Attorney General William Barr has emerged as a top liberal boogeyman in the Trump administration, owing in part to his efforts to flip the script on the investigations that have plagued the White House since 2017 by turning inquiries once thought likely to bring down the president into serious scrutiny of the investigators themselves.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat at the center of this year’s impeachment inquiry, accused Barr of “the worst politicization of the Justice Department in its history.” Former President Barack Obama said of recent Barr decisions that, “[Y]ou begin to get worried that basic, not just institutional norms, but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.” House Judiciary Committee Democrats, led by New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, alleged “corruption and unacceptable political influence.”
Politico described Barr as “working to dismantle and discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, injecting Trump-friendly political considerations into criminal case decisions along the way.” Brookings Institute senior fellow and former intelligence community lawyer Susan Hennessey protested on Twitter: “This moment represents the full collapse of an apolitical Justice Department. An astonishing assault on the rule of law and in a functional DOJ it would prompt mass resignation.”
When President Trump tapped him to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Barr had already been attorney general under President George H.W. Bush at just 41 years of age. Barr was staunchly conservative but also seen as solid and uncontroversial — he was confirmed by a Senate voice vote in 1991, receiving the unanimous support of a majority-Democratic Judiciary Committee then chaired by Joe Biden — while Sessions had been a lightning rod proponent of the president’s populist and nationalist policies. But Sessions recused himself from the Trump-Russia investigation, paving the way for Mueller’s appointment and rupturing his relationship with Trump, while Barr has zealously defended the president’s prerogatives.
Barr has appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, which found no criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Instead, a subsequent review concluded questionable FISA applications were used to surveil at least one Trump aide. Under Barr’s leadership, the Justice Department has also dropped federal charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
All of these moves, but especially the last one, outraged Democrats. “Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his illicit Russian contacts,” Schiff tweeted. “His lies do not now become truths. This dismissal does not exonerate him. But it does incriminate Bill Barr.”
Conservative commentator Matthew Continetti branded Barr “the new Dick Cheney: a stocky, bespectacled, confrontational, blunt, intelligent, unapologetically conservative, experienced, high-powered official who believes in and fights for the office of the president.” Cheney also went from being relatively nondescript and having bipartisan appeal under Bush 41 to being one of the most controversial figures in a subsequent Republican administration.
“The Bill Barr of 2020 is the same Bill Barr of 1991,” asserted Carrie Severino, president of the right-leaning Judicial Crisis Network. “Attorney General Barr has always been a strong proponent of constitutionalism and the unitary executive. He has always been tough on crime. For over 30 years, Barr has followed the law and the Constitution, and the Left has hated him for it.”
Barr now possesses a notoriety shared by few others who have served in the Cabinet or White House, ranking alongside his predecessor Sessions, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, former chief strategist Steve Bannon, and senior adviser Stephen Miller. It’s a characteristic he has in common with Trump himself.
“When you roll out Barr’s background and the strength of his resume and credibility, clearly he has hard legal credentials,” said attorney and Republican strategist Ed Pozzuoli. “No one objected to him being elevated to AG.” Yet Pozzuoli acknowledges that there is a strong left-right divide over how Barr’s recent actions have been interpreted.
Democrats disapproved of Barr’s four-page summary of the Mueller report, arguing it downplayed the more damning parts for the president while quoting passages clearing Trump and his associates of collusion with Russia. Barr has also drawn fire for conservative stances on the death penalty, incarceration, and religious liberty, with controversial speeches on the last topic at Notre Dame Law School and before the National Religious Broadcasters.
“We live at a time when religion, long an essential pillar of our society, is being driven from the public square,” Barr told the latter group. “Thank God we have the National Religious Broadcasters to counter that effort.”
The next chapter for Barr will come when Durham releases his findings on the Trump-Russia investigation. While criminal charges remain uncertain, Durham’s work is expected to be complete before this fall’s presidential election.
“Barr is doing the right thing by letting the facts determine the investigation instead of a preconceived outcome,” said Pozzuoli.
