Bye-bye William Barr
Some heads snapped No, in order to seize when Attorney General the Republican Party William Barr told the and the White House, he truth on Dec. 1. “To date, needed the assistance of we have not seen fraud on a few key figures, people a scale that could have effected with credibility, if not a different outcome quite gravitas. The first to in the election.” This was extend this was the governor not the Bill Barr we had of New Jersey, Chris come to expect. We were Christie. Sen. Jeff Sessions surprised again when we was the second. Others learned that Hunter Biden followed. They laid their has been under federal investigation reputations on the altar of for some months, that Trump and watched them burn. It this was known to Barr, and that he was the tribute he demanded. One of didn’t disclose it to President Donald the more shocking revelations of this Trump for use in the campaign. These low, contemptible era is how much are damning facts — if you’re working these seemingly self-respecting figures for America’s most corrupt president. seemed to relish their servility. Contradicting Trump’s wild, Barr immolated his reputation absurdist fantasy of a Hugo-chavezorchestrated/hammer-and-scorecard/ first by misrepresenting the contents of the Mueller report. Responding to Dominion plot to steal the election a reporter’s question, Barr explicitly that Trump had “won by a landslide” denied that “but for” the Justice Department was bound to be a poker in the eye policy against indicting a for the chief executive. And to think sitting president, Mueller might have that Barr had incriminating information recommended action. about Hunter Biden — the sort Mueller protested that this is not of thing Trump had gotten himself what the report said, and when the impeached attempting to extort — redacted report was released, it became and kept it under wraps? Well, Barr’s clear to all that Barr had misled days were numbered. us about that very matter.
Barr should be grateful that he was We know that Barr’s tolerance for offered the chance to submit a letter deceit and disgraceful conduct had of resignation rather than be fired by to be pretty robust because he auditioned tweet (though, of course, there was a for the attorney general job tweet). And, frankly, it’s hard to feel after watching his predecessor get sympathy for the guy. Yes, those last flayed alive for following ethics rules. two unexpected spasms of basic ethics This is a question for every one of must be weighed in the balance Trump’s post-sessions hires. Sessions when considering his tenure, but was a fool to endorse Trump in the Barr has much to answer for. primaries, but at least he was an early
Unlike Omarosa, “the Mooch,” adopter unable to learn from others’ Cohen, Lewandowski and the other mistakes. He also turned out to have C-listers Trump surrounded himself some standards. The rules said he with, William Pelham Barr, attorney needed to recuse himself. So he did general under George H. W. Bush, it. The fact that Trump not only resented former CIA, former Verizon attorney, Sessions for this but couldn’t was as pure an embodiment fathom how someone could mold of the Republican establishment as their behavior to anything other than you could find. Most of Trump’s raw self-interest, or Trump-interest, hangers-on were con men and frauds told you everything you needed to like their mentor. If those had been know about Trump. Trump’s selfishness Trump’s only enablers, he wouldn’t is pathological. have gone far. Yet, there was
Bill Barr, batting his eyes and lifting his skirt in Trump’s direction.
Barr was a weird amalgam of toady and totem. He constantly disregarded Justice Department precedent and ethical standards in service to his chief. As Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith recount in “After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency,” Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham to “investigate the investigators” in the Russia matter. That much was not improper. What followed was. Against Justice Department norms and regulations requiring department officials to remain mum about ongoing investigations, Barr offered public comments about what Durham was finding. He said the FBI had acted in bad faith. Regarding former FBI Director James Comey, Barr opined: “I think Comey has cast himself as being seven layers above the decision-making. I don’t think that holds water. The record will be clear that that’s not the case.”
He intervened in Roger Stone’s case to decrease his sentence — a favor not offered to any non-donald Trump friend. He intervened in the Michael Flynn case as well.
But there were lines he would not cross. He didn’t participate in the latest and most damaging of Trump’s assaults on America’s democracy — the stolen election fraud. He pushed back. And he didn’t hand over dirt on Hunter Biden.
Had he never joined the Trump administration, Barr would be remembered as an honorable man. As it is, his legacy is badly tarnished. Still, Barr had some standards. How much worse could things have been if he had none?