The past 24 hours have been filled with conflicting claims about whether Attorney General William Barr is planning an early exit from the Justice Department.
The New York Times first reported Barr was telling associates that he was contemplating a departure from his role in the Trump administration before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. One source said Barr was thinking about exiting last week after he announced the DOJ had not found “fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.”
Other outlets followed with similar reports as the DOJ and the White House declined to comment. But Fox News reported on Monday that a senior DOJ official said Barr intends to stay in his position as attorney general for “as long as the president needs him.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the DOJ for comment to clarify the situation.
Reports last week said President Trump had a contentious White House meeting with Barr after he told the Associated Press that the Justice Department had not found evidence to substantiate allegations of widespread voter fraud, as has been asserted by Trump, who refuses to concede the contest.
“There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud, and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Barr said.
A DOJ spokesperson said afterward that the media inaccurately characterized the Justice Department’s findings in a statement. “Some media outlets have incorrectly reported that the Department has concluded its investigation of election fraud and announced an affirmative finding of no fraud in the election,” the spokesperson said. “That is not what the Associated Press reported nor what the Attorney General stated. The Department will continue to receive and vigorously pursue all specific and credible allegations of fraud as expeditiously as possible.”
Trump was also reportedly frustrated at how Barr never released a report from U.S. Attorney John Durham on his findings from his inquiry into the Russia investigation. Barr revealed last week that he appointed Durham special counsel, affording the prosecutor extra protections against a Biden administration trying to stop the inquiry.
In February, the Justice Department shot down rumors that Barr was planning to resign shortly after the attorney general told ABC News he felt it was “impossible for [him] to do [his] job” while the president was tweeting about the affairs of the Justice Department.
