Barr gets OK to be AG

3 Dems join GOP in vote

The Senate voted 54-45 — largely along party lines — to confirm William Barr as President Trump’s new attorney general Thursday.

The vote puts Barr in charge of the Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

With the final votes still being cast, Barr apparently dispelled some Democrats’ concerns about how he would manage Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Three Democrats — Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — joined Republicans in voting to confirm Barr.

Sen. Rand Paul of South Carolina was the lone GOP “no” vote, citing concerns about Barr's views on surveillance, among other issues.

Democrats who opposed Barr said they were concerned about his noncommittal stance on making Mueller's report public.

Barr promised to be as transpar- ent as possible, but said he takes seriously the Justice Department regulations that dictate Mueller's report should be confidential.

Opponents of Barr also pointed to a memo he wrote to Justice officials before his nomination.

In it, he criticized Mueller’s investigation for the way it was presumably looking into whether Trump had obstructed justice.

Barr wrote that Trump could not have obstructed justice by firing then-FBI Director James Comey, an action the president was constitutionally entitled to take.

But at his confirmation hearing, Barr acknowledged that a president can obstruct justice by intimidating witnesses or destroying evidence and would violate the Constitution if he shut down an investigation to protect himself or his family.

When Barr is sworn into office this week, one of his first tasks will be to restore some stability after almost two years of open tension between Trump and Justice officials.

Barr was also AG under then-President George H.W. Bush.