Attorney General William Barr reportedly told friends recently that he hopes President Trump will keep him on as the country’s top law enforcement official should he win reelection.
“Barr told me recently he supports the president and would be inclined to stay if the president wanted him to,” Richard Cullen, a friend of Barr’s and a lawyer who represented Vice President Mike Pence, told the Washington Post.
Barr’s relationship with the president has, at times, seemed shaky, and his comments to friends came to light just days after reports that said Trump was growing increasingly frustrated with Barr and considering firing FBI Director Christopher Wray after they failed to make public announcements that there were active investigations into Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ahead of Election Day.
Barr, who became attorney general early last year, previously led the Justice Department during the George H.W. Bush administration.
Earlier this month, Trump fumed after learning that Barr had told Republicans not to expect any more indictments or a report from U.S. Attorney John Durham before the election.
“If that’s the case, I’m very disappointed. I think it’s a terrible thing, and I’ll say it to his face,” Trump said during an interview with Rush Limbaugh.
“That’s a disgrace. I think it’s a disgrace. It’s an embarrassment,” he added. “I had to beat off the phony Mueller report. I had to beat off all this stuff. I had to beat off impeachment. I had to beat off Congress.”
He later called on Barr to open an investigation into the Biden family’s foreign dealings and allegations of corruption after a trove of emails and photos from a laptop that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son. The elder Biden has called the reports a “smear campaign,” but neither his son nor his campaign has denied the legitimacy of the documents.
“We’ve got to get the attorney general to act. He’s got to act. And he’s got to act fast. He’s got to appoint somebody. This is major corruption, and this has to be known about before the election,” Trump said.
Barr has likewise expressed his public frustration with the president. In a February interview with ABC News, Barr said that the president’s tweeting and commentary regarding law enforcement make “it impossible for me to do my job.”
“I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” he said. “I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody … whether it’s Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president.”
Shortly after that interview, Barr told people both in and outside the White House that he was considering leaving the Department of Justice. A DOJ spokesman refuted the rumors, tweeting that Barr had “no plans to resign.”
White House spokesman Judd Deere told the Washington Post, “We have no personnel announcements at this time nor would it be appropriate to speculate about changes after the election or in a 2nd term.”
Trump declined to comment earlier this month when asked if he intended to keep Barr on in a second term, but he said that he was “not happy” with the operations of the Justice Department.
“I have no comment. Can’t comment on that. It’s too early,” Trump told Newsmax TV. “I’m not happy with all of the evidence I have. I can tell you that. I’m not happy.”
