William Barr was never the villain
It’s fitting that American Attorney-general William Barr submitted his resignation the same day the Electoral College certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. President Donald Trump continues to say the election was stolen, but Barrmade it clear the Justice Department found no evidence of massive fraud.
Barr’s resignation is also an opportunity for many Democrats to reassess their opinion of Trump’s second attorney-general. They viewed Barr as a corrupt crony, with one calling him a stand-in for Trump’s disgraced former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. In this telling, Barr’s alleged villainy begins after former special counsel Robertmueller submitted his final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election to the Justice Department. In March last year, Barr issued a summary of its findings before releasing a lightly redacted version. Barr’s summary emphasisedmueller’s finding that he found no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but did not include the report’s more damning details on Trump’s efforts to obstruct the investigation and his campaign’s suspicious contactswith Russian nationals.
Barr then moved to appoint US attorney John Durham to investigate the origins of that investigation. He over-ruled career prosecutors to recommend amore lenient sentence for Trump associate Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and later pardoned by Trump.
Barr wasn’t finished. He also instructed another US attorney, Jeffrey Jensen, to review the prosecution of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael
Flynn. After that review was finished, Barr’s Justice Department tried to drop that prosecution. Flynn, too, was eventually pardoned by Trump.
For opponents, Barr’s actions were proof he was applying a double standard to get the president’s allies off the hook. So when Barr announced last month that US attorneys were instructed to investigate credible allegations of election fraud, Democrats pounced again.
But this narrative has always left out some crucial but inconvenient facts. If Barr were really just acting as the president’s personal lawyer, then why would he have releasedmueller’s damaging report at all? Whywould Barr have recommended a lighter sentence for Stone, but argued against giving him a pardon?
And then there is Barr’s refusal during the campaign to publicly acknowledge the Justice Department’s investigation into the business dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter. And his non-intervention in the investigations or indictments of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon this year. And his hands-off approach to the prosecutions of Ukrainian associates of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
It’s fair to point out Barr initially sought to release Durham’s report before the election. But when Durham needed more time, Barr accepted his judgment and opted to make him a special counsel in October, making it more difficult for Biden to fire him. It’s also fair to note Barr took the unusual step of commenting on Durham’s investigation before it finished. This was the same mistake former FBI director James Comey madewhen he announced before the 2016 election the bureau had reopened its probe into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
At the same time, the investigations ordered by Barr have uncovered real abuses.
Barr deserves credit for bringing these abuses to light. And when Trump pressured him to use the Justice Department to legitimise his attempted electoral larceny, Barr politely resigned. He made the decision to protect the political and governmental institutions that have been so stressed in the past four years. This was a true public service.
Eli Lake is a Bloomberg opinion columnist
The investigations ordered by Barr have uncovered real abuses.