A review of William Barr, President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general.

William Barr, President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general, previously served in that capacity under President George H.W. Bush. He has been an influential conservative political figure since the 1980s. A one-time adviser to William Bennett‘s Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, Barr first rose to prominence in the conservative network in the late 1980s when he was appointed to a series of posts in the Justice Department. He was on the White House Domestic Policy Staff under President Reagan and served in the Central Intelligence Agency.[1] Barr was appointed as the 77^thAttorney General of the United States from 1991 to 1993, reportedly as a result of his ties to Bush’s White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray.[2]

Bush consulted with Barr before pardoning many of the key figures in the Iran-Contra scandal that had rocked the Ronald Reagan administration in the 1980s.[3]

Barr largely disappeared from public life in 2008, after retiring from his role as vice president and general counsel at Verizon. He resurfaced early in Donald Trump’s administration when he penned an op-ed in support of Trump’s firing of acting attorney-general Sally Yates less than two weeks into his term over her refusal to enforce Trump’s ban on entry to the United States for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries.[4] In November 2017, Barr—alone among ten former attorneys general asked—supported Donald Trump’s call to investigate his former opponent, Hillary Clinton. “There is nothing inherently wrong about a president calling for an investigation,” Barr told the New York Times. “Although an investigation shouldn’t be launched just because a president wants it, the ultimate question is whether the matter warrants investigation.”[5]

Barr also supported Trump’s decision to fire James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in May of 2017. “With an investigation as sensitive as the one involving Clinton, the ultimate decision-making is reserved to the attorney general or, when the attorney general is recused, the deputy attorney general. By unilaterally announcing his conclusions regarding how the matter should be resolved, Comey arrogated the attorney general’s authority to himself,” Barr opined.[6]

In December 2018, Trump nominated Barr to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general. His previous support for Trump’s decisions, and their implications for Barr’s views of the investigations into Trump’s election activities, finances and other issues, were immediately controversial. Washington Post columnist Aaron Blake noted, “It seems quite the coincidence that Trump has settled on yet another attorney general who might be prepared to take his side on these very personal and political investigative issues in a way Sessions wouldn’t. It’s also notable that Barr seems to believe it isn’t so necessary to erect a wall between the presidency and the nation’s top law enforcement official—a wall that Trump has long desired to demolish.”[7] Soon after Trump announced that he would nominate Barr, reports emerged that Barr had written a memo in June 2018 criticizing the investigation into Trump led by Robert Mueller. In the memo, Barr reportedly wrote that Mueller’s theory of obstruction of justice by Trump “is premised on a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law. Moreover, in my view, if credited by the department, it would have grave consequences far beyond the immediate confines of this case and would do lasting damage to the presidency and to the administration of law within the executive branch. … Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction. Apart from whether Mueller [has] a strong enough factual basis for doing so, Mueller’s obstruction theory is fatally misconceived.”[8]

Barr’s expressed opinions raised serious concerns among Democrats. “There is no question William Barr is an experienced lawyer, having previously served as attorney general,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)—who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee—stated. “However, there are concerns about his independence, given his expansive views of executive power and partisan statements about pardons, the Mueller investigation and Hillary Clinton.”[9]

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) wrote on Twitter, “William Barr’s memo to the Department of Justice criticizing the Special Counsel investigation reveals that he is fatally conflicted from being able to oversee the Special Counsel’s investigation and he should not be nominated to be Attorney General. Mr. Barr believes presidents in general—and more frighteningly, President Trump, who has shown less respect for rule of law than any president—are above the law.”[10]

In the lead up to Barr’s nomination hearings, observers chimed in with advice fro Senate Deoma5ictws, including Ronald Weich, a former assistant attorney general who’s now dean of the University of Baltimore Law School, who told Talking Points Memo: “You want to hear the nominee say that the president is not above the law, that credible allegations will receive full review, and that the attorney general will adhere to the tradition that the Justice Department is an independent investigative body, and while the president has appointed the attorney general, he doesn’t control the course of investigations.”

Barr has been associated with a number of right-wing groups, including the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. More recently, Barr served as an advisor to Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, a Claremont Institute-based advocacy group that was founded shortly after the 9/11 attacks to promote an aggressive “war on terror.”

His work as attorney general landed him on http://www.law.com’s “100 Most Influential Lawyers” list. Barr is described as “a longtime leading strategist and advocate for local phone companies in the ever-growing battle over rights to markets; argued Supreme Court case resulting in decision invalidating F.C.C. rules ordering Baby Bells to open up their networks to competitors; leading the battle to preserve open and competitive Internet; attorney general in the Bush administration whose close ties with key members of Congress [who] were considered critical in assuring provisions favorable to GTE in deregulation.”[11]

Barr served as executive vice president and general counsel of Verizon Communications Inc. from 2000 to 2008 and executive vice president and general counsel of GTE from 1994 to 2000.” [12] Mr. Barr is a director of Time Warner Inc., Selected Funds and Dominion. He received his A.B. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University and a J.D. degree from George Washington University.

Notes

“Verizon General Counsel William P. Barr Announces Retirement” http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2008/verizon-general-counsel.html
Philip H. Burch, Research in Political Economy: Reagan, Bush, and Right-Wing Politics (Supplement 1, Part A) (Greenwich, Conn.: Jai Press, 1997) pp. 381-382.
William Johnston, “Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Aborting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails ‘Cover-Up’,” New York Times, December 25, 1992, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/29/reviews/iran-pardon.html?_r=1
William Barr, “Former attorney general: Trump was right to fire Sally Yates,” Washington Post, February 1, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/former-attorney-general-trump-was-right-to-fire-sally-yates/2017/02/01/5981d890-e809-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d_story.html?utm_term=.37b9db026184
Peter Baker, “‘Lock Her Up’ Becomes More Than a Slogan,” New York Times, November 14, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/us/politics/trump-pressure-clinton-investigation.html
William Barr, “Former attorney general: Trump made the right call on Comey,” Washington Post, May 12, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/former-attorney-general-trump-made-the-right-call-on-comey/2017/05/12/0e858436-372d-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html?utm_term=.124f01f77dc4
Aaron Blake, “The red flags on Trump’s new attorney general pick, William Barr,” Washington Post, December 7, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/06/trumps-new-top-attorney-general-pick-once-called-more-clinton-probes-downplayed-trump-russia-collusion/?utm_term=.f6fd64bd5cdb
Devlin Barrett, “Attorney general nominee wrote memo criticizing Mueller obstruction probe,” Washington Post, December 20, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/attorney-general-nominee-wrote-memo-criticizing-mueller-obstruction-probe/2018/12/20/72a01304-044b-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.08cb0e1a310e
Masood Farivar, “Trump’s Justice Department Pick Has Criticized Special Counsel Probes,” Voice of America, December 8, 2018, https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-s-justice-department-pick-has-criticized-special-counsel-probes-/4691725.html
Charles Schumer, Twitter, December 20, 2018, https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1075771231993978880
“The 100 Most Influential Lawyers” http://www.law.com/special/professionals/influential/
“William Barr,” Forbes, http://people.forbes.com/profile/william-p-barr/84095

Originally published by Right Web, 01.14.2019, under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.