Stunned by the Mueller report findings, 2020 Democrats are turning their fire on William Barr, suggesting that President Trump’s “handpicked” attorney general is biased and “partisan.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Barr’s four-page letter to Congress was “a hasty, partisan interpretation of the facts.” 2020 possibility Stacey Abrams branded him an “avowed partisan who in part auditioned for the job by disparaging the report.”
But in his letter, Barr made it clear that he was making his decisions, most notably his conclusion that Trump had not committed obstruction of justice, in coordination with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Barr’s summary of Robert Mueller’s findings stated that Mueller had cleared Trump and his campaign of collusion with the Russians during the 2016 presidential election. He added that Mueller had not reached a conclusion on obstruction “one way or the other,” but that he and Rosenstein looked at the facts and determined that Trump had not obstructed justice.
2020 Democrats tried to discredit Barr by repeatedly describing him as “handpicked” by Trump. Leading the way was Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who said: “A short letter from Trump’s handpicked Attorney General is not sufficient.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tweeted something similar: “Congress voted 420-0 to release the full Mueller report. Not a ‘summary’ from his handpicked Attorney General.”
Other Democratic members of the Senate repeated the “handpicked” mantra. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said: “Barr was handpicked because he said the president couldn’t be charged with obstruction and, guess what? He decided no obstruction! Shocker!”
Sen. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., also tweeted: “The American people deserve the opportunity to read the full Mueller report, not a sanitized summary from Donald Trump’s handpicked AG.” And Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., also echoed this sentiment: “Congress and the American people need to see the Special Counsel’s full report – not a shorthand summary from the President’s handpicked Attorney General.”
But in his letter to Congress, Barr wrote that he and Rosenstein had both come to the same conclusion: “In cataloguing the president’s actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct.” Barr emphasized that they made this decision “without regard to” the theory that a sitting president cannot be charged with obstruction or cannot be indicted.
[Also read: Attorney General William Barr’s letter on Mueller final report]
Despite this fact, some members of the media also seemed to push the “handpicked” narrative zeroing in on Barr, with Joy Reid of MSNBC saying: “Shouldn’t we hear Mueller’s conclusions directly from him and not the interpretation from Trump’s handpicked AG?”
But Rod Rosenstein is not Bill Barr. While Barr was appointed only earlier this year, Rosenstein has been involved in the DOJ’s Trump-Russia investigations for over two years. And while Barr was said to be sympathetic to Trump’s antagonistic views of the special counsel investigation (based on a memo he’d sent to the DOJ in 2018), Rosenstein never gave any indication of leniency himself. In fact, Rosenstein was a central player in the investigations into Trump.
Rosenstein was the author of a May 9, 2017, memo that Trump cited as justification to fire then-director of the FBI James Comey — but he also wrote the May 17, 2017, order establishing a special counsel and appointing Robert Mueller to investigate any connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.
While Barr was in charge of the Mueller investigation for a few weeks, Rosenstein oversaw it for well over a year as deputy attorney general until Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker took over in late 2018, since Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from all Russia-related matters.
During the time that Rosenstein oversaw the special counsel investigation, high-profile indictments were handed down against Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and others, as well as against members of the Russian GRU intelligence agency and Russian troll farms. Rosenstein defended the special counsel investigation throughout this process.
[Related: Barr teases hidden pieces to the Trump obstruction puzzle]
And prior to the special counsel investigation, Rosenstein was the signatory on the fourth and final Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application used to justify the surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
Rosenstein was also the subject of much scrutiny from Republicans over his alleged role in DOJ discussions about using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe claiming that Rosenstein offered to wear a wire into the White House.
And Rosenstein’s relationship with President Trump has been notoriously rocky throughout his time as deputy attorney general, with Trump lashing out at him on Twitter numerous times and with rumors of his impending firing periodically swirling. Yet despite these clashes with the president, Rosenstein — along with Barr — found that Trump had not obstructed justice.
As the fight over the Mueller report continues, and as Democrats plan to subpoena the report and call for Barr to testify, it remains to be seen whether Democrats will continue to downplay the role that Rosenstein played in the conclusion that Trump did not break the law.
