Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Lowering The Barr, Con't

Attorney General William P. Barr has told people close to President Trump — both inside and outside the White House — that he is considering quitting over Trump’s tweets about Justice Department investigations, three administration officials said, foreshadowing a possible confrontation between the president and his attorney general over the independence of the Justice Department.

So far, Trump has defied Barr’s requests, both public and private, to keep quiet on matters of federal law enforcement. It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Barr had made his posture known directly to Trump. The administration officials said Barr seemed to be sharing his position with advisers in hopes the president would get the message that he should stop weighing in publicly on the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigations.

“He has his limits,” said one person familiar with Barr’s thinking, speaking on the condition of anonymity, like others, to discuss internal deliberations.

Late last week, Barr publicly warned the president in a remarkable interview with ABC News that his tweets about Justice Department cases “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Trump, White House officials said, is not entirely receptive to calls to change his behavior, and he has told those around him he is not going to stop tweeting about the Justice Department. They said Trump considers highlighting what he sees as misconduct at the FBI and Justice Department as a good political message.

This is the equivalent of GOP Sen. Susan Collins and her perpetual "concern" over Donald Trump.  Barr isn't going anywhere, but this will defuse the criticism this week from both former Justice Department employees and from the Federal Judges Association.

Trump is playing along as well.

Trump was quick to agree when asked by a reporter Tuesday about whether his tweets make it difficult for Barr to do his job in a way that appears impartial.

“I do make his job harder, yes, I do agree with that. I think that’s true,” Trump said. “He’s a very straight shooter. We have a great attorney general and he’s working very hard. He’s working against a lot of people that don’t want to see good things happen, in my opinion. That’s my opinion, not his opinion. You’ll have to ask what his opinion is.”

Trump then added that social media has been “very important” to him because “it gives me a voice” that he doesn’t get in the media.

When asked if he makes it hard for Barr to do his job with integrity, Trump said “oh yeah” given how Barr is “a man with incredible integrity.”

“Just so you understand, I chose not to be involved,” Trump said. “I’m allowed to be totally involved. I’m actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country. But I’ve chosen not to be involved. But he is a man of great integrity. But I could be involved if I wanted to be.”

This is grade A quality horse manure, all of it.  Crocodile tears of fake contrition are going to wash away the criticism.  It would be funny if I wasn't absolutely sure that Trump was lying, as he always does lie, and the country wasn't at stake.

And again, even if Barr magically did resign, he'd only be replaced by somebody even more awful.

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