ally and defender of presidential power.
Democrats who had long criticized Barr did not lament his departure.
“Good riddance,” tweeted House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-calif.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who led an investigation of politicization of the department, said that “whomever Joe Biden chooses as the new attorney general will have a tremendous amount of work to do to repair the integrity of the Department of Justice.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican leader of the judiciary committee, told reporters at the Capitol that he was surprised by the news.
“I think he did an incredibly good job trying to repair damage done to the Department of Justice, trying to be fair and faithful to the law. I think he’s got a lot to be proud of,” Graham said. “He fought for the president where he could, as every attorney general and administration should, but he also didn’t cross lines that he shouldn’t have crossed.” He said he was referring to disclosing the Biden investigation.
Graham also praised Rosen as a “good man” and said he would “be an ethical leader and a steady hand” at the Justice Department.