President Trump’s pick to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general is a bagpipe-playing former CIA officer who in the 1990s considered terminating a special counsel who was investigating the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal.
Trump announced Friday he plans to nominate former Attorney General William Barr, who led the Justice Department during the late President George H.W. Bush’s administration, to formally replace Sessions.
During the Bush administration, Barr reportedly considered firing special counsel Lawrence Walsh, who was charged with investigating the Iran-Contra scandal, on a number of occasions, according to Bob Woodward in his book Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate.
The day after Bush lost his re-election campaign to former President Bill Clinton, Bush called Barr into his office to discuss Walsh’s investigation, which he believed worked to cost him the White House. “It appears this was very political!” Bush reportedly told Barr in an energized manner, adding that it “cost me the election.”
Barr told the president that he could, under the law, terminate Walsh for “misconduct” and said that he had been tempted to fire Walsh over the past year and a half. “I’ve had an itchy finger,” Barr told the president.
Barr’s nomination has caused some concern in Washington, particularly among Democrats, because of what it could mean for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. If the Senate approves his nomination, which Senate Republicans are already signaling is a likelihood, Barr would be in charge of overseeing Mueller’s investigation. Barr would have oversight on everything from Mueller’s budget to whether or not the Justice Department would release a final report on the investigation’s findings.
The former attorney general and current Trump nominee has been critical of the Mueller investigation, taking issue with the fact that many attorneys on the special counsel’s team have donated to political campaigns. In light of his previous statements, Senate Democrats are asking that Barr pledge he will not terminate Mueller if he is to take over as attorney general.
“Given President Trump’s demonstrated lack of regard for the rule of law and the independence of the American justice system, his nominee for attorney general will have a steep hill to climb in order to be confirmed by the Senate,” Schumer said in a statement Friday. “Mr. Barr must commit — at a minimum — under oath before the Senate to two important things: First, that the Special Counsel’s investigation will proceed unimpeded, and second, that the Special Counsel’s final report will be made available to Congress and the public immediately upon completion.”
Barr oversaw Mueller during the first Bush administration while Mueller served as the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division.
A graduate of Columbia University and the George Washington University Law School, Barr got his start in Washington serving in the CIA from 1973 to 1977, working as an analyst and assistant legislative counsel while studying law at night school.
In 1982, Barr served for a year on the White House domestic policy staff during the Reagan administration. He went on to become a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts, and Trowbridge. He worked at the law firm until 1989, when he became assistant attorney general in charge of the office of legal counsel.
Prior to serving as attorney general from 1991 to 1993, Barr was the deputy attorney general from 1990 to 1991. As attorney general, Barr led department’s response to the savings and loan crisis and was in charge of counterterrorism efforts during the first Gulf War. In 1991 he ordered an FBI rescue team to storm a cell block at the Talladega Federal Correctional Institution in Alabama where Cuban inmates had taken 10 hostages, who were freed unharmed.
Bar has also advised corporations on how to navigate rules and regulations. Barr was the general counsel and vice president for GTE Corporation, a company that went on to become Verizon in 2000.
