William Barr snookered me. Back in January, testifying before senators considering whether to confirm him as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Barr was…
William Barr snookered me.
Back in January, testifying before senators considering whether to confirm him as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Barr was at pains to dispel suspicions that he would use his office to undercut the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, then nearing the conclusion of his investigation.
Senators who opposed Barr’s confirmation had ample reason to question his bona fides as an honest broker. More than a year before his nomination as AG, In a 19-page memo mailed to DOJ leaders, Barr had asserted that Mueller’s inquiry into the allegations that the president had broken the law by obstructing Justice Department investigators was «fatally misconceived» because the president’s authority over the department was absolute.
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Many critics, including both of Michigan’s Democratic U. S. senators, saw Barr’s unsolicited memo as a tacit promise that he would side with Trump, not Mueller, in any future clash over the department’s jurisdiction or the limits of presidential authority.
But at his confirmation hearing, Barr insisted the memo was merely a summary of his disinterested legal judgment, not a veiled pledge of unquestioning loyalty to the president who had nominated him. He had already served as Attorney General under President George H. W. Bush, he reminded senators; he wanted to restore confidence in the Justice Department, not use it as a shield for presidential misconduct.
«I am in a position in life where I can provide the leadership necessary to protect the independence and reputation of the department,» Barr said. As he neared 70, he suggested, he was above the base appetites for power and prestige that might discourage a younger, more ambitious nominee reluctant to stand up to a lawless president.
It was an argument designed to appeal especially to the vanity of old farts like me — aging Baby Boomers who flatter ourselves with the conceit that age, experience and reputational equity has inoculated us against the temptations of our ambitious youth.
