AG Barr to resign, will leave Dec. 23
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is resigning amid lingering tension with the president over his baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into presidentelect Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
Mr. Barr went to the White House on Monday, where Mr. Trump said he submitted his letter of resignation.
“As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
Mr. Trump has publicly expressed his anger about Mr. Barr’s statement to The Associated Press earlier this month that the Justice Department had found no widespread election fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
Mr. Trump has also been angry that the Justice Department did not
publicly announce it was investigating Hunter Biden ahead of the election, despite department policy against such a pronouncement.
Mr. Barr, in his resignation letter, said he updated Mr. 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.
Mr. Trump said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he labeled “an outstanding person,” will become acting attorney general.
Mr. Trump spent much of the day watching the Electoral College tally and calling allies, but he broke away to meet with Mr. Barr.
His tweet about Mr. Barr’s exit was an unusually heartfelt response from a president who has been notoriously cold to his departing staff and quick to name-call and deride them once they say they are leaving. The president has previously claimed he fired staffers who resigned to make himself appear more powerful.
Despite Mr. Trump’s obvious disdain for those who publicly disagree with him, Mr. Barr had generally remained in the president’s good graces and has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, Mr. Barr repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voting could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls.
But Mr. Trump has a low tolerance for criticism.
Mr. 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 Mr. Barr of acting more like the president’s personal attorney than an attorney general, and Mr. Barr had proved to be a largely reliable Trump ally and defender of presidential power.
Before releasing special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on the Russia investigation last year, Mr. Barr framed the results in a manner favorable to Mr. Trump, even though Mr. Mueller pointedly said he couldn’t exonerate the president of obstruction of justice.
He also appointed as special counsel the U.S. attorney who is conducting a criminal investigation into the origins of the FBI’s probe of the 2016 election that morphed into Mr. Mueller’s investigation of possible Trump-Russia cooperation, following Mr. Trump’s repeated calls to “investigate the investigators.”
Mr. Barr also ordered the Justice Department to review the handling of the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and then sought to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Mr. Trump later pardoned Flynn.