Former Attorney General Eric Holder claimed his successor William Barr was “unfit” to continue in his post as head of the Department of Justice.
Holder, who served as attorney general under President Barack Obama, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post where he said he was “reluctant to publicly criticize” President Trump’s attorney general but felt the need to speak out after Barr issued public statements about disagreements he had with Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on alleged FISA abuse. He also criticized Barr’s remarks from a Federalist Society event where he said the founders intended for one man to lead the executive branch, the president.
“Attorney General William P. Barr has made a series of public statements and taken actions that are so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate for America’s chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office,” Holder wrote.
Holder condemned Barr for criticizing the FBI and the rest of the intelligence community for their handling of the investigation into Trump’s campaign, writing, “And as someone who spent six years in the office Barr now occupies, it was infuriating to watch him publicly undermine an independent inspector general report — based on an exhaustive review of the FBI’s conduct — using partisan talking points bearing no resemblance to the facts his own department has uncovered.”
He also issued a threat of sorts to U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is investigating the origins of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign and its ties to Russia. Durham spoke out after Horowitz dropped his report to say he disagrees with some of the findings, echoing Barr. Holder wrote, “Good reputations are hard-won in the legal profession, but they are fragile; anyone in Durham’s shoes would do well to remember that, in dealing with this administration, many reputations have been irrevocably lost.”
Holder concluded his thoughts by smearing Barr as “incapable of serving as attorney general.”
“The American people deserve an attorney general who serves their interests, leads the Justice Department with integrity and can be entrusted to pursue the facts and the law, even — and especially — when they are politically inconvenient and inconsistent with the personal interests of the president who appointed him,” Holder wrote. “William Barr has proved he is incapable of serving as such an attorney general. He is unfit to lead the Justice Department.”
Holder, 68, was criticized during his time at the Justice Department for his chummy relationship with Obama. Holder once referred to himself as Obama’s “wingman” and, like Barr, refused to testify before Congress after being subpoenaed to discuss the botched “Fast and Furious” scandal. Holder was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents about the scandal that left U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry dead.
Barr, 69, is Holder’s successor, but he was also his predecessor after having led the department under George H.W. Bush.
