U.S. Attorney General Barr steps down amid tumult at Justice Department
WASHINGTON — U.S.
Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is resigning amid lingering tension with the president over baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son.
Barr went to the White House on Monday, where Trump announced on Twitter that 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 — just minutes after the Electoral College certified Biden as the winner of the November election.
Trump has publicly expressed anger about Barr’s assertion earlier this month that the
Justice Department had found no widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election.
The president has also been upset that the Justice Department did not publicly announce it was investigating Hunter Biden ahead of the election, despite department policy against such a pronouncement.
Apparently placated by Barr’s effusive resignation letter, which glossed over his recent frustrations, Trump declared that their “relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!” Trump said in the tweet that Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he labeled “an outstanding person,” will become acting attorney general.
Barr told Trump that he was “proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people. Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance.”
The rift between the pair was long in coming and highlighted how even the most loyal officials often find themselves on the outs with the president.
Within weeks of taking over as attorney general early last year, Barr went out of his way to defend Trump from allegations he obstructed the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The attorney general later backed his department’s attempt to prevent a government watchdog from forwarding to Congress a whistleblower’s complaint that would lead to the president’s impeachment. And his department aggressively fought efforts by Congress to obtain Trump’s tax returns.
Despite such steadfast service, tension between the pair steadily grew. Barr told colleagues he was frustrated by Trump’s bluster, baseless accusations about voter fraud and desire to criminalize political conduct. More than once, Barr warned Trump that his tweets urging investigations of political rivals would doom any such probes, according to Justice Department officials.
The issue of Trump blundering into Justice Department business came to a head in February when the president complained that prosecutors were seeking too stiff a prison term for his longtime friend Roger Stone, a Republican operative convicted of lying to House investigators, obstructing Congress and witness tampering.
Barr felt Trump’s tweets criticizing prosecutors, the jury forewoman and the judge were making it “impossible for me to do my job.”
“I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” Barr said. Trump ignored him.
Barr widened the breach irreparably on Dec. 1 when he told The Associated Press in an interview that the Justice Department and FBI had not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud despite looking into the allegations. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told the wire service.
“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. And those have been run down; they are being run down,” Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”