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“U.S. Attorney General William Barr will step down next week, he said on Monday… Trump lashed out at Barr on Twitter over the weekend after the Wall Street Journal reported that Barr knew earlier this year about an investigation into Biden’s son Hunter’s taxes… Barr’s fate in the waning days of the Trump administration had been in question since he said earlier this month that a Justice Department investigation had found no sign of major fraud in the election, contradicting Trump’s claims.” Reuters
The right praises Barr.
“Barr was the ideal attorney general for this toxic environment. He is a constitutional scholar with a well-developed conception of unitary executive power (the principle that the president runs and is accountable for the actions of the entire executive branch, including its law-enforcement components), at the same time he’s a staunch defender of Justice Department rules and norms. He steered the department through the Mueller investigation, preventing adventurous prosecutors in Mueller’s shop from pursuing ill-conceived theories of obstruction of justice while, in the interest of transparency, releasing the whole Mueller report to the public…
“At 70, with an accomplished career already, Barr did not need the gig. He consistently maintained that he would not be bullied by press criticism, partisan attacks, or the president’s pressure campaigns. He came back to serve an institution he reveres, and he leaves on his own terms with his head held high.”
The Editors, National Review
“The esteemed Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) likened Barr to Trump flunky Michael Cohen, ‘an underworld fixer for Donald Trump.’… The New York Times’s Maureen Dowd dubbed Barr ‘minister of information’ [a reference to the book 1984]; at the Washington Post, the liberal columnist Greg Sargent argued that Barr ‘is party to Trump’s scheme to maintain power via illicit means if necessary.’…
“The dishonest criticisms of Barr reflect a pattern, mirroring those levied against Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearings, when Democrats from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) to secretary of state runner-up Chris Coons (D., Delaware) warned that she would do Trump’s bidding on the Supreme Court by resolving any election-related dispute in his favor…
“Barrett’s rebuke of the Trump team’s efforts to see the Electoral College results overturned gives the lie to the charges, so readily leveled against both her and colleagues Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. So it is with Barr—despite Democrats’ vague claims of nefarious conspiracy, at the end of the day he was always going to follow the law.”
Editors, Washington Free Beacon
“If Barr were really just acting as the president’s personal lawyer, then why would he have released Mueller’s damaging report at all? Why would Barr have recommended a lighter sentence for [Trump associate Roger] 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…
“If it were not for [the DOJ’s] review of the [Michael] Flynn prosecution, the public would not have known that the lead FBI agent on that case did not believe there was any evidence that Flynn was a Russian asset or agent as early as December 2016. A separate Justice Department inspector general report found the FBI’s warrant application to snoop on a former Trump campaign adviser was so riddled with errors and omissions that the secret court that approves such warrants forced the bureau to audit all of its surveillance warrants… Barr deserves credit for bringing these abuses to light.”
Eli Lake, Bloomberg
“If Barr had let the public know that the DOJ was investigating Hunter Biden [ahead of the election], the prosecution would have been seen as political abuse — the kind of abuse the Obama DOJ committed against then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016 when they leaked the fact that his campaign was under investigation for ‘Russian collusion.’ The Obama DOJ’s abuse is now the subject of an investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham. If Barr had told Durham to hurry up before the election, he would have committed the same abuse Durham is investigating. In sum, Barr protected these investigations by keeping them free of politics.”
Joel Pollak, Breitbart
Finally, “Barr's insistence that houses of worship be treated fairly during the pandemic gives religious people, and anyone else who takes the free exercise clause seriously, a reason to give Barr a thumbs-up. Under Barr, the Department of Justice boosted legal efforts aimed at protecting religion amid coronavirus restrictions, and the Supreme Court has vindicated those efforts in recent weeks… restricting or, in some cases, functionally outlawing religious exercise while allowing higher levels of participation in secular activities is not how we do things in this country.”
Jeremy Beaman, Washington Examiner
The left criticizes Barr.
The left criticizes Barr.
“In many ways, Barr was unlike any of the other dominant figures of the Trump administration. He previously ran the Justice Department under George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s, giving him an unusual amount of direct experience for a member of Trump’s Cabinet. Barr’s personal and professional affinities were those of a typical establishment Republican in an administration that often elevated right-wing misfits and fringe elements to top roles. And he brought a certain degree of basic competence to the job…
“But Barr was also a perfect fit for Trump in other ways. He is a relentless advocate for expanding the executive branch’s power and dismantling the post-Watergate consensus that kept it in check. ‘The premise is that the greatest danger of government becoming oppressive arises from the prospect of executive excess,’ he told a Federalist Society gala last year. ‘So there is a knee-jerk tendency to see the legislative and judicial branches as the good guys protecting society from a rapacious would-be autocrat. This prejudice is wrong-headed and atavistic.’ Barr’s argument was unpersuasive even before the president spent the last month trying to overturn the November election, only to be stymied by Congress and the courts.”
Matt Ford, New Republic
“The puzzle of Barr’s tenure remains. It’s no surprise that Barr would zealously embrace an extreme vision of presidential power. Barr not only brought those views with him, he also laid them out in a memo that served as an application for the job. It’s no surprise he would be a strident voice in the culture and ideological wars — although Barr’s description of pandemic restrictions as ‘the greatest intrusion on civil liberties’ since slavery was jaw-dropping…
“But Barr as Trump’s attorney general went so much further than his conservative convictions would have required. He became not only the defender of the presidency but also the defender of this president. He radically mischaracterized the conclusions of the Mueller report before its public release. He took extraordinary measures, stepping in to overrule career prosecutors, to shield Trump associates such as Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. He ordered the clearing of Lafayette Square during racial justice protests last summer so Trump could stride to his Bible-holding photo op in front of St. John’s Church.”
Ruth Marcus, Washington Post
“Barr mindlessly parroted Trump's most irresponsible claims about the potential for massive voter fraud. The attorney general made wildly exaggerated claims to the media and to Congress about the potential for voter fraud, conspicuously failing to offer up any compelling or reliable evidence. He blamed purported left-wing, so-called Antifa-related extremist groups for widespread violence, but remained conspicuously reluctant to acknowledge the threat of right-wing extremism -- consistent with Trump's stump speech on the campaign trail… Barr continually debased himself and the Justice Department in fealty to Trump.”
Elie Honig, CNN
Some argue, “Reporters often described Barr’s views as some kind of principled belief in unified executive power. Nobody has produced an example of Barr defending this principle under a Democratic administration. And his recent move to appoint John Durham as a special counsel, limiting Joe Biden’s ability to appoint a successor who might curtail his sprawling mandate to investigate anybody who looked into Trump’s ties with Russia, confirms that Barr’s belief in executive power ends the moment Biden puts his hand on the Bible.”
Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
“What’s the January surprise Barr wants no part of? One possibility is that Barr wants to create bureaucratic distance between himself and the president so that he can say he resigned rather than serving out his term. But this seems implausible, even for a canny bureaucratic operator like Barr, given how close he has been to the presidency. And it certainly seems at odds with the fawning tone of his resignation letter…
“Another option is that Barr realizes that Trump plans to continue challenging the election outcome. Barr has been willing to tolerate Trump’s arguments thus far, even if he himself has refused to say that Justice has evidence of meaningful fraud. Yet the prospect of increasingly wild claims of conspiracy and an inauguration without Trump in attendance might perhaps be enough for Barr to prefer to be out of town — and out of the administration — for the next few weeks. The most likely possibility, however, involves presidential pardons, and perhaps legally questionable executive orders designed to make more permanent some of Trump’s policies.”
Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
A libertarian's take
“As America went through a summer of anger, protests, and violence about police abuse of minorities, Barr not only habitually took the side of police, but also basically told Americans to just shut up and do what they're told… In speeches, he embraced the ‘warrior cop’ mentality and complained in a speech at a Fraternal Order of Police conference in 2019 that, ‘Not too long ago influential public voices—whether in the media or among community and civic leaders—stressed the need to comply with police commands, even if one thinks they are unjust.’ He was mad that those days were gone…
“Barr opposes legislation that would weaken ‘qualified immunity,’ which in many cases protects police officers from being sued when they knowingly violate citizens' rights… Finally, Barr should be remembered for his decision to fire up the mechanism of federal executions and putting (so far) 10 men to death over the course of just six months… Every fan of liberty should be thrilled that he's leaving.”
Scott Shackford, Reason
