William Barr | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2019 | |
| 77th & 85th United States Attorney General | |
| In office February 14, 2019 – December 23, 2020 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Jeff Sessions |
| Succeeded by | Merrick Garland |
| In office November 26, 1991 – January 20, 1993 Acting: August 16, 1991 – November 26, 1991 | |
| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Deputy | George J. Terwilliger III |
| Preceded by | Dick Thornburgh |
| Succeeded by | Janet Reno |
| 25th United States Deputy Attorney General | |
| In office May 26, 1990 – November 26, 1991 | |
| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Donald B. Ayer |
| Succeeded by | George J. Terwilliger III |
| United States Assistant Attorney General for theOffice of Legal Counsel | |
| In office January 20, 1989 – May 26, 1990 | |
| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Douglas Kmiec |
| Succeeded by | J. Michael Luttig |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Pelham Barr (1950-05-23)May 23, 1950 (age 74) New York City, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Stephen Barr (brother) |
| Education | Columbia University (BA,MA) George Washington University (JD) |
| Signature |  |
William Barr speaks at a press conference on theGeorge Floyd protests Recorded June 5, 2020 | |
William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served asUnited States attorney general in the administration of PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the first administration of PresidentDonald Trump from 2019 to 2020.
Born and raised inNew York City, Barr was educated at theHorace Mann School,Columbia University, andGeorge Washington University Law School. From 1971 to 1977, Barr was employed by theCentral Intelligence Agency. He then served as alaw clerk to judgeMalcolm Richard Wilkey of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In the 1980s, Barr worked for the law firmShaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, with one year's work in the White House of theRonald Reagan administration dealing with legal policies. Before becoming attorney general in 1991, Barr held numerous other posts within theDepartment of Justice, including leading theOffice of Legal Counsel (OLC) and serving asdeputy attorney general. From 1994 to 2008, Barr did corporate legal work forGTE and its successor companyVerizon Communications. From 2009 to 2018, Barr served on the board of directors forTime Warner.
Barr is a longtime proponent of theunitary executive theory of nearly unfettered presidential authority over theexecutive branch of the U.S. government.[1][2][3] In 1989, Barr, as the head of the OLC, justified theU.S. invasion of Panama to arrestManuel Noriega. As deputy attorney general, Barr authorized an FBI operation in 1991 which freed hostages at theTalladega federal prison. An influential advocate for tougher criminal justice policies, Barr as attorney general in 1992 authored the reportThe Case for More Incarceration, where he argued for an increase in theUnited States incarceration rate.[4] Under Barr's advice, PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush in 1992pardoned six officials involved in the Iran–Contra affair.
Barr became attorney general for the second time in 2019. During his term, he received criticism from many for his handling of several challenges, includinghis letter on theMueller report, interventions in the convictions and sentences of former advisors to President Trump,Roger Stone andMichael Flynn,[5][6] his order of the federal government to resume federal executions after 17 years,[7][8] and allegations of political interference in the removal ofGeoffrey Berman from hisSouthern District of New York attorney position in a matter pertaining to the indictment of Turkish bankHalkbank, a bank with close personal ties toRecep Tayyip Erdoğan.[9][10] On December 1, 2020, contradicting Trump'sfalse claims of widespread interference following his electoral defeat, Barr stated that FBI and Justice Department investigations found no evidence of irregularities that would have changed the outcome of the presidential election.[11] Barr is the second person to ever serve two non-consecutive terms as U.S. attorney general, afterJohn J. Crittenden.
Barr was born in New York City in 1950. His father,Donald Barr, was an educator and writer who taughtEnglish literature atColumbia University before becoming headmaster of theDalton School in Manhattan and later theHackley School inTarrytown, New York, both members of theIvy Preparatory School League. Barr's mother, Mary Margaret (née Ahern), also taught at Columbia.[12] Barr's father was raised Jewish but later converted to the RomanCatholic Church. His mother is of Irish Catholic ancestry. Barr was raised as a Catholic.[13][14] Barr was the second of four sons, and his younger brotherStephen Barr is a professor ofphysics at theUniversity of Delaware.[15]
Barr grew up on New York City'sUpper West Side. As a child, he attended a Catholic grammar school,Corpus Christi School, and then the non-sectarianHorace Mann School. After high school, he attendedColumbia University, where hemajored in government and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1971. Barr was also an active member in theSigma Nu fraternity. He did two additional years of graduate study at Columbia, receiving a Master of Arts in government andChinese studies in 1973. While at Columbia, Barr opposed anti-Vietnam Waroccupation protests by students on campus.[16]
After moving to Washington, D.C., to work as an intelligence analyst for theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA), Barr entered theevening student program atGeorge Washington University Law School. He graduated in 1977 with aJuris Doctor with highest honors.[17][18]
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Barr worked for the CIA from 1971 to 1977 while attending graduate school and law school.[19] He was first hired as a summer intern for two years.[16] During his law school years he was an analyst in the Intelligence Directorate division from 1973 to 1975, and then transitioning to an assistant in the Office of Legislative Counsel and an agency liaison to Congress from 1975 to 1977.[19][20][21]
After graduating from law school in 1977, Barr spent one year as alaw clerk to JudgeMalcolm Wilkey of theU.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.[22][17] He then joined the law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (nowPillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) from 1978 to 1982 and again from 1983 to 1989,[22] after serving as Deputy Assistant Director for Legal Policy on the domestic policy staff at theReagan White House from May 1982 to September 1983.[22][17][23]
Barr has never prosecuted a case.[24][25]
In 1989, at the beginning of his administration, PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush appointed Barr to theU.S. Department of Justice asAssistant Attorney General for theOffice of Legal Counsel (OLC), an office which functions as the legal advisor for the president and executive agencies. Barr was known as a strong defender of presidential power.[26] He wrote an advisory opinion justifying theU.S. invasion ofPanama and arrest ofManuel Noriega.[26] He wrote legal justifications for the practice of rendition,[27] so that theFBI could enter onto foreign soil without the consent of the host government to apprehend fugitives wanted by the United States government for terrorism or drug-trafficking.[26] Barr declined a congressional request for the full 1989 opinion, but instead provided a document that "summarizes the principal conclusions". Congress subpoenaed the opinion, and its public release after Barr's departure from the Justice Department showed he had omitted significant findings in the opinion from his summary document.[28]
In May 1990, Barr was appointedDeputy Attorney General, the official responsible for day-to-day management of the department. According to media reports, Barr was generally praised for his professional management of the department.[29][30][31]
During August 1991, when then-Attorney GeneralRichard Thornburgh resigned to campaign for the Senate, Barr was named acting attorney general.[32] Three days after Barr accepted that position, 121 Cuban inmates, awaiting deportation to Cuba, seized nine hostages at theTalladega federal prison. He directed the FBI'sHostage Rescue Team to assault the prison, which resulted in rescuing all hostages without loss of life.[33][34]
It was reported that President Bush was impressed with Barr's management of the hostage crisis; weeks later, Bush nominated him as attorney general.[35]
Barr enjoyed a "sterling reputation" among Republican and Democratic politicians alike.[36] His two-dayconfirmation hearing was "unusually placid", and he was received well by both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.[37] Asked whether he thought a constitutional right to privacy included the right to an abortion, Barr responded that he believedthe Constitution was not originally intended to create a right to abortion; thatRoe v. Wade was thus wrongly decided; and that abortion should be a "legitimate issue for state legislators".[37] Barr also said at the hearings thatRoe v. Wade was "the law of the land" and claimed he did not have "fixed or settled views" on abortion.[38] Senate Judiciary Committee chairJoe Biden, though disagreeing with Barr, responded that it was the "first candid answer" he had heard from a nominee on a question that witnesses would normally evade; Biden hailed Barr as "a throwback to the days when we actually had attorneys general that would talk to you".[39] Barr was approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee, was confirmed by voice vote by the full Senate,[40][41] and was sworn in as attorney general on November 26, 1991.[42]
During his first tenure as AG, media characterized Barr as "a staunchconservative who rarely hesitates to put his hardline views into action".[43][44][45] He was described as affable with a dry, self-deprecating wit.[43][46]The New York Times described the "central theme" of his tenure to be "his contention that violent crime can be reduced only by expanding Federal and state prisons to jail habitual violent offenders".[44] In an effort to prioritize violent crime, Barr reassigned three hundred FBI agents from counterintelligence work to investigations ofgang violence.The New York Times called this move "the largest single manpower shift in the bureau's history".[44]
During the 1992 election year,The Wall Street Journal wrote of Barr's work that he "has put a heavy emphasis on attention-grabbing events and pronouncements that may have more to do with presidential election-year politicking than with fighting crime on the streets."[47][48]
In 1992, Barr authored a report,The Case for More Incarceration,[49] which argued for an increase in theUnited States incarceration rate, the creation of a national program to construct more prisons, and the abolition of parole release.[4] Barr argued that incarceration reduced crime, pointing to crime and incarceration rates in 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990. A 1999 criminology study criticized Barr's analysis, saying "so complex an issue as the relationship between crime and punishment cannot be addressed through so simplistic an analysis as a negative correlation between the two very aggregated time series of crime rates and incarceration rates."[50] University of Minnesota criminologistMichael Tonry said the data in Barr's report was deceptively presented; if Barr had chosen five-year intervals, then the data would not have supported Barr's argument, and if Barr had chosen to look at violent crime specifically (as opposed to all crimes as a category), then the data would not have supported his argument.[51]
Barr said in the report, "The benefits of increased incarceration would be enjoyed disproportionately by black Americans."[51] In the report, Barr approvingly quoted New Mexico attorney generalHal Stratton, "I don't know anyone [who] goes to prison on their first crime. By the time you go to prison, you are a pretty bad guy."[52] Barr's report influenced theViolent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which aimed to increase the incarceration rate.[4]
In October 1991, Barr appointed then-retired Democratic Chicago judgeNicholas Bua as special counsel in theInslaw scandal. Bua's 1993 report found the Department of Justice guilty of no wrongdoing in the matter.[53]
In October 1992, Barr appointed then retired New Jersey federal judgeFrederick B. Lacey to investigate the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency handling of theBanca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL)Iraqgate scandal.[54] The appointment came afterDemocrats called for a special prosecutor during the scandal fearing a "cover-up" by the administration.House Banking Committee ChairmanHenry B. González called for Barr's resignation, citing "repeated, clear failures and obstruction" by the Department of Justice in allegedly delaying an investigation of the BNL-Iraqgate case.[55][56] González also called for an independent special counsel investigation.[56]
In July 1991, regulators in seven countries shut down the Luxembourg-basedBank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), after investigators uncovered that the decentralized and poorly regulated bank, which was allegedly run bySaudi and possiblyPakistani Intelligence, was involved in fraud and money laundering operations for criminal organizations, corrupt governments, and intelligence agencies. BCCI managed to circumvent Federal Reserve controls to buy the bank holding company First American Bankshares, allowing direct access to American financial institutions.[57] Several sources have alleged that the CIA had been aware of BCCI's activities and its purchase of First American, but since theCIA,DIA, and theNSC utilized BCCI accounts for covert operations and since the Saudi's provided intelligence to the CIA from BCCI's illicit activities (seeSafari Club), the CIA worked with Barr to prevent any investigation of BCCI, which was directed by Assistant Attorney GeneralRobert Mueller since 1986 (other sources claim 1983).[58]
After the bank was shut down in 1991, Barr testified in congress that the investigation had "coordination" problems and promised to remedy the issue but other federal prosecutors claim Barr actively thwarted several indictments of BCCI in Florida, when the Customs Service discovered thatCenTrust Bank of Miami was a front for BCCI and possibly Saudi Intelligence. The American investigation of BCCI was taken over by SenatorJohn Kerry after discovering the bank during drug trafficking investigations. After becoming impatient with the slow pace and inaction of the Justice Department under Barr, Kerry had the investigation turned over to New York state district attorneyRobert Morgenthau, who managed to extract a plea agreement with BCCI for various criminal violations and the indictment of First American ghairmanClark Clifford.[57]
In 1992, Barr launched a surveillance program to gather records of innocent Americans' international phone calls.[59] The purpose of theDEA program was to collect "bulk logs of outgoing international phone calls from the United States to countries deemed to be linked to narcotics trafficking" through "issuing administrative subpoenas to phone companies"[60] According toUSA Today, the program "provided a blueprint for far broader phone-data surveillance the government launched after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001".[59] TheDoJ inspector general concluded that this program had been launched without a review of its legality and made 16 recommendations including areas relating to subpoena procedures and guidance training materials.[61]
In December 2019, Democratic senatorsRon Wyden andPatrick J. Leahy asked the Justice Department'sOffice of Professional Responsibility to investigate Barr for approving the program, accusing Barr of “an illegal, bulk surveillance program” alleging “without conducting any legal analysis”.[62]
In late 1992, Independent CounselLawrence Walsh, who had been chosen to investigate theIran–Contra affair, found documents in the possession of Reagan's former defense secretary,Caspar Weinberger, which Walsh said was "evidence of a conspiracy among the highest-ranking Reagan Administration officials to lie to Congress and the American public".[63][64] Weinberger was set to stand trial on felony charges on January 5, 1993.[63][65] His "indictment said Mr. Weinberger's notes contradicted Mr. Bush's assertions that he had only a fragmentary knowledge of the arms secretly sold to Iran in 1985 and 1986 in exchange forAmerican hostages in Lebanon."[65][64][66] According to Walsh, then-president Bush might have been called as a witness.[67]
On December 24, 1992, during his final month in office, Bush, on the advice of Barr, pardoned Weinberger,[17][68] along withfive other administration officials who had been found guilty on charges relating to theIran–Contra affair.[17][69][70][63] Barr was consulted extensively regarding the pardons, and especially advocated for pardoning Weinberger.[71]
Walsh complained about the move, insinuating that Bush on Barr's advice had used the pardons to avoid testifying and stating that: "The Iran-contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed."[72] In 2003, he wrote an account of the investigation in his book,Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up.
Because of this and Barr's unwillingness to appoint an independent counsel to look into a second scandal known asIraqgate,New York Times writerWilliam Safire began to refer to Barr as "Coverup-General Barr", accusing Barr of concealingGeorge H. W. Bush's involvement inIraqgate and theIran–Contra affair.[73][74] Barr, however, responded that he believed Bush had made the right decision regarding that and he felt people in the case had been treated unfairly.[75] Barr said Walsh was a "head-hunter" who "had completely lost perspective".[2]
Upon leaving the DOJ in 1993, Barr was appointed by Virginia GovernorGeorge Allen to co-chair a commission to implement tougher criminal justice policies and abolish parole in the state.[76][77] Barr has been described as a "leader of the parole-abolition campaign" in Virginia.[78]
After leaving the DOJ, he criticized the Clinton administration for being "soft on crime".[79] Barr expressed his opposition to efforts to endmandatory minimum sentencing.[79] In a 1993op-ed, he wrote, "The notion that there are sympathetic people out there who become hapless victims of the criminal-justice system and are locked away in federal prison beyond the time they deserve is simply a myth."[80][79] In a 1995 essay, Barr rejected that crime was caused by material factors, such as poverty, arguing instead that crime was caused by immorality: "Spending more money on these material social programs is not going to have an impact on crime, and, if anything, it will exacerbate the problem."[80]
In 1994, Barr became Executive Vice President andGeneral Counsel of the telecommunications companyGTE Corporation, where he served for 14 years. During his corporate tenure, Barr directed a successful litigation campaign by the local telephone industry to achieve deregulation by scuttling a series of FCC rules, personally arguing several cases in the federal courts of appeals and the Supreme Court.[81][82] In 2000, when GTE merged with Bell Atlantic to becomeVerizon Communications, Barr became the general counsel and executive vice president of Verizon until he retired in 2008.[83] Barr became amultimillionaire from working in GTE and Verizon. In 2001, Barr's salary was reportedly $1.5 million.[16]
From 1997 to 2000, Barr served on the Board of Visitors of theCollege of William & Mary in Williamsburg.[84]
In 2009, Barr was brieflyof counsel to the firmKirkland & Ellis. From 2010 until 2017, he advised corporations on government enforcement matters and regulatory litigation; he rejoined Kirkland and Ellis in 2017.[85]
From 2009 to 2018, Barr served on the board of directors forTime Warner.[86]
In March 1998, Barr lambasted the Clinton administration for criticizing Independent CounselKen Starr's investigation of theWhitewater controversy, which had shifted towards an investigation of an alleged affair between Clinton andMonica Lewinsky.[2] Barr said the criticism appeared "to have the improper purpose of influencing and impeding an ongoing criminal investigation and intimidating possible jurors, witnesses and even investigators".[2]
During the first two years of the Trump presidency, Barr frequently criticized legal challenges against Trump and investigations into the Trump 2016 campaign and presidency.[87][88]
In 2017, Barr said there was "nothing inherently wrong" with Donald Trump's calls for investigatingHillary Clinton while the two were both running for president. Barr added that an investigation into an allegedUranium One controversy was more warranted than looking into whether Trump conspired withRussia to influence the 2016 elections.[89] Barr also said in 2017 that he did not think "all this stuff" about incarcerating or prosecuting Hillary Clinton was appropriate to say, but added that "there are things that should be investigated that haven't been investigated," although the FBI began investigating theClinton Foundation and the related Uranium One matter in 2015, followed by investigations by Republican congressional committees.[90][91][92]
In February 2017, Barr argued Trump was justified in firing Acting Attorney GeneralSally Yates over her refusal to defendExecutive Order 13769.[93]
Barr was publicly critical of thespecial counsel investigation. In 2017, he faulted Mueller for hiring prosecutors who have contributed to Democratic politicians, saying that his team should have had more "balance", and characterized theobstruction of justice investigation as "asinine" and that it was "taking on the look of an entirely political operation to overthrow the president".[94][95]
In June 2018, Barr sent an unsolicited 20-page memo to senior Justice Department officials. He also provided copies to members of Trump's legal team and discussed it with some of them.[96] In his memo, Barr argued that the Special Counsel should not be investigating Trump for obstruction of justice because Trump's actions, such as firing FBI DirectorJames Comey, were within his powers as head of theexecutive branch.[97][98][99] He characterized the obstruction investigation as "fatally misconceived" and "grossly irresponsible" and "potentially disastrous" to the executive branch.[100][98] The day after the existence of the memo became known,Deputy Attorney GeneralRod Rosenstein said "our decisions are informed by our knowledge of the actual facts of the case, which Mr. Barr didn't have."[101] Democrats later characterized the memo as Barr's "job application" for the attorney general position.[102]
TheNational Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) financially assists Republicans in their Senate election contests; in the seven years from 2009 to 2016, Barr gave six donations to the NRSC totaling $85,400. In a five-month period from October 2018 to February 2019, Barr donated five times (around $10,000 every month) for a total of $51,000. When Barr started donating more frequently to the NRSC, it was uncertain whether then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions would remain in his job. Barr continued donating even after Sessions resigned, and after Trump nominated Barr for Attorney General. The donations stopped after Barr was confirmed by the Senate as attorney general. NRSC refunded Barr $30,000 before his confirmation. Previously in 2017, Barr had said he felt "prosecutors who make political contributions are identifying fairly strongly with a political party."[103]
On December 7, 2018, PresidentDonald Trump announced Barr's nomination to succeedJeff Sessions.[104][105] Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman reported that Trump had sought Barr as chief defense lawyer for Trump regarding thespecial counsel investigation headed byRobert Mueller after Barr made three positions known. First, Barr supportedTrump's firing of Comey on May 9, 2017. Second, he questioned the appointments of some of Mueller's prosecutors due to political donations they had made to the Clinton campaign. Third, he alleged there were conflicts of interest of two appointees to the Special Counsel Team,Jennie Rhee andBruce Ohr.[106][107][108]
Barr was confirmed as attorney general on February 14, 2019, by a 54–45 near party-line vote, with Sen.Doug Jones (D-AL),Joe Manchin (D-WV), andKyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) as the three Democrats to vote Yea. Republican senatorRand Paul (R-KY) voted No andRichard Burr (R-NC) did not vote.[109][110] Later that day, Barr was sworn in as the nation's 85th attorney general byChief JusticeJohn Roberts in a ceremony at the White House.[111] He is the first person to be appointed to a second non-consecutive term as attorney general sinceJohn J. Crittenden in 1850.[112]
In May 2019, three months into his tenure as attorney general, theAssociated Press characterized Barr as a champion and advocate for Trump.[113] Barr had enthusiastically supported Trump's political agenda, repeated Trump's assertion that those investigating Trump had engaged in spying, defied congressional subpoenas, and refused to give Congress an unredacted version of the Mueller report.[113]
Under Barr's leadership, the Justice Department changed its position on theAffordable Care Act (ACA). Previously the department took the position that the individual mandate provision was unconstitutional, but could be severed from the whole healthcare law. On March 25, the department updated its position to argue that the entire law was unconstitutional.[114] On May 2, the department conducted a filing with theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to nullify the entire law, arguing that the removal of the provision on individual mandate results in the entire law becoming unconstitutional.[115]
Also in July 2019, Barr reportedly made the decision to not bring federal civil rights charges against New York policeman Daniel Pantaleo for causing thedeath of Eric Garner. In so doing, he overruled the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which advocated charging Pantaleo, instead agreeing with Justice Department prosecutors from New York.[116]
On July 25, 2019, Barr ordered the resumption of federal executions.[117]
On July 8, 2019, Barr announced his recusal from the Justice Department's review of the 2008 federal prosecution of American financier and convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epstein.[118] On August 10, 2019,Epstein was found unresponsive in his jail cell at theMetropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).[119] Barr later announced that Justice Department officials were investigating "serious irregularities" at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.[120]
In mid-August 2019, Barr had a rare face-to-face meeting with Trump and Giuliani associatesJoseph diGenova and his wifeVictoria Toensing, who since earlier that year represented former Ukrainian prosecutor generalViktor Shokin and pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchDmytry Firtash as attorneys. Trump had announced in March 2018 that diGenova and Toensing would join his legal defense team during theMueller investigation; the appointments were withdrawn days later, though Trump personal attorneyJay Sekulow said they might assist in other legal matters. DiGenova has said he has known Barr for thirty years, as they both worked in the Reagan Justice Department. Since 2014, Firtash had been fighting extradition to the United States under a federal indictment while he was living in Austria after being arrested there and released on $155 million bail, and diGenova and Toensing sought to have Barr drop the charges. Firtash was a middleman for importing Russian natural gas into Ukraine and has said he was installed in that role by Russian organized crime bossSemion Mogilevich; Russian presidentVladimir Putin reportedly agreed to the appointment. When he was vice president, Joe Biden had urged Ukraine to eliminate middlemen such as Firtash and to reduce the country'sreliance on imports of Russian natural gas. Giuliani had directed associateLev Parnas to approach Firtash with a recommendation to hire diGenova and Toensing, with the proposition that Firtash could help provide damaging information on Biden, which Parnas's attorney described was "part of any potential resolution to [Firtash's] extradition matter." DiGenova and Toensing obtained a September 2019 statement[121] from Shokin that made false assertions about corruption by Biden. The statement noted that it was prepared "at the request of lawyers acting for Dmitry Firtash ('DF'), for use in legal proceedings in Austria." Giuliani promoted the statement in television appearances as purported evidence of wrongdoing by Biden. Prior to meeting with diGenova and Toensing, Barr had been briefed in detail on the initialTrump–Ukraine scandal whistleblower complaint within the CIA that had been forwarded to the Justice Department, as well as on Giuliani's activities in Ukraine. Barr declined to intervene in the Firtash case.Bloomberg News reported that its sources told them Giuliani's high-profile publicity of the Shokin statement had greatly reduced the chances of the Justice Department dropping the charges against Firtash, as it would appear to be a politicalquid pro quo.[122]
In October 2019, as Trump faced animpeachment inquiry about theTrump-Ukraine scandal, Barr met withFox Corporation chairmanRupert Murdoch at his Manhattan home. Trump reportedly was angered by a recent Fox News poll showing a majority of Americans supported his impeachment and removal from office, as well as analysis of the scandal by Fox News senior judicial analystAndrew Napolitano, a previous Trump ally who had argued the president should be impeached. Trump reportedly directed Barr to meet with Murdoch, and it was not immediately known what the men discussed, butCNN media analystBrian Stelter wrote in his2020 book about Fox News that silencing Napolitano was among the topics discussed. The meeting was one day after Parnas andIgor Fruman, associates of Trump and Giuliani, were arrested as they prepared to fly to Vienna to arrange an interview between Fox News hostSean Hannity and Shokin, who had made false corruption allegations about Joe Biden, a potential challenger to Trump in the 2020 presidential election.[123][124][125][126]
In December 2019, Barr said that communities that do not show the "respect and support that law enforcement deserves ... might find themselves without the police protection they need."[127] Barr dropped the Department of Justice's case against the police officer who killed Eric Garner in 2014.[16]
In February 2020, Senator Lindsey Graham stated that the Justice Department "is receiving information coming out of the Ukraine from"Rudy Giuliani, a personal lawyer to president Donald Trump. Graham had learned from Barr that "they've created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it's verified." A day later, Barr confirmed Graham's account, stating that he had "established an intake process" for information on Ukraine, including from Giuliani, while citing an "obligation to have an open door" policy on receiving information.[128] Giuliani has claimed to have information of improprieties regarding Ukraine for Joe Biden (a former vice president, later a 2020 presidential candidate) and his sonHunter Biden. Giuliani himself is reportedly being investigated by the Justice Department, with two of his associates having been arrested.[129][130][131]
Barr has made commentary about social and religious issues in speeches and television appearances. In an October 2019 address at theUniversity of Notre Dame, Barr asserted that "militant secularists" had been attacking Judeo-Christian values for five decades, stating, "This is not decay. This is organized destruction. Secular forces and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia, in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values."[132]
Barr has sometimes supported controversial or false statements made by Trump.[133]
On September 21, 2020, Barr joined AdvisorIvanka Trump, Georgia governorBrian Kemp, First LadyMarty Kemp, andTim Tebow in Atlanta to announce $100 million in grant funding for victims of human trafficking.[134]
On December 21, 2020, Barr announced federal charges againstAbu Agila Masud for building the bomb that destroyedPan Am Flight 103. Barr had taken an interest in solving that case, both during and between his tenures as attorney general.[135]
In May 2021, federal judgeBeryl Howell unsealed documents showing that in November 2020 the Barr DOJ persuaded a grand jury to subpoena Twitter for information to identify who operated aparody Twitter account, @NunesAlt, that mocked Republican congressman and ardent Trump allyDevin Nunes. Twitter was also issued a gag order in the matter. Challenging the subpoena, the company noted Nunes's history of litigation and argued that the subpoena appeared to be a government attempt to aid his efforts to retaliate against his critics, and violated the First Amendment. The DOJ cited 18USC§875(c)[136] that prohibits threats, but did not provide any examples of threats to Twitter attorneys. CNN reported that investigators sought information about several online accounts relating to threats against senatorMitch McConnell. The DOJ withdrew the subpoena one week after Twitter challenged it to Howell, who oversees federal grand juries, in March 2021.[137][138][139][140] Prior to Barr's second tenure, the Trump Justice Department in 2017 and 2018subpoenaedmetadata from theiCloud accounts of at least a dozen individuals associated with the House Intelligence Committee, including that of ranking Democratic memberAdam Schiff andEric Swalwell, and family members, to investigate leaks to the press about contacts between Trump associates and Russia.[141][142]
On January 14, 2019, a day before Barr's confirmation hearing for attorney general, Barr sent written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the eventual final Mueller report, saying "it is very important that the public and Congress be informed of the results of the special counsel's work ... For that reason, my goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law."[143][144]
Upon taking office, Barr refused calls to recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation, despite his June 2018 memo arguing that the special counsel had no right to investigate Trump.[97][98]
On March 22, 2019, Mueller concluded his special counsel investigation and gave the final report to Barr.[145]
Even before seeing the Mueller report, Barr had already decided to clear Trump of obstruction. To this end, he tasked theOffice of Legal Counsel with writing a memo that would provide apretextual justification for this decision.[146][147][148] According to federal judgeAmy Berman Jackson, the Barr letter which declined to charge Trump, and a Justice Department memo purportedly containing advice to Barr that Trump should not be charged, were "being written by the very same people at the very same time". Jackson also stated that email evidence showed that the Barr letter was "the priority, and it is getting completed first" ahead of the advice memo.[149][150] The final memo was signed bySteven Engel andEd O'Callaghan.[147][148][151]
On March 24, Barr submitteda four-page letter to Congress describing what he said were the report's principal conclusions: first, that the Special Counsel did not establish conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia's efforts to interfere with the 2016 election; and second, that the Special Counsel made no decision as to whether to prosecute Trump for obstruction of justice, quoting "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Barr stated that the Special Counsel's decision "leaves it to" Barr to decide if Trump obstructed justice. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein themselves concluded that the evidence "is not sufficient to establish" obstruction of justice by Trump, and made the decision not to press the charge.[152][153][154][155][156]
On March 25, Mueller reportedly wrote a letter to Barr, as described inThe New York Times as "expressing his and his team's concerns that the attorney general had inadequately portrayed their conclusions".[157] InUSA Today it was described that Mueller "expressed his differences with Barr".[158]
On March 27, Mueller sent Barr another letter describing his concerns of Barr's letter to Congress and the public on March 24. In it, Mueller complained that the summary "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the Special Counsel's probe, adding, "There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations."[159] Both before and after the release of Barr's summary, Mueller repeatedly tried to get Barr to release the report's introductions and executive summaries. Mueller's March 27 letter also stated that he had earlier sent a March 25 letter to Barr.[160]
Mueller's March 27 letter prompted Barr to call Mueller on March 28. Barr clarified on the intention of his letter both in his phone call with Mueller and in another letter to Congress that his letter had not been intended to be a summary of the report, but rather a description of the principal findings of the report.[161][159]
On April 9, Barr appeared in a congressional hearing before the House. There, RepresentativeCharlie Crist described media reports that "members of the special counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your March 24 letter, that it does not adequately or accurately portray the [Mueller] report's findings." Crist asked Barr: "Do you know what they are referencing with that?" Barr replied: "No, I don't."[162][163] On April 10, Attorney General Barr appeared before theSenate Appropriations Committee. SenatorChris Van Hollen asked Barr regarding obstruction: "Did Bob Mueller support your conclusion?" Barr replied: "I don't know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion."[162][163]
The Department of Justice released a redacted version of the special counsel'sreport in the morning of April 18, 2019.[164][165] After the release of the full report, fact-checkers and news outlets characterized Barr's initial letter as a deliberate mischaracterization of the Mueller Report and its conclusions.[166][167][168][169][170][171]The New York Times reported instances in which the Barr letter omitted information and quoted sentence fragments out of context in ways that significantly altered the Mueller findings, including:[166]
According to theAssociated Press, Barr misrepresented the report in several ways, saying the report gave no indication that Congress could make a determination on obstruction of justice (the report specifically stated "that Congress may apply obstruction laws") and that "these reports are not supposed to be made public" (when DOJ regulations give the AG wide authority in releasing reports such as this one).[172] Barr falsely claimed in his summary of the report that "the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel's investigation."[173]The Washington Post fact-checker described Barr's claim as "astonishing"[167] andPolitiFact said it was "false".[173] In actuality, Trump declined to grant the Special Counsel an in-person interview, and the Special Counsel report characterized Trump's written responses to interview questions as "inadequate".[173] The report also documented numerous instances where Trump tried to either impede or end the Special Counsel investigation, analyzing each in terms of the three factors necessary for a criminal charge of obstruction.[173][174][175][failed verification]
During a press conference, Barr said Mueller's report contained "substantial evidence" that Trump was "frustrated and angered" because of his belief that the "investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks"; however, the report gave no indication that Trump's frustrations with the investigation would mitigate obstructing behavior.[160][176][177] Barr also said it would not be criminal obstruction of justice for a president to instruct a staffer to lie to investigators about the president's actions,[178] and suggested a president could legally terminate an investigation into himself if he was being "falsely accused".[179]
On May 8, 2019, theHouse Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to hold Barr incontempt of congress for failing to comply with a subpoena which requested the full and unredactedMueller Report.[180] The matter then fell to theHouse of Representatives at-large for a contempt of Congress vote.[181] The Justice Department took the position that disclosure of the unredacted Mueller Report would require the department to violate "the law, court rules and court orders" as well as grand jury secrecy rules.[180]
During May 1, 2019, testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barr stated he accepted Mueller's interpretation of the law that was applied in the Report. However, in a May 30 CBS News interview, Barr said he had applied his own interpretation of the law and took the position that obstruction laws cannot apply to presidents who abuse their official powers to impede an investigation for a corrupt reason. Barr elaborated: "As a matter of law ... we didn't agree with the legal analysis – a lot of the legal analysis in the report. It did not reflect the views of the department."[182][183]
In March 2020,Reggie Walton, a federal district judge originally appointed by President George W. Bush, criticized Barr's characterizations of the Mueller report as "distorted" and "misleading". Walton made his comments while presiding over a lawsuit on whether the Mueller report should be released without redactions. As Walton saw it, Barr's "lack ofcandor" undermined Barr's "credibility and, in turn, the department's" arguments before the court. Walton had concerns that Barr may have made a "calculated attempt to influence public discourse" in favor of President Trump by establishing "a one-sided narrative" about the report contrary to the report's findings. Walton questioned if the report's redactions were actually "self-serving" to avoid conflict with Barr's statements, and if the Justice Department used "post-hoc rationalizations" to defend Barr.[184][185] Kerri Kupec, the DOJ's spokesperson, said Walton's criticisms of Barr "were contrary to the facts" as the redactions were made by DOJ attorneys after they consulted Mueller's team, prosecutors, and other officials.[186] On September 3, Walton ruled that the redaction of FBI reports of witness interviews was proper.[187]
In May 2021, federal judgeAmy Berman Jackson ruled that a March 24, 2019 Department of Justice memo[188] must be published without redactions.[189] Previously in April 2019, Barr said that his decision to not charge Trump was made "in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel and other department lawyers". In this lawsuit, the Department of Justice argued that since Barr relied on the advice of this memo to make his decision, this memo should not be published unredacted. Jackson rejected this argument after reviewing the unredacted memo, stating that Barr could not have made the decision on the memo's advice, because the unredacted memo showed that the decision had already been made not to charge Trump. In addition, according to Jackson, the unredacted memo indicated that Barr did not have legitimate authority to make a prosecution decision regarding Trump. Jackson concluded that Barr had been "disingenuous" to Congress in 2019, and that the Department of Justice had been "disingenuous to this court" regarding their "decision-making process".[150][189][190]
In April 2019, Barr stated that he thought "spying did occur" against the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.[191] The remark echoed unsubstantiated claims made by Trump and his supporters that the Trump campaign had been unfairly targeted or spied on by the FBI; Trump described it as an "attempted coup".[192][191][193][194][195] There is no evidence that government officials engaged in "spying" on the Trump campaign.[193] Barr later said he was not sure what spying had occurred and he did clarify what he meant by "spying".[191] He also said he had no evidence of wrong-doing.[191][194] Democrats criticized Barr's statement as "incendiary", saying the statement was intended to please Trump and that the statement lacked credibility following Barr's misrepresentation of the Mueller report in March 2019.[191][193][194] Barr said he thought there was not "any pejorative connotation at all" to the term spying.[196] At the time, Barr said he would not launch an investigation intothe origins of the FBI probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.[193]
FBI officials denied Barr's claims about spying.[197] FBI directorChristopher A. Wray said he was unaware of any illegal surveillance by the FBI; he rejected the description of "spying".[198] Subsequently, Trump retweeted a far-right pundit who said the FBI had "no leadership" and that Wray was "protecting the same gang that tried to overthrow the president in an illegal coup".[199] Trump said Wray's statement was "ridiculous".[199] Former FBI Director James Comey rebutted Barr, saying "The FBI doesn't spy. The FBI investigates."[192]
In May 2019, Barr asserted, "Government power was used to spy on American citizens."[196] Barr did not identify the specific actions prior to the 2016 election that he considered spying.[196]
On May 1, 2019,Assistant Attorney GeneralStephen Boyd told theHouse Oversight Committee that Barr had instructed Justice Department official John Gore to refuse a subpoena to testify in front of the committee. The committee subpoenaed Gore over the Trump administration's efforts to add a question on citizenship to the2020 United States Census. The reason for the refusal was that the committee's decision to not allow a Justice Department lawyer to accompany Gore during testimony violated "the confidentiality interests of the Executive Branch" (though a separate room was permitted).[200] In early June theHouse Oversight Committee moved to hold Barr incontempt of congress for defying a subpoena regarding the efforts to add a citizenship question to the census.[201] In July 2019, the House of Representatives voted 230–198 to hold Barr (and Commerce SecretaryWilbur Ross) in criminal contempt of Congress, after they failed to produce documents as April 2019 congressional subpoenas mandated. The documents, on the planned (and eventually scrapped) citizenship question in the 2020 census, were withheld due to a "deliberative process" and "attorney-client communications", according to the Justice Department. President Trump also assertedexecutive privilege over the documents to withhold them from Congress. Only once prior has a sitting Cabinet member been held in criminal contempt of Congress (Eric Holder in 2012). The House instructed the Justice Department to prosecute Barr, but the Department refused.[202][203]
| Trump–Ukraine scandal |
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.jpg) A request by U.S. PresidentDonald Trump (right) to Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy (left) to investigateJoe Biden andhis son sparked the scandal. |
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Also in May 2019, Barr appointedJohn Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to oversee a DOJ probe intothe origins of the FBI investigation into Russian interference.[199] The origins of the probe were already being investigated by the Justice Department's inspector general and by U.S. attorney John Huber, who was appointed in 2018 by Jeff Sessions.[199] Democrats criticized the decision, with Senator Patrick Leahy saying, "Ordering a third meritless investigation at the request of Trump is beneath the office he holds."[199] Trump ordered theintelligence community to cooperate with Barr's inquiry and granted Barr unprecedented full authority to declassify any intelligence information related to the matter.[204][205][206][207][208] In April 2020, Barr asserted the FBI investigation had been opened "without any basis".[209]
In September 2019, Barr was reported to have been contacting foreign governments to ask for help in this inquiry, including personally traveling to the United Kingdom and Italy to seek information. At Barr's request Trump phoned the prime minister of Australia to request his cooperation.[210][211] Barr sought information related to a conspiracy theory that had circulated among Trump allies inconservative media assertingJoseph Mifsud was a Western intelligence operative who was allegedly directed to entrap Trump campaign advisorGeorge Papadopoulos in order to establish a false predicate forthe FBI to open an investigation intoRussian interference in the 2016 United States elections. On October 2, 2019, SenatorLindsey Graham, a staunch Trump supporter and chairman of theSenate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to the leaders of Britain, Australia and Italy, asserting as fact that both Mifsud and Australian diplomatAlexander Downer had been directed to contact Papadopoulos.Joe Hockey, the Australian ambassador to the United States, sharply rejected Graham's characterization of Downer.[212][213] A former Italian government official toldThe Washington Post in October 2019 that during a meeting the previous month,Italian intelligence services told Barr they had "no connections, no activities, no interference" in the matter; Italian prime ministerGiuseppe Conte later affirmed this.[214][215] One British official with knowledge of Barr's requests observed, "it is like nothing we have come across before, they are basically asking, in quite robust terms, for help in doing a hatchet job on their own intelligence services."[216]The Washington Post reported on November 22, 2019, that the Justice Department inspector general had aggressively investigated the allegation that Mifsud had been directed to entrap Papadopoulos, but found it was without merit. ThePost also reported the inspector general found the opening of the FBI'sCrossfire Hurricane investigation was legally and factually predicated.[217] ThePost subsequently reported in December 2019 that Barr disagreed with the inspector general's conclusion that there was adequate evidence for the FBI to open its investigation.[218] ThePost also reported in December 2019 that the inspector general asked Durham and several American intelligence agencies if there was evidence of a setup by American intelligence, but they replied there was none.[219]
On October 24, 2019, two sources toldThe New York Times that the Durham inquiry had been elevated to a criminal investigation.[220]The Times reported on November 22 that the Justice Department inspector general had made a criminal referral to Durham regarding Kevin Clinesmith, an FBI attorney who had altered an email during the process of acquiring a wiretap warrant renewal onCarter Page, and that referral appeared to be at least part of the reason Durham's investigation was elevated to criminal status.[221] Barr rejected criticism by Democrats in Congress that the transitioned investigation was designed to provide support to Trump duringhis impeachment inquiry in theTrump-Ukraine scandal.[222][223] On August 14, 2020, Clinesmith pleaded guilty to a felony violation of altering an email used to maintain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants, having added the phrase "not a 'source'" to the original email.[224][225] Carter Page had a prior operational relationship with the CIA from 2008 to 2013.[226]
In November 2019, Justice Department inspector generalMichael Horowitz concluded his investigation into the origins of the 2016 Russia probe, concluding that the investigation was not tainted by "political bias or improper motivation", and that the initial information gathered "was sufficient to predicate the investigation" given the "low threshold" for opening an investigation. Barr rejected the conclusions of the report, declaring that the investigation was started "on the thinnest of suspicions that, in [his] view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken". This also contradicted FBI director Chris Wray, who interpreted Horowitz's findings as the investigation having "appropriate predication and authorization".[227][228]
In December 2019, Barr claimed in an interview withNBC News that the Russia investigation was "completely baseless" and said he believed the FBI's investigation may have been conducted in "bad faith".[229] Barr also refused to refute thedebunked conspiracy theory of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election during the interview.[229][230] In a subsequent interview on Fox News, Barr asserted, "the president bore the burden of probably one of the greatest conspiracy theories – baseless conspiracy theories – in American political history," despite the recent inspector general report debunking several conspiracy theories Trump and his allies had promoted.[231][232][233][234]
In January 2020, Barr prohibited the start of counterintelligence investigations related to presidential campaigns unless both the attorney general and head of the FBI signed off on those investigations.[235]
Barr defended Trump's April 2020 firing of intelligence community inspector generalMichael K. Atkinson. Atkinson was the inspector general who sought to get the Trump administration to the disclose the Ukraine scandal whistleblower complaint to Congress. In defense of the firing, Barr allegedly made numerous false claims about Atkinson's actions during his tenure.[236]
On May 18, 2020, Barr commented on prior investigations into potential collusion between Trump and Russia stating: "What happened to the president in the 2016 election and throughout the first two years of his administration was abhorrent ... it was a grave injustice and it was unprecedented in American history ... the law enforcement and intelligence apparatus of this country were involved in advancing a false and utterly baseless Russian collusion narrative against this president."[5][6]
Barr hinted in June 2020 that the Durham investigation would produce results regarding the "complete collapse of theRussiagate scandal" before the end of the summer.[237] In July he told a Congressional committee that the results of the investigation could be released before the election, despite an informal Justice Department rule limiting release of such information.[238] In August, Trump in public comments appeared to be getting impatient for the investigation to produce more prosecutions and suggesting that his opinion of Barr will be negatively influenced if it does not.[238] As summer ended there were reports that Barr was pressing for the Durham investigation to release its report. Colleagues of Durham have said they believe he is under pressure to produce something before the election. A top aide in the investigation quietly resigned on September 10; she gave no reason, but colleagues said she was concerned about political pressure from Barr.[239] On September 18, 2020, four chairs of Democratic committees asked the DOJ inspector general to open an emergency investigation because "We are concerned by indications that Attorney General Barr might depart from longstanding DOJ principles to take public action related to U.S. Attorney Durham's investigation that could impact the presidential election," adding that Barr's public comments may have already violated that policy.[240]
On November 2, 2020, the day before the presidential election,New York magazine reported that:
... there has been no evidence found, after 18 months of investigation, to support Barr's claims that Trump was targeted by politically biased Obama officials to prevent his election. (The probe remains ongoing.) In fact, the sources said, the Durham investigation has so far uncovered no evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden or Barack Obama, or that they were even involved with the Russia investigation. There 'was no evidence ... not even remotely ... indicating Obama or Biden did anything wrong,' as one person put it.[241]
In the spring of 2019, Barr reportedly attempted to undermine the conviction of Trump fixerMichael Cohen for campaign finance violations, detailedThe New York Times in June 2020. Barr reportedly raised doubts multiple times about the validity of the charges against Cohen, including requesting theOffice of Legal Counsel to draft a memo with legal arguments which could have helped Cohen's case. Barr's efforts were reportedly stemmed by the prosecutors of the Southern District of New York. Ultimately, Cohen's conviction was not changed.[242]
In February 2020, President Trump directly referenced Barr in the Justice Department's intercession in recommending a lighter sentence for Trump's associate and old friendRoger Stone. Trump's tweet stated: "Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought." Initially, four career prosecutors had recommended that Stone serve a jail term of between seven and nine years. A Trump tweet followed: "Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!" – after which the department recommended an unspecified jail term. The department claimed that this later decision was made without consulting the White House. The prosecutors resigned from the case as a result, with one choosing to leave the department.[243][244]
Barr affirmed that he had made the decision in the Stone case to change the sentencing memo. Barr said Trump had not asked him to step in, but noted that Trump's tweets and public comments make it impossible for the attorney general to do his job. "I think it's time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases," Barr said.[245][246] Barr's rebuke of Trump's use of Twitter for interference in DOJ matters were seen as a rare departure from his usual unwavering support of the president. Barr's comments followed criticism of the department for its poor handling of the sentencing of Roger Stone after DOJ actions seen as favorable to Trump and his allies.[247][248] Days later, a bipartisan group of more than 2,000 former DOJ employees signed a letter calling for Barr's resignation.[249][250] while the Federal Judges Association of over a thousand federal jurists called an emergency meeting for February 18 to discuss their concerns about the intervention of Trump and Justice Department officials in politically sensitive cases.[251] Despite Barr's rebuke of Trump, days later the president resumed denouncing the prosecutors, the judge, and the jury foreperson in the Stone case, while acknowledging that his comments made Barr's job harder.[252] After granting severalpardons, Trump also labeled himself as the country's "chief law enforcement officer", a description usually reserved for the attorney general.[253]
Additionally in February 2020, Barr declared that there would be a review of the criminal case ofMichael Flynn, the formernational security advisor to Trump, who had pled guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian ambassador. Flynn later attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, and had not been sentenced yet.[254][255] Barr chose St. Louis's chief federal prosecutor,Jeffrey Jensen, to conduct the review. Jensen himself was nominated by Trump for the St. Louis position.[255] Trump had publicly called for the charges to be dropped against Flynn. In late April or early May, Jensen recommended to Barr that the charges be dropped.[256]
The Justice Department announced in May 2020 that the charges against Flynn would be dropped, with Jensen stating that Barr had agreed with his recommendation.[256] Shortly after, Barr was asked in a media interview if given that Flynn "admitted lying to the FBI. Does the fact remain that he lied?" Barr replied that "people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes ... the Department of Justice is not persuaded that this was material to any legitimate counterintelligence investigation. So it was not a crime." Barr denied that he was carrying out the president's agenda on this case, stating that he was "doing the law's bidding". He also said that from this case, he wanted to show Americans that "there's only one standard of justice," instead of two standards of justice.[257]
Between Trump's election and inauguration, Flynn had phone conversations with Russian ambassadorSergey Kislyak that were incidentally intercepted by American intelligence in the course of routine surveillance of Russian agents. Among other topics, Flynn discussed sanctions imposed on Russia by theObama administration forRussian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Per policy regarding American persons, Flynn's identity wasmasked before accounts of his conversations were distributed to high-level Obama administration officials. Some officials, notably national security advisorSusan Rice, were so concerned by the accounts that they requested Flynn's identity be unmasked, per procedure. After the unmasking was reported by the press, Trump and his allies insisted it was evidence the Obama administration was spying on him and his associates for political purposes. In May 2020, Barr spokesperson Kerri Kupec announced on the program of Fox News hostSean Hannity that Barr had appointed U.S. attorneyJohn Bash to investigate. She also stated thatJohn Durham, whom Barr had appointed to investigate the origins of the FBICrossfire Hurricane investigation, had also been examining the unmasking issue. The Bash investigation was quietly closed five months later, with no public announcement or report, reportedly finding nothing improper. Bash's 52-page report, previously classified top secret, was released in May 2022. Bash wrote he had found no evidence that any unmasking requests were made for any political or otherwise improper reasons during the 2016 election period or the ensuing presidential transition.[258][259][260]
Barr's firing ofGeoffrey Berman was widely condemned,[261] given that theSouthern District of New York was actively pursuing criminal investigations into several persons and companies associated with President Donald Trump andThe Trump Organization.[262][242]Barr's conduct was seen as sacrificing the independence of the Department of Justice to protect Trump and his allies.[263]For these reasons, numerous groups have called for Barr's resignation, including theNew York City Bar Association.[264]
On October 3, 2019, Rep.Bill Pascrell Jr. filed ethics complaints against Barr with theDistrict of Columbia Bar andVirginia Bar associations.[265] On February 14, 2020,Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed an ethics complaint against Barr with theDepartment of JusticeOffice of Professional Responsibility andOffice of the Inspector General, accusing Barr of "violating several Justice Department rules, guidelines and procedures".[266] On July 22, 2020, a group of 27 "legal ethics experts and former government lawyers", including four former presidents of the District of Columbia Bar, also filed a complaint against Barr with the District of Columbia Bar.[267][268] Abar association may take years to investigate an ethics complaint filed against a lawyer.[267] If the District of Columbia Bar concludes that a lawyer has violated any of its Rules of Professional Conduct, that lawyer may be sanctioned in one of several ways, including admonition, suspension, anddisbarment.[269]
In June 2019, in violation of Department of Justice policy, Barr pressured Berman, then theU.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to drop an investigation into close allies of Turkish presidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan involved with the Turkish bankHalkbank.[10] The bank and the individuals in question were alleged to have broken U.S. sanctions on Iran, funnelling billions of dollars to Iran and helping fund its nuclear ambitions.[10] Erdogan himself personally insisted to President Trump that the Halkbank investigation be shut down on at least two occasions, November 1, 2018, at theG20 summit in Buenos Aires, and on a telephone call on December 14, 2018.[10] According to formernational security advisorJohn Bolton, a first-hand witness of many of the events in question, this sequence of events "does look like obstruction of justice".[10]
In mid-June 2020, Barr announced thatGeoffrey Berman, the court-appointedUnited States Aatorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), "is stepping down". Berman's office had been investigating both Trump's personal lawyerRudy Giuliani andTrump's inaugural committee, as well as conducting a wider investigation into Trump's company and his associates after successfully prosecuting Michael Cohen, another personal lawyer of Trump.[270] CNN also reported that Berman had prosecutedHalkbank despite Barr's attempt to try to avoid charges for the Turkish state-owned bank, after Turkish presidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan requested Trump to help drop the charges.[271][9][272][273] Simultaneously, Barr announced that at his recommendation, Trump had appointedCraig Carpenito as the interim SDNY U.S. attorney, in a departure from the tradition of a career prosecutor from SDNY taking the interim role. Also concurrently, Barr said that Trump would nominateJay Clayton for the permanent role of SDNY U.S. attorney.[271][9] Within a day, Berman said that he actually had "not resigned, and have no intention of resigning". Berman also said that he only learned of his supposed departure from Barr's public announcement.[9][272] Barr then informed Berman that Trump had fired Berman at Barr's request. Barr did not give a reason for Berman's firing. As a result of the firing, the deputy SDNY U.S. attorney,Audrey Strauss, would become the interim SDNY U.S. attorney. With this, Berman agreed to leave. Meanwhile, the Senate indicated it would not confirm Clayton as the permanent replacement.[273][272]
In a late Friday night statement on June 19, 2020, Barr stated that Berman was resigning and being replaced byJay Clayton, citing Berman's behavior in the Halkbank episode as a primary reason for his removal.[10] Berman learned of this through press reports and declined to resign; the next day, Barr asked Trump to fire Berman, which he promptly did. Berman was replaced by his deputy,Audrey Strauss.[274] In November 2019,The Wall Street Journal reported Trump personal attorneyRudy Giuliani figured in anSDNY investigation into multiple possible felonies.[275]
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In early June 2020, according to reporting byThe Washington Post and Fox News, Barr personally ordered that the streets aroundLafayette Square, Washington, D.C. should be cleared so that Trump, Barr and other administration officials could stagea photo op in front of St. John's Church. At the time, the streets were occupied by peaceful protesters as part of theGeorge Floyd protests in Washington, D.C.; Barr's order resulted in federal law enforcement officers rushing protesters, and employing smoke canisters, pepper balls, riot shields, and batons against the protesters.[8][276] Barr reacted to the incident by falsely claiming that pepper balls (used by law enforcement on protesters) were not chemical irritants (pepper balls containpelargonic acid vanillylamide, a chemical irritant; while the product's manufacturer, and the Justice Department, both consider pepper balls a chemical irritant).[277] On August 4, 2020, Barr and presidential adviserIvanka Trump, and special advisor Heather Fischer announced the $35 million in grant awards to support victims of human trafficking at a White House event. During the roundtable, Barr became emotional and partly covered his face with his hand as survivors of human trafficking told their stories.[278] In August 2020, he invokedqualified immunity before a federal court to protect himself from liability in a lawsuit regarding the Lafayette Square incident.[279] A report by theU.S. Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General (OIG), released in June 2021, concluded that the clearing of the park by the Park Police and other forces was part of a plan to install "antiscale fencing" and had not been done so that Trump could stage a photo op in front of St. John's Church.[280] The OIG report stated that OIG "cannot assess whether" Barr's visit to the park or any planned movement by Trump "influenced the Secret Service's actions, including its early deployment on to H Street."[281]
In an August 2020 appearance on Fox News, Barr asserted thatBlack Lives Matter is "a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism. They're essentiallyBolsheviks. Their tactics are fascistic." Barr equated the movement withantifa, characterizing that loose collective as "highly organized" and claiming "the media doesn't take footage of what's happening" atGeorge Floyd protests. He also claimed that liberals are intent on "tearing down the system" and that the Democratic party was only "interested in total victory. It's a secular religion. It's a substitute for a religion."[282] Barr had in June 2020 blamed antifa for orchestrating the George Floyd protests, but analysis byThe New York Times found that no one arrested for serious federal crimes at the protests had been linked to antifa.[283]Homeland Security Department secretaryChad Wolf said in September 2020 that he and Barr had discussed arresting leaders of antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement.[284]The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2020 that Barr told federal prosecutors to consider charging violent protestors withplotting to overthrow the US government.[285][286]
In an August 2020 interview, Trump claimed that a plane full of "thugs in dark uniforms", implyingantifa, had recently flown from one unidentified city to another with the intention of fomenting riots. His claim appeared to be based on months-old social media rumors.[287][288] Two days later, Barr asserted he knew that antifa activists "are flying around the country" and "we are following them".[289] The DHS report did not mention antifa.[284][290][291]
On September 3, 2020, Trump ordered Barr to identify "anarchist jurisdictions", stating in a memorandum, "It is imperative that the federal government review the use of federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America's cities."[292] Days later, Barr designated New York City, Seattle and Portland, Oregon as such jurisdictions, suggesting they should lose their federal funding because, "We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance."[293] Barr redirected federal homeland security and law enforcement resources to dealing with antifa, whereas the career law enforcement officials had long since concluded that the major domestic terrorism threat came from the far right.[294]
As Attorney General, Barr sowed doubt about the integrity of the 2020 election.[295] In a September 2020 interview, Barr falsely asserted the Justice Department had indicted a Texas man for fraudulently completing 1,700 mail-in ballots. There was no such indictment, and the matter actually involved a series of errors by election officials during a county election, rather than fraud.[296][297][298] Barr also repeated a claim that foreign adversaries could flood the country with counterfeit ballots to disrupt the election, a threat that experts characterized as nearly impossible to execute.[299][300] Senior American intelligence officials have said there was no evidence any foreign powers intended to manipulate mail-in voting.[301] The day after Barr's interview, theDepartment of Homeland Security issued an intelligence bulletin warning that Russia is using social media and other venues to promote false claims that mail voting will lead to widespread fraud, in order "to undermine public trust in the electoral process".[302] In a subsequent September 2020 interview, Barr stated that mail-in voting meant "we're back in the business of selling and buying votes" including "outright coercion, paying off a postman, here's a few hundred dollars, give me some of your ballots".[303] On October 1, 2020, more than 1,600 former DOJ attorneys signed an open letter stating, "we fear that Attorney General Barr intends to use the DOJ's vast law enforcement powers to undermine our most fundamental democratic value: free and fair elections."[304]
In September 2020, Barr asserted liberals were "projecting", referring to "all this bullshit about how the president is going to stay in office and seize power? I've never heard of any of that crap. I mean, I'm the attorney general. I would think I would have heard about it." During both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Trump was noncommittal when asked if he would accept election results showing he had lost. Days after Barr's remarks, Trump was asked if he would commit to apeaceful transition of power if he lost the 2020 election, to which he replied, "Well, we'll have to see what happens. You know that I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster. Get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very peaceful – there won't be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation."[305][306][303][307] In the days after his electoral defeat, Trump and his legal team led byRudy Giuliani pursued anaggressive effort to overturn the results with dozens of lawsuits and numerous false and unsubstantiated assertions revolving around an international communist conspiracy, rigged voting machines, and polling place fraud to claim the election had been stolen from Trump.[308][309][310][311][312]
After Joe Biden won the2020 election and Trump refused to concede, baseless claims of voting fraud circulated.[313] Barr sent a memo to DOJ prosecutors authorizing them to investigate "vote tabulation irregularities" before voting results had been certified, a reversal of long-standing department policy.Richard Pilger, director of the Election Crimes Branch at the DOJ Criminal Division, stepped down from that position in protest hours later.[314] Four days later, sixteen assistant U.S. attorneys of the Branch wrote Barr a letter urging him to rescind the memo because it "thrusts career prosecutors into partisan politics".[315] Barr later told a journalist that he had always expected Trump's electoral loss and never expected that Trump's fraud claims would have merit: "My suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit." However, he asserted that because he expected Trump to ask him for details, he informally investigated to educate himself.[316] Some asserted Barr's statements during the campaign suggested otherwise and that he was now attempting to rehabilitate his reputation.[317][318][319] Barr waited until December 1, 2020, to state that the Justice Department "has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election".[11] Trump was angered by the announcement and the fact that Durham had not released any findings prior to the election.[320] Trump was also angered by news that Barr had followed Justice Department policy by not disclosing during the campaign thatJoe Biden's sonHunter had since 2018 been under criminal investigation, initially on suspicion ofmoney laundering but later for tax matters.[320][321][322] On December 14, 2020, Trump announced on Twitter that Barr was stepping down from his post on December 23.[323] After a pro-Trump mobstormed the U.S. Capitol after being incited by Trump, Barr said Trump had committed a "betrayal of his office".[324][325][326]
On December 14, 2020, Trump announced via Twitter that Barr would be resigning from his post as attorney general, effective December 23.[323] Barr further confirmed his resignation in a letter to Trump on the same day.[327] In summarizing his tenure,Katie Benner ofThe New York Times wrote that "Barr brought the Justice Department closer to the White House than any attorney general in a half-century ... Barr made decisions that dovetailed precisely with Mr. Trump's wishes and the demands of his political allies."[323] CNN summarized his tenure similarly, "Barr repeatedly and unapologetically prioritized Trump's political goals while furthering his own vision of expansive presidential power."[328] Ryan Lucas of NPR described Barr as "one of Trump's most loyal and effective defenders".[329] As examples of Barr's actions on behalf of Trump, these critics pointed to the fact that Barr made frequent false claims about the integrity of mail-in voting leading up to the 2020 election, misleadingly summarized Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election,[328][329] harshly criticized those who had investigated Trump,[328] meddled in criminal prosecutions of Trump allies,[330] and ordered the use of force on peaceful protestors across the street from the White House during theGeorge Floyd protests so that President Trump could have aphoto op at nearby St. John's Church."[328][329]
In 2022, it was reported that Barr would launch a law and consulting firm with former Facebook general counselTed Ullyot.[331]
On June 1, 2022, Barr was interviewed onFox News about the verdict in the failedprosecution of Michael Sussman. He continued to defend Trump by repeating debunked "Russiagate"conspiracy theories about the origins of the Russia investigation by stating that the case against Sussmann "crystallized the central role played by the Hillary campaign in launching, as a dirty trick, the whole Russiagate collusion narrative."The Washington Post noted that the Justice Department traditionally seeks to avoid impugning individuals who are not charged with crimes, and the DOJ is not involved in exposing political "dirty tricks" that have not been found unlawful. Barr also asserted Durham "exposed really dreadful behavior by the supervisors in the FBI, the senior ranks of the FBI, who knowingly use this information to start an investigation of Trump," though the Sussmann case did not relate to how the FBICrossfire Hurricane investigation began. Although Barr appointed Durham to investigate possible FBI wrongdoing in opening Crossfire Hurricane, Durham's prosecution of Sussmann portrayed the FBI as a victim, rather than a perpetrator, of wrongdoing.[332][333][334]
Barr testified to theHouse Select Committee on the January 6 Attack behind closed doors on June 2, 2022. Portions of his videotaped testimony were presented during thecommittee's public hearings days later. Barr testified that before resigning as attorney general, he had told President Trump that allegations of election fraud were "bullshit." At times during his testimony he could not control his laughter at the absurdity of some fraud allegations, such as theItalygate theory that satellites controlled from Italy had flipped votes from Trump to Biden, and that former Venezuelan presidentHugo Chávez had orchestrated an election fraud scheme, despite having died seven years earlier. Barr testified Trump never gave "an indication of interest in what the actual facts were," adding the president had "become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff."[335][336]
Barr has supported theFBI search of Mar-a-Lago andits investigation into the handling of presidential documents by Trump after his presidency, and dismissed Trump's calls for aspecial master to be appointed.[337]
 | This article's"criticism" or "controversy" sectionmay compromise the article'sneutrality. Please help rewrite or integrate negative information to other sectionsthrough discussion on thetalk page.(December 2020) |
On December 11, 2019, former attorney generalEric Holder, who had served underPresident Obama, wrote an op-ed inThe Washington Post claiming William Barr is "unfit to be attorney general"[338] for his "naked partisan[ship]", "attempts to vilify the president's critics", his attacks on the inspector general and his comments on ongoing investigations.[338]
In a December 2019 opinion piece, former FBI director, CIA director and federal judgeWilliam Webster wrote of "a dire threat to therule of law in the country I love". Webster asserted that "the integrity of the institutions that protect our civil order are, tragically, under assault," writing that "aspersions cast upon [FBI employees] by the president and my longtime friend, Attorney General William P. Barr, are troubling in the extreme."[339][340] Since 2005, Webster had served as the chair of theHomeland Security Advisory Council.
Sixty-five law professors and faculty from George Washington University Law School, Barr's alma mater, wrote in a June 2020 letter that he had "failed to fulfill his oath of office to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States'". They wrote that Barr's actions as attorney general "have undermined the rule of law, breached constitutional norms, and damaged the integrity and traditional independence of his office and of the Department of Justice".[341]
During a June 2020House Judiciary Committee testimony,Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general for whom Barr worked during theGeorge H. W. Bush presidency, asserted that Barr "poses the greatest threat, in my lifetime, to ourrule of law and to public trust in it".[342] Three months later, Ayer claimed Barr "is on a mission to install the president as an autocrat".[343]
In January 2022, it was reported that the Houseselect committee investigating theJanuary 6 Capitol attack held conversations with Barr about the Trump administration's approach to compromise the integrity of the2020 election, specifically about the potential coordination between theJustice Department and theDefense Department.[344]
A lifelong Republican, Barr takes an expansive view of executive powers and supports "law and order" policies.[345] Considered an establishment Republican at the time of his confirmation, Barr gained a reputation as someone loyal to Trump and his policies during his second tenure as attorney general.[345] His efforts to support the sitting president politically during his DOJ office tenure have been viewed as the most strenuous since those of another law-and-order attorney general,John N. Mitchell.[346]
As Deputy Attorney General, Barr – together with others at the Department of Justice – successfully led the effort for the withdrawal of a proposedDepartment of Health and Human Services rule that would have allowed people withHIV/AIDS into the United States.[347] He also advocated the use ofGuantanamo Bay to preventHaitian refugees and HIV infected individuals from claiming asylum in the United States.[70] According toVox in December 2018, Barr supported an aggressive "law and order" agenda on immigration as attorney general in the Bush Administration.[348]
Barr supports the death penalty, arguing that it reduces crime. He advocated a Bush-backed bill that would have expanded the types of crime that could be punished by execution. In a 1991 op-ed inThe New York Times, Barr argued that death row inmates' ability to challenge their sentences should be limited to avoid cases dragging on for years: "This lack of finality devastates the criminal justice system. It diminishes the deterrent effect of state criminal laws, saps state prosecutorial resources and continually reopens the wounds of victims and survivors."[349][350]
On July 25, 2019, Barr announced that theUnited States federal government would resume its use of capital punishment under his leadership, after nearly two decades without an execution. Barr ordered the Department of Justice to adopt a newlethal injection protocol, consisting of a single drug (pentobarbital), and ordered execution dates to be set for five inmates in December 2019 and January 2020.[351] On July 14, 2020,Daniel Lewis Lee became the firstdeath row inmate executed by the federal government since 2003.[352] Twelve more individuals were executed by the Trump administration.[353] No administration in 120 years had overseen as many executions.[353] Barr has been attributed as playing a key role in the administration's use of execution in prisons.[354]
In 1991, Barr said he believed the framers of the Constitution did not originally intend to create a right to abortion, thatRoe v. Wade was thus wrongly decided, and that abortion should be a "legitimate issue for state legislators".[37] However, Barr said during his 1991 confirmation hearings thatRoe was "the law of the land" and that he did not have "fixed or settled views" on the subject.[38]
AfterRoe was overturned, Barr suggested that a special counsel may be necessary to investigate the leak of the ruling and that the leaker may face criminal charges.[355][356]
Barr supports a federal ban onmarijuana.[357] However, he has stated that the discrepancy between federal and state law is suboptimal, and that if a uniform federal ban on marijuana could not be achieved, then he would support theSTATES Act onmarijuana legalization.[357] "I think it's a mistake to back off on marijuana ... However, if we want a federal approach, if we want states to have their own laws, then let's get there and let's get there the right way." Barr also said DOJ policy should align with congressional legislation.[358]
Barr donated $55,000 to apolitical action committee that backedJeb Bush during the2016 Republican Party presidential primaries and $2,700 to Donald Trump during thegeneral election campaign.[359]
Barr is a proponent of theunitary executive theory, which holds that the president has broad executive powers.[3][295][360][361][362] Prior to joining the Trump administration, he argued that the president has "complete authority to start or stop a law enforcement proceeding".[3]
In June 2020, amid theGeorge Floyd protests against racism andpolice brutality, Barr said he rejected the view "that the law enforcement system issystemically racist".[363] In a CNN news interview in September 2020, Barr denied that systemic racism plays a role inpolice shootings of unarmed African American men and called such shootings by white police officers "very rare".[364]Derek Chauvin, the officer who murdered Floyd, was willing to agree to third-degree murder and serve more than ten years in prison. Barr rejected a plea deal.[365]
In September 2020, Barr suggested bringingsedition charges against disruptive looters and rioters, a legal tool that is rarely used by the United States government.[366] Sedition charges are normally reserved for those who "conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States", according to (18 U.S.C. § 2384). Such suggestions have brought fears that Barr is politicizing the U.S. Justice Department and, if enacted, would mean that the Justice Department could prosecute individuals based on political speech.[367]
In July 2020, Barr condemned large Americantech companies, such as Google,Microsoft,Yahoo, andApple,[368] andHollywood studios, accusing them of "kowtowing" to theChinese Communist Party for the sake of profits. He said that "Hollywood now regularlycensors its own movies to appease the Chinese Communist Party, the world's most powerful violator of human rights."[369]
Barr has been married to Christine Moynihan Barr since 1973.[16] She holds a master's degree in library science, and together they have three daughters:[370] Mary Barr Daly, Patricia Barr Straughn,[371] and Margaret (Meg) Barr.[14] Their eldest daughter, Mary, born 1977 or 1978, was a senior Justice Department official who oversaw the department's anti-opioid and addiction efforts; Patricia, born 1981 or 1982, was counsel for the House Agriculture Committee; and Meg, born 1984 or 1985, is a former Washington prosecutor and cancer survivor (of recurrent Hodgkin's lymphoma), was counsel for Republican SenatorMike Braun of Indiana.[14]
In February 2019, as their father awaited Senate confirmation for his appointment as attorney general, Mary left her post at the Department of Justice as the Trump Administration's point woman on theopioid crisis and took a position at theFinancial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit.[372] Her husband, however, continued to work in theJustice Department's National Security Division.[373] Around the same time Mary left the Department of Justice, Tyler McGaughey, the husband of her youngest sister, left the U.S. Attorney's office inAlexandria, Virginia, to join theWhite House Counsel's office.[372]
Barr is aRoman Catholic and is a member of theNational Catholic Prayer Breakfast. Barr served from 2014 to 2017 on the board of the Catholic Information Center (CIC) of theArchdiocese of Washington, anOpus Dei center and nexus of politically connected Catholics onK Street.[80] Opus Dei has denied that Barr is a member.[374] However, his views in favor of the death penalty were criticised by theJesuit magazineAmerica.[375][376]
Barr is an enthusiasticbagpiper. He began playing at age eight and has performed competitively inScotland with a major American pipe band. At one time, Barr was a member of theCity of Washington Pipe Band.[43] During a US Attorneys’ National Conference on June 26, 2019, Barr surprised attendees by standing up in the middle of anNYPD Emerald Society performance, and joined them in playing Scotland the Brave with a bagpipe.[377]
Barr andRobert Mueller have known each other since the 1980s and are said to be good friends. Mueller attended the weddings of two of Barr's daughters, and their wives attendBible study together.[378]
In 1992, he was awarded anhonoraryDoctor of Laws (LL.D) byGeorge Washington University.[379]
'The court's ... review of the memorandum revealed that the Department in fact never considered bringing a charge,' the panel wrote in its opinion. 'Instead, the memorandum concerned a separate decision that had gone entirely unmentioned by the government in its submissions to the court — what, if anything, to say to Congress and the public about the Mueller Report.' The panel added: 'We affirm the district court.'
DOJ officials previously told the court that the memo should be kept from the public because it involved internal department deliberations and the advice given to Barr about whether Trump should face prosecution. But a district judge ruled that Barr was never engaged in such a process and had already made up his mind to not charge Trump.
Srinivasan said the memo, co-authored by Assistant Attorney General for Legal Counsel Steven Engel and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O'Callaghan, seemed more like a 'thought experiment' because Barr decided before the memo was written that Trump would not be charged with a crime.
In her order, Jackson noted that the memo prepared for Barr, and the letter from Barr to Congress that describes the special counsel's report, are 'being written by the very same people at the very same time. The emails show not only that the authors and the recipients of the memorandum are working hand in hand to craft the advice that is supposedly being delivered by OLC, but that the letter to Congress is the priority, and it is getting completed first,' the judge wrote.
After reviewing the Special Counsel's final report on these issues; consulting with Department officials, including the Office of Legal Counsel; and applying the principles of federal prosecution that guide our charging decisions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Our determination was made without regard to, and is not based on, the constitutional considerations that surround the indictment and criminal prosecution of a sitting president.
Sussmann's meeting with the FBI came in September 2016, months after the Trump-Russia investigation was opened, and the FBI quickly dismissed his tip.
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| Preceded by | United States Assistant Attorney General for theOffice of Legal Counsel 1989–1990 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Deputy Attorney General 1990–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Attorney General 1991–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Attorney General 2019–2020 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded byas Former US Cabinet Member | Order of precedence of the United States as Former US Cabinet Member | Succeeded byas Former US Cabinet Member |
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