I would love to be surprised to find that the Senate would really take their responsibility to advise and consent seriously. However, to expect that the completely spineless trumpublicans would even bother go to the trouble of asking anything of this toady sycophant is, given recent events, incomprehensible. They must march apace to the drum beat of Emperor Don. When, oh, when will Mueller's investigation get to the point of actually naming Individual 1 and making plain his ties to Russia (as if we don't have enough information about this yet)? If good Mr. Barr is duly anointed, one can easily imagine hearing "Collusion? Going once, going twice, three times and gone...sold to President Putin!"
57
“This theory of executive power has long been prized in conservative legal circles.”
Correction: This theory of executive power has long been prized in conservative legal circles, as long as a Republican is in the White House. If not, scream bloody murder about executive overreach and imperial presidencies! Hypocrisy - it’s how you spell conservative.
126
Here's the reality: we will go through another Kabuki performance like those of the last two Supreme Court Justices in which the central actor--Barr in this case--will make just enough suitably vague soothing comments to get the spineless GOP majority on board. And then he will do whatever he wants which, from all evidence, is to protect our idiot-in-chief. Earlier commentators are correct: he should be resisted tooth and nail rather than approved to the nation's highest legal office.
85
Why do so many of them look like Macy's parade blimp versions of their younger selves.
29
When will the Senate stand up to this lawless corrupt President?
When?
78
We don't need no stinking dictator.
44
"Birds of a feather, flock together"
23
Trump needs rubber stamps for his dictatorship. He has already corrupted SCOTUS. Barr will prevent any further DOJ challenges. You were there when democracy died.
55
"With Barr, Will Justice Be Done?"
Of course not, don't be stupid, gullible or naive
61
I hope Barr immediately does after the corrupt FBI agents and the State Department personnel who conspired to harm a duly elected US President. The fake dossier, leaks to the press and out right subversive behavior of anti-American so-called liberal elites.
11
He is a Trumpist. The trumpian man lies is nasty and mean. He will say what his master wants him to say and then do his bidding.
27
The republicans are courting anarchy.
They're flushing America down the toilet and don't realize they're going down with it.
37
Note: To Editorial Board
I would greatly appreciate you publishing this Comment at a prominent position here. Thanks.
A TREASONOUS PRESIDENT TRYS TO COVER UP THE FACTS
This startling headline wou!d dominate every paper in America. Taken as factual and interconnected, the two blockbuster stories on consecutive Front pages of the Times and the WAPO a day prior to much watched Sunday TV News Shows, could generate such a headline.
On Friday the Times revealed that President, Donald J. Trump, several days after he fired James Comey as FBI Director, became the target of an FBI counter intelligence investigation initiated by Andrew McCabe, then Acting Director of the FBI, for possibly acting for Russian interests detrimental to the United States. The key source supplying Congressional testimony was James Baker the former legal counsel for the FBI.
On the next day the WAPO headlined an investigative report claiming the President intentionally hid from his administration, Congress and the American people a number of private conversations he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the WAPO story they referenced the previously mentioned NYT article a number of times.
Today the major networks, CNN and MSNBC all featured and discussed at length the aforementioned stories on their hourly shows - watched by many Americans.
The two critical questions that have to be answered are 1). Is the headline fact of fiction, and 2). How was it developed and made public?
25
do americans truly understand what they foisted on themselves--and more importantly--the planet when they voted for the most despicable human being to be elected potus in the modern era.
whether or not he had three million votes less is moot. he shouldn't have had 100 never mind almost 63 million fools.....
49
Does this paper really think that there are enough spines in the Republican Senate ranks to actually challenge this nominee for Attorney General? The fox continues to guard the chicken coup and until the charlatan-in-chief is thrown out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the stench of the entire federal government, including the Justice Department, will go right on festering. William Barr for Attorney General - really?!
28
Just needed to say it was so obvious Putin wanted US to see how HE had a book full of notes from his meeting with Trump in Helsinki while Trump left their meeting with nothing. Putin looked regularly at his notebook while Trump just sat there waiting for hints as to what he should say.
So now we are told Trump pocketed his notes AND told his interpreter to remain silent? I got a feeling Trump's notes are more damning than his admission he trusts Putin more than our own FBI or Intel.
36
Mr Barr is at least savvy enough to enlist the help of the GOP’s greatest stooge, Lindsey Graham. He gave Graham “assurances” so I guess we should all sleep better at night.
27
I'm still a little mystified about why it's a crime to discuss US election tactics with Russians. Where in the US Legal Code is "collusion" defined as a criminal act? It seems obvious that Politicians often collude with various international corporations as well as Silicon Valley Robber Barons. Nobody goes into a dither about that. Equally absurd, is the proud crowing from DNC officials about how they contract to "rig" elections in far off places like Israel and Bolivia.....no crime there. And I havent even got to the Ukranian Elections which many suspect were "rigged" by our CIA......after all a Bush White House officer is MARRIED Ukraine's President Yanukavych....Yet the hysteria about Trump and Russians just keeps going and going and going.....without any merit, its all political axe grinding, the US Legal System be dammed.
And THEN, when a sleazy Russian lawyer shows up with evidence of actual criminal activity...by Hillary Clinton......the Media simply shuts up!
If you arent outraged....you're simply not paying attention.
OK....back to the NYTs for more indoctrination!
8
Sometimes children you get what you deserve. Quite obvious the man is a shill his whole professional life. Iran Contra to begin with.
Very ugly.
Good night and good luck
17
The only one who is doing lasting damage to the presidency is the vile impostor who now holds the office. Barr's position on the Mueller investigation raises questions about how willing he is to uphold the rule of law if it threatens Trump's hold on power. Brett Kavanaugh was subjected to intense, but justified scrutiny by Democrats on the judiciary committee. Barr should get the same treatment.
15
I'm not a conspiracy fanatic, in fact I don't read them. But...
It seems more than coincidence that your Trump being a Russian agent story was followed in less than 24 hours by the WAPO piece that explains how Trump took extreme measures to hide his Putin private discussions. Together it describes a treasonous President and how he covered up the details. Then for maximum public impact both stories published just before the Sunday News Programs. Sure enough they dominated NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC's coverages.
I don't believe in coincidences like this.
This is what makes ABC John Karl's comments on This Week so significant. He refutes these interrelated events.
I hope the Times chooses to prominently publish it.
4
This paper has become a defacto arm of the Democratic spin machine. For over 2 years you have delivered innuendo, allegations, rumors about the Trump administration- collusion! Obstruction of justice! Russia! Other than a parade of unnamed and anonymous sources, not a shred of legal evidence has been proffered. And now you opine that because his AG nominee who has already been confirmed by a prior congress may be a danger because he hasn’t seen any credible proof. Look above this story and see how this paper is a tool in the Anti- Trump campaign; almost every story in some way slams him. There is not much balance here
4
"to stymie a criminal proble he's detested":
"he has detested" or "he is detested"?
With Barr, Will Justice Be Done?
No.
19
Barr is just another conservative plant nominated to run the Justice Department, whose job will be to protect the corrupt fool who occupies the Oval Office.
21
Kavanaugh and Barr? Really?
14
Mr. Barr fits the Trump model for an important position. Pick the most unqualified toady that you can find and promote them.
18
I'm willing to take to the streets to remove these criminals from OUR government. A poster below says 200 million people are tired of this nonsense and how can anyone stop 200 million people? It's beyond ridiculous and most of us are just sitting here watching dumpster fire. trump and his ilk do NOT represent me, therefore his immediate removal would be fine by me. He's what...70+ and overweight? No exercise, eating nonsense...pathetic excuse for a leader and person. I'm not afraid of his followers either.
20
Just on the basis of looks alone I don't trust Barr, he looks suspiciously like Steve Bannon's brother.
11
Please excuse the visual, but I put Mr. Barr in the same pigpen as anyone who calls themselves a Republican. They all have one goal. What is in this for me? GREED. GREED. GREED. It all makes me sick.
23
Barr is well qualified to be AG. The democrats will do their best to slander him and his family but they will fail as they did with Justice Kavanaugh.
3
I enjoy reading the comments section of this newspaper as much as the writing of the editorial board and columnists. It helps to know that there may be enough intelligent citizens left in your country to save yourselves from this traitor to all of democracy. How is it possible for the potus to have lengthy private discussions with V. Putin whenever the two are in the same vicinity with no aids present and all records of the translators confiscated? He is so obviously owned and managed by VP. EVERYTHING else is just a distraction while he turns your country into Turkey.
22
Barr should not be confirmed.
13
I hope I'm wrong.
But Barr reminds me of President Nixon's Chuck Colson.
May God have mercy on us!
We have already gone through so much.
16
With Barr, Will Justice Be Done?
The short answer is resounding NO!!!
20
They will just humiliate Graham again but he enjoys humiliation.
3
If this is a rhetorical question it isn’t even a good one.
This man is clearly not the right choice for the highest legal position of the administration.
The fact that concerns me is that if the Senate GOP stooges are given the red button to push on such a delicate issue where the total number of people they represent (add the populations of the red states they represent) and divide it by the USA population to get the fraction of the nation they represent.
Of course there will be horrible hypocrite Susan Collins with her fake concerned look pontificating and yet voting the Trump way if it matters. Of course there will be the balanced OpEd pieces in the Times from its pretty useless talking heads. Of course there will be the piece by Gail Collins making a reasonable yet funny assessment of the situation and the mock criticism of Trump on the matter by the unique Bret (with one T, a mystery of short for what) etc.
The problem is our constitution giving so much dictatorial power to the POTUS and the Senate majority. Roman historians should compare the respective powers of the emperor and his senators in the last 100 years of the Empire. No matter that it was 2000 years or so ago!
This is not a democracy we are living in. Read the rest of the paper in the past year. Every time you can draw the same conclusion.
The Times has to raise its voice and the size of its fonts to shout the truth. It doesn’t. I often switch to the British paper, The Guardian, for that.
13
If this is a rhetorical question it isn’t even a good one.
This man is clearly not the right choice for the highest legal position of the administration.
The fact that concerns me is that if the Senate GOP stooges are given the red button to push on such a delicate issue where the total number of people they represent (add the populations of the red states they represent) and divide it by the USA population to get the fraction of the nation they represent.
Of course there will be horrible hypocrite Susan Collins with her fake concerned look pontificating and yet voting the Trump way if it matters. Of course there will be the balanced OpEd pieces in the Times from its pretty useless talking heads. Of course there will be the piece by Gail Collins making a reasonable yet funny assessment of the situation and the mock criticism of Trump on the matter by the unique Bret (with one T, a mystery of short for what?) etc.
The problem is our constitution giving so much dictatorial power to the POTUS and the Senate majority. Roman historians should compare the respective powers of the emperor and his senators in the last 100 years of the Empire. No matter that it was 2000 years or so ago!
This is not a democracy we are living in. Read the rest of the paper. Every day in the past year you can draw the same conclusion.
The Times has to raise its voice and the size of its fonts to shout the truth. It doesn’t. I often switch to the British paper, The Guardian, for that.
3
The traitorous winds are swirling around this administration I say why the rush? The public doesn’t care Barr held this position before. He like ken Starr is not an individual who cares about justice. They are political hacks. Mr Starr should of been raked over the coals for his inaction to assist female students who were sexually assaulted at his college. Finally the college removed this fake President. Mr. Barr is running around writing memos like he is some type of god.
The Acting AG is a con man so let’s not confirm another poison Apple into the American Democracy. Citizens of America are fighting for our real democracy and we can beat the GOP because we are smarter than the racist and haters.
6
“Mueller’s obstruction theory,” Barr wrote, “would do lasting damage to the presidency.”
News flash, Mr. Barr. Trump in the White House is doing "lasting damage to the presidency.”
19
The singular assault on rule of law and truth along with congress’s enablement of this president shows the vulnerablity of democracy.
6
The dirty little secret is that Mueller's appointment and thus the entire investigation is unconstitutional. He is unconfirmed and unaccountable. He has run roughshod over our constitution and the separation of powers, dragging our country into an open ended political witch hunt.
3
Well, it's never been Trump alone that made up Trumpism. Of course the nation has produced scads of Trumpites. People who wish they were Donald Trump, a permissive, promiscuous, spoiled, rich, juvenile who has no shame but just don't have the money or the nerve. Who willingly imitate him for his praise and incubate him from all opposition. Wannabees who just don't have the inner core of pathology or inhibition that was inbred into Trump.
4
Biden once endorsed this guy.
Look up Biden and Barrr hearings.
3
Will Trump/Barr Collusion be tolerated, and in plain sight???
2
Our nation must close the escape hatch afforded Trump by virtue of his office. Ditto for sitting members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Until that happens there will be a hole in the law for snakes like Trump and Kavanaugh slither through.
5
Talk is cheap. Barr can do as he wishes after he assures everyone that he will stay clear of conflicts. Exactly why do you think Barr was chosen by t-Rump? Certainly not to ignore all of t-Rump's problems. The GOP and it seems everyone around t-Rump lies. They are totally unethical. This will not change.
12
"With Barr, Will Justice Be Done?"
Yes.
Anything else ?
1
Mitch McConnell and the GOP have no scruples and are not concerned with the appearance of ethics or morals. Donald Trump has gone shopping once again for a sycophantic toadie to do his bidding. This time it is for the AG of the US position.
Despite serious questioning from some Democratic House members, Barr will sail through without a thought to our Constitution and be installed by Mitch.
9
"With Barr, Will Justice Be Done?"
No. That's why he was chosen, of course.
15
With Barr, justice will be done. Over and done.
4
So Mr Barr believes that unless a criminal statute expressly states that the president is subject to that law the president cannot be prosecuted for its violation. Breathtaking nonsense. #Hack.
10
This guy is part of the GOP power machine
There is going to be shenanigans and smoke and mirrors.
7
Without any analysis of the law, the NY Times opines that Barr's opinion whether or not Trump obstructed justice in firing Comey is wrong, and that it is much better to trust the matter to Mueller, who has documented history of abusing executive power.
This is insane. Furthermore, it is proof that the NY Times is not interested in the truth. These pages are nothing more than flat-out propaganda at this point.
Go back and listen to Comey's own testimony: Trump encouraged him to continue with his witch hunt into Russian collusion. Moreover, there is not one shred of evidence that the investigation was ever stalled, let alone obstructed. The indisputable fact is that it continues on its reckless, corrosive path towards no legitimate end.
The bottom line is that there is no competent evidence that Trump "colluded" with the Russians.
On top of this, it is an absolute prerogative of the President to fire the FBI director. The FBI is not an independent, fourth branch of the government; nor is it a fiefdom. The FBI, and its director, answer to the President.
Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of the supposed watchdogs of liberty cheer-leading for Mueller is that what distinguishes the FBI most in history is its abuse of its power. Lives have been ruined on its corrupt motives. Yet, here is the NY Times arguing for more of this.
Folks, the NY Times has been lying since they worked to persuade the public that invading Iraq was a good idea. They haven't stopped since.
4
Every nomination should be stopped in its tracks until we can finally see Mueller report.
If he is the asset of Russian politburo, which by now should be pretty clear even to his base, a.k.a...all secret meetings with Putin, that even our intelligence can't crack, I can only imagine the immaculate work of FSB in creating bullet proof spaces for those two to talk. Poor interpreters were kick out or given menacing orders...
He is still working on Putin's to do list.
We might never know the content of these clandestine talks, but WAPO and NYTimes will be trying to obtain these details.
Meanwhile there're reports of his inquiries to Pentagon to provide troops for possible strike on Iran...
Probably another Machiavellian Putin's ploy to shock and entertain us, who knows with these twisted KGB minds.
It will define any reason if we continue this parade of nominations games.
Democrats should do anything that's possible to prevail and put a big STOP SIGN NOW.
7
If one accepts the axiom that "the past is prologue," we may be assured that with Barr, justice will not be served. Lest anyone have forgotten, it was none other than Barr who urged George H. W. Bush to fully pardon all of the traitors and liars in the Iran Contra scandal, after Bush had lost his reelection bid, no less. Bush pardoned Casper Weinberger and Oliver North, among others, on Christmas Eve, no less, as that investigation was literally on his own doorstep, and threatened to engulf him, as well. Barr later brayed and bragged about his role in letting all of those criminals off the hook. Does anyone seriously believe that this man, who has been shamelessly auditioning or another appointment, and acting more as the illegitimate POTUS' own counsel, would let justice and truth take their due course? I think not. His current behavior fully disqualifies him for A.G.
13
The Republican party's corruption immorality and anti-democratic tendencies will once again be on full display when they vote party line for Mr. Barr.
8
By his words he is condemned. That man believes a U.S. President is imperial and he should be sent home by Congress.
6
Barr is a disaster. He will lie, just as Cavanough did, because he wants the job. And, Barr’s reasons for wanting the job are scary and detrimental to our democracy. His previous actions and comments demonstrate the road he will continue to follow. How much more damage to this country can occur before 2020 and the election of a new President?
6
Excellent article. But where is the outrage? How can the editorial board accept the idea of Barr as AG, when he has so grossly disqualified himself?
7
Way too mild, New York Times. It is blatently obvious that Barr is unsuited to the position of Attorney General. His legal positions are at odds with fundamental constitutional principles. Let's call it what it is.
13
When the movie is made of the Trump years, based on the photo accompanying this piece, I nominate John Goodman to play Barr.
2
“This theory of executive power has long been prized in conservative legal circles.” Yes, but not when a Democrat (e.g., Barack Obama) is in the Oval Office.
Conservatives made this idea one of the blueprints in their (failed) quest to save Richard Nixon’s doomed presidency. They argued tirelessly that Nixon had the right to duck Congressional inquiry based upon the usual “national security” canard. Republicans whined about Mr. Obama’s “executive overreach” for the DACA kids and other immigration-related issues, and they went ballistic.
In William Barr, the president thinks that he has mined gold with this choice for Attorney General. Mr. Barr is on the public record as being undeniably against the Mueller investigation. He has taken the broadest view of a president’s inoculation from Congress about presidential power and its probity because of the pressures of the office. This view is thoroughly in accord with that of newly-minted Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who, in the run-up to his hearings, was adamant that a president’s conduct should be held up to public opprobrium if warranted. However, that “president” was Bill Clinton, a Democrat. After Kavanaugh reached the White House in the employ of W., his philosophy of a president’s executive powers changed.
Mr. Barr is a proven ideologue and can be expected to put an end to the Mueller “nuisance.” He is hardly pure when legal principles obtain. It’s all about topical political references. Donald Trump knows this.
6
The NYT would like to select a progressive Democrat to be the AG and nitpicking solid legal arguments from Barr is unjust. Is there anybody outside of Elijah Cummings that the NYT thinks is justified in being named AG?. His solid reputation in Government and law for many years is shoved aside for some disagreement about Presidential powers. With all our division in the country if we hamstring the President we'll have eternal ambiguity running throughout the land. Can anyone be the AG unless they are cheerleaders for endless stretching back decades for some questionable financial dealings of the President or his assistants?.
1
Anyone Trump hires is there for one thing only -- to do his bidding and to upend norms and laws. Barr is no different. Once Mueller is dispensed with, the DOJ will be a wasteland of mediocre lawyers who care nothing for democracy. This is just what Bannon directed Trump to do.
6
Lindsey Graham being assured by Mr. Barr is like the fox assuring the farmer that the hens are safe with him.
7
Barr is the perfect choice for attorney general in light of what the United States has become. And as the perfect choice he will of course be confirmed after a few fake agonizing doubts by a handful of Republican Senators.
5
I do not believe that either Barr, nor the 2 supreme court appointees have anything to do with actual "justice", nor enforcement of law and order, so much as solidifying a permanent base of repub ideals, whatever they've mutated into. Really. Who can tell what they are anymore? When this entire russia/corporate influence, insane president thing, disaster, has run it's course, we the people are going to be under the iron fist of an entirely different form of government.
In Tchump's words: "trust me!".WE will wish we had stopped this present apathetic form of government before it developed, wish for the un-'great' days, but absolutely for sure: we will not like what we are allowing OUR government to become, and we will definitely not like what's left!
"Let them eat cake!" - Mitch McConnell, Nov 2020
5
I find it a little troubling that Bozo's new lawyer,Pat Cipollone,used to work for proposed AG William Barr.Let's put him thru the ringer when confirming him.
5
Democrats need to block ALL Congressional activities until the government is reopened.
It would also be good if they demanded a Mueller protection law as part of the deal.
We are closer and closer to a Vlad Putin-style dictatorship, thanks to Mitch McConnell and the cowards in the GOP like Susan Collins, who refuses to take a stand for our country.
5
He will empower Trump and that is why he was picked. American democracy is leaking away one drop at a time.
5
“Mueller’s obstruction theory would do lasting damage to the Presidency.”
No, Mr. Barr. The lasting damage to the Presidency is Trump himself.
Boy. We’re really into the “C-tier” candidates now. Anyone who would take a job at this point is already suspect.
7
The only thing that Barr has do in order to secure unanimous support is not impeed the Russia investigation, and swear that he will release all of the evidence found by that investigation to Congress and the public and prosecute all incidents of criminal activity. Bingo.
6
Like what is the point. Hearing schmearing. Barr is approved. Senate screening? Does not matter. Approved by crawly things called Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They want Trump relieved of any Mueller or other incrimination. They want Trump uncontrolled. One or two may challenge Barr. Likely there will be the usual Susan Collins farce-"I am concerned" but MUST vote with the Majority. Even Mitt Romney who had such promise when the Senate session opened, is a whipped puppy with no backbone and nothing to say. That is how it is in these United States.
11
"With Barr, Will Justice Be Done?"
Thank you, New York Times, for the comic relief of providing this trick question.
7
Whatever happens in the hearing , the senate majority Republican Party without moral guidance , Mr. Barr will be approved for the job. With Barr, Trump and the Republican Party will be benefited but America will be looser. The guy is 200% Trumpie. Law and Justice and even the country will not matter to him. He is another Limbaugh/Hannity guy. The country is in trouble when the Liar in chief is the president.
6
Seriously, THIS is the best we can do?
5
This generation of republicans makes the watergate crowd look like the Founding Fathers.
10
He will be approved and then he will be tainted with the same stink that every cabinet officer that serves this demented President has been. He will not escape for no one has.
If he wishes that to be his legacy or perceives a short two year stent will lead to riches down the road he is taking a very big chance.
3
This is, yet again, a done deal. The Democrats can ask all the questions they want. Barr could say he's in favor of beastiality, and Republicans would defend him and vote him in. He is a right-wing radical who was nominated for one reason: to protect Trump's crimes from being exposed and gin up a reason to fire Mueller. In the long run, it won't work, and we'll eventually learn the details of the craven criminality of the First Crime Family.
15
I think that Barr is a highly suspicious choice for Attorney General. His views of executive power alone should exclude him. Barr is notorious for recommending that George H Bush pardon people involved in the Iran Contra affair during the Reagan years. Jared, Ivanka (where is she hiding), Don Jr and others like Paul Manafort all are acting like they are expecting pardons. I
7
Chaos reigns supreme nowadays. Let's end this post haste and install a real president. 300 million people can't wait. Man it must be rough being a Republican...thriving on chaos. Does trump sleep?
4
He should be rejected. He is an enemy of Democrats and democracy. Autocratic rule must be rejected. It’s what the Framers envisioned as the enemy. Vote blue everyone in 2020.
5
Barr's nomination, like everything else about Trump, is coated in corruption.
7
“Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Wednesday that Mr. Barr assured him that he doesn’t think the special counse is conducting a witch hunt, and that he’d aim for transparency whenever Mr. Mueller delivers to him the final report on the special counsel investigation.”
I believe Lindsey Graham and William Barr about as much as I believed Donald Trump and Putin, when Trump said of Putin in November 2017- “ Every time he sees me he tells me that, ‘I didn’t do that’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it.”
9
If the Senate were to approve of the appointment of Mr. Barr to Attorney General, it would be making the very mistake that it avoided when it turned away the appointment of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.
It is worth recalling that votes against Bork were informed by the fact that he carried out the bidding of Richard Nixon and fired special counsel Archibald Cox after Attorney General Elliott Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckleshaus both refused Dick the Trickster, and resigned in protest.
Mr. Barr passionately argued for the pardoning of key players in the Iran/Contra scandal - nothing less than an unconscionable cancellation of democracy by fiat - that was far more damaging to our country than Watergate, in my view. Remember Elliott Abrams, Oliver North, John Poindexter and the whole crew that illegally sold arms to Iran to illegally fund the Contras?
In this context, Barr's feeble assurances to Senator Graham - that he would "aim for transparency" whenever Mr. Mueller delivers the final report to him - are less than cold comfort.
5
The latest Trump appointees to important positions have all made it clear beforehand how they think Trump is correct in all, and too powerful to oppose.
His appointment of the last two Supreme Court Justices have turned it into the United States Kangaroo Court, and all of his actions have to served to diminish America, our influence, economy, and place in the world.
Only Putin has profited by the actions of Trump.
6
If Trump and the Republicans chose him then he is bent. No one whom Trump chooses is a straight arrow. They are all bent or broken. Barr should not be confirmed.
10
Everything Trump touches dies.
A few words to Mr. Barr:
John Mitchell served 19 months.
Rest assured The Don will ask you to kiss his ring, Then ask you to commit a crime.
Choose wisely...
7
Injustice will be done if Republican Senators do nothing but lob softball questions during Barr's confirmation hearing. Barr has a graveyard full of skeletons to address. If Republicans fail to tackle them, the hearing will be a sham.
4
Let's pause and ask ourselves why anyone would want to join a corrupt, embattled administration that is perpetually against the ropes? arguing that the president isn't a Russian agent, that he didn't obstruct justice, that a stupid, wasteful wall is really what we need, that all the people that have served our country with devotion and loyalty -- from Clinton to Comey -- are "sleazy" or worse, a team that is stripping protections even as global warming approaches the point of no return. Who would want to join that team and why? I see Barr as a prima donna that sees a chance to be back in the limelight, a chance to be relevant again. A chance to take far right values and impose them on a country that has clearly moved in the opposite direction. I do not trust the motivations of anyone who publicly auditions for a role -- it is unseemly and unprofessional, but hey, it worked for the thug Whitaker and half of Fox News so why not? But that is how this admin cobbles itself together -- with losers and has-beens like Guiliani and Barr and Whitaker and the "great" Steve Miller. It would be a joke except for its destructive power.
13
@Andy hey Andy, and Tnx for a clear- headed, well- analized, realistic response.
I propose : let’s have the NEW YORK TIMES promote a “ concerned readers think tank “ : to pull together creative ideas to then suggest to the politicians. Surely that’s an unconventional idea but hey,
Are we really ready to be flushed away down the Trump and Mcconnell tube ?!
4
Mr. Barr is a morally bankrupt opportunist wants to be in the limelight. He wrote the op-ed criticizing special probe with the goal to get a position at Trump swamp. And, it worked- con man fills his swamp based on two skills:- a. morally compromised unethical and b. corruption. The op-ed attracted the attention of Trump’s swamp cronies. It didn’t matter that he was a Bush appointee who is a declared enemy of con man. It is a shame how our great nation is running under a man with zero governance skill.
3
@Rm “ It’s a shame how the country is run under an utterly incompetent mentally unstable man- I edited a bit.sorry.the point is : the conventional answer for a needed change is : the voting booth.
Sorry, with those boots still in disarray since the hanging chads debacle in Florida between bush and gore, and th enumerousnhinderences to voting- the voting booois hardly a good way to effect a change.
The
1
Lindsey Graham has little or no credibility. His 'performance' during the Kavanaugh hearings clearly demonstrated that. Expect more histrionics from him this week.
8
Just another bad choice by Trump. Barr must promise to recuse himself from all things Russian and promise to protect Mueller's investigation. If not, he must not be confirmed.
Barr's positions are sweet music to Trump's ears. Essentially, the president can do anything he wants. Barr shamefully lobbied for this job by playing all of Trump's greatest hits. Trump noticed and decided he wanted another stooge and sycophant on his team. Shameful.
3
In a word NO! Barr has already shown himself to be, in his own words which he put down on 20 pages of paper, to be nothing but a Trumpian hack totally biased against the Mueller investigation. Recusal would not be enough. He deserves Senate refusal on his nomination.
4
This disgusting man needs to be out of the White House. Now. And any sane person now knows that this Republican Senate will shirk its Constitutional responsibilities. We will have an Attorney General covering up crimes this "president" has committed and will continue to commit in the next two years.
The question isn't whether justice will be served under Barr. It most certainly will not be. Rather, the question we all must answer is, what are we, the majority of citizens who do not support this ignorant, deranged tyrant, willing to do to remove him from office.
We must not assume that we can simply sit back and wait until the election in 2020, and vote him out. There are no guarantees that Trump will not try to cancel it. We've already seen his willingness to declare a "national emergency" that exists only in his mind. Does anyone honestly believe that, as his crimes continue to see the light of day, he would not impose martial law to hold power?
For those who believe that somehow our Constitution will save us, think again. Trump has five votes on the Supreme Court, from judges already granting him expansive powers in determining citizenship and immigration rights.
I believe our only recourse is the streets. If polling numbers are to be believed, there are some two hundred million of us who want our country back. We want our democracy back. We want the rule of law. We want to depose this dictator. And it looks like we are going to have to fight to get all of these things.
7
Trump makes Nixon look compassionate, moral and decent.
Congratulations.
3
A POTUS under investigation for obstruction of justice and other criminal act SHOULD NOT APPOINT ANYONE TO THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM!
8
with all these investigations going on, and the eminent fights between pelosi et al and Trump looming large in the horizon, WHO
will have the heads, time, inclination to, excuse the question : run the country !?
this country is SUPPOSED to be by, for and of the people.
but if the sum total of the last 2 years is of any indication, the country is clearly heading to even greater mess.
i welcome / challange responses to this comment. creative, serious, illuminating, positive responses - we need those badly.
3
Mitch McConnell seems to be in no rush to help reopen the government, but he seems to be in a rush to confirm William Barr as AG. What a coincidence.
With Mr. Nunes no longer in charge of any House investigative committee, it seems obvious to me that the shutdown was intended as a convenient excuse to put on hold responses to the oncoming flood of requests for information from House committees until Mr. Barr is confirmed.
The government shutdown by the president and the rush to get Mr. Barr quickly into the DOJ by the Senate are two giant dots begging to be connected. Mr. Barr appears poised to do the blocking previously done by Mr. Nunes.
I find it hard to believe that the United States Senate would be a party to this monstrous betrayal of an entire nation. Mr. McConnell, where are you?
11
Trump didn't create the paradigm shift from right/wrong to my side/your side, but he has certainly exploited and advanced that trend. As with nearly all other cabinet posts, when it comes to Trump's choice for AG, it has very little do do with who will best uphold justice, and everything to do with who will best support the president's agenda. This much has become enormously clear.
But, as a wise man told me years ago, "What's clear to you is clear to you." Trump has built on the political dysfunction and mistrust that has been building for the past few decades, and has convinced many Americans that any evidence of wrongdoing by him or his administration is politically motivated and therefore spurious.
In 1974 most Americans still believed in right and wrong, and evidence based conclusions. We still had a modicum of faith in the integrity of our mainstream media, our justice system, and our political opponents. So when incontrovertible evidence of Nixon's chicanery was made public, there was a national consensus that he had to go.
Today, not so much. Millions of Trump supporters have been convinced that major media outlets, our justice system, and our political opponents cannot be trusted. To them, it makes perfect sense to support someone who is fully committed to protect the only person they believe they can trust: Donald Trump.
The public trust is much easier to lose than to regain. We have our work cut out for us.
8
it seems the President could not have chosen a better AG nominee to justify his agenda. Barr will make a fine Robespierre. luckily, Tiffany's is close to Trump's house, so it will be easy for him to run in and get the crown he's yearning for. just one sugestion: Trump's crown should be adjustable so it can be enlarged as his head swells.
7
Looks like the oligarchs are sending in their man to bail Donald Trump out so they can continue to push their agenda.
6
@John Byars. Why don't the Russian billionaires and a few of Trump's Mar a Lago pals just pony up the money for the Wall? Why take that money out of our pockets?
2
It’s one thing to imagine expansive executive powers, with little Congressional or Judicial oversight, for an imaginary president. An Eisenhower, perhaps. But we’re not talking about an Eisenhower, we’re talking about a corrupt, incompetent, insecure, unstable president. A president that’s the poster child for oversight, the living justification for the 25th Amendment. How can Barr, or anyone who cares about the country, argue for an unconstrained Trump? That lack of judgment alone proves that Barr is unfit to head up the Justice Dept.
9
@John Ranta
The constitutional questions must not turn on who holds the office.
2
@KBronson The constitutional constraints exist because of who might hold office. The founders imagined flawed men, prone to corruption and authoritarianism. That’s why there are checks and balances. They wouldn’t be necessary if only noble, honorable men (and women) were elected.
4
Trump has said he wants an AG who will have his back. Barr has told him I’m your man. This is simply more obstruction of justice in plain view. Trump has transformed us into a banana republic right under our noses while our so called checks and balances slumber.
10
Barr has always been a political hack putting the Republican party interests ahead of the interests of the American people. Just the kind of guy the Republicans love.
7
Candidates for judicial office don't answer hypothetical questions and neither should Mr. Barr. Any Attorney General that gave a response without considering all the facts would not be fit for the office. Even presenting general leanings on issues can be problematic for legal cases likely to come before the office.
We need an Attorney General with good judgment. Someone who seeks a win at all costs does not have good judgment. Laws are enforced and weighed by people who cannot be blind. Political reality has a place in the equation. A President who seeks justice on an issue should be considered very seriously.
7
Justice will be done with William Barr. Over and done.
7
@Jay Orchard
And Mexico will pay for the wall. Over and done.
4
@Jay Orchard
Pardons for all just as he recommended during his last tenure!
ABC's Chief AN correspondent, shocked This Week George Stephanopoulos when responding to a NYT story on Trump being a Russian agent. Karl said: "When Mueller issues his final report it will be anti-climatic." He continued "my sources indicate that there has not been any evidence of collusion nor obstruction."
Then when commenting on the WAPO story on Trump-Putin transcripts missing, Karl indicated "Trump has had many similar meetings with other world leaders." He downplayed any suggestion of wrong doing.
4
There are plenty of other people with connections reporting exactly the opposite from their sources. In the end, we won't know until Mueller actually releases the report. I did notice that you posted exactly the same response in another column today, with a couple more paragraphs appended.
Why would the Congressional Committee even bother to ask the question, " Will justice be down? " It's a no brainer. No! Barr will make all the right noises and then get confirmed. His past beliefs should be evident enough to not confirm him. But this Congressional Committee has to go through the optics of a due process. The Republican members want to squelch the Mueller Investigation and allow Trump to pardon all the felons already indicted or soon to be indicted. Trump is not the only Putin stooge. Put on a great show! And let Putin have his way. And of course, everything would have been done by the rule book!
3
Ok, let me get this straight.
I gleaned from 2015 and 2017 NYT stories that the concern about the Clintons stemmed from the Clinton foundation receiving donations from people close to a Canadian uranium company, which was bought by a Russian entity. The deal needed approval of a US committee that included the State Department’ representation, because the company was also involved in US uranium production. Plus, Bill accepted $500,000 for a speech from a Russian bank that had promoted the company’s stock. Hope I got that straight.
If true, not pretty. But the Clintons are no longer in power.
Yet Barr thinks the Clintons’ acts are more worthy of investigation than a probe into whether Trump has been and still is beholden to Russia — including for business dealings that might have benefitted a presidential candidate/now sitting president and for Russia’s interference on Trump’s behalf into our very election process?
If Trump and our election process have been compromised by Russia, then the threat is current, ongoing and corrosive to our independence. Russia does not take kindly to its aims being thwarted. And it plays for keeps.
Could Mr. Barr’s freelanced memo outlining his views of presidential powers have moved him to the top of the list for AG? To Trump, it probably read like a mash note.
BTW, the late Elliot Richardson was a Republican. This is so through-the-looking-glass.
3
@SP Morten I believe the allegations about the uranium deal have been disproved repeatedly. Hillary was not even present at the committee that approved the sale.
Why is the Senate even considering this nomination during the shutdown? I think Democrats made a grave error when McConnell refused to grant Merrick Garland a hearing. They should have refused to take up any business, except responding to national emergencies. If government employees cannot get a paycheck Barr should not get a hearing.
6
Barr looks like a cross between Steve Bannon and the actor John Goodman, but more hygienic and better dressed. While having a zero sense of humor.
Barr appears to not have read the Constitution regarding Presidential oversight. Being of the ilk in recent history who wish to hand over everything to the president, cutting out the Constitutional duties of the House and Senate.
Lets be aware that for decades now, shifting duties and power from congress to the Executive branch, has been a goal of the GOP, their advocates and various grooming societies. (Federalist Society for Federal Judges) Only balking at such when its a Dem in the Oval.
Repubs under McConnell have been abdicating their duties to POTUS, and seem bent on continuing.
More Dems elected in every election. Remove the Repub majority in the Senate in 2020. Period. That must be a Democratic Party priority in 2020.
2
May if he is DisBARRed.
4
Just why he was nominated.
"The nominee to be attorney general has backed some of the president’s worst impulses on the Russia inquiry."
5
It's all going to be a kabuki. The Democrats will try to pin Barr down. He will lie as needed. Republicans will toss softballs. Barr will lie as needed. Barr will be confirmed on a party line vote.
Why bother with hearings?
8
Mr Trump has already caused too much cynicism so even this Canadian democratic socialist must recuse himself.
The world has serious problems to address and nothing America does will make it be trusted for a very long time.
Stop asking yourself questions for which you know the answer.
There is only one question America must ask and that is how you again get your citizens to trust your institutions again.
Mr Barr is not the answer to that question.
4
We should just give Robert Mueller a battlefield promotion to Special Attorney General...
If that's not within Trump's powers - it will be, 45 minutes after the next time he gets hectored by Coulter...
Works at so many levels...
> He could brag that he fired Mueller, by kicking him upstairs
> Mueller’s first action could be to recuse himself from any contact whatsoever with Trump, to avoid the appearance of collusion
> Trump could then grouse for months about how he wouldn’t have fired Mueller for the job, if he knew that was going to happen
1
from this piece many nefarious acts can be inferred. none confirmed.
1
"This commitment to justice serves as an example to all and ought to go on unimpeded." The editorial board should follow their own advice. They constantly preach the biased liberal angle. Never, to my knowledge, did they ever criticize Obama's AG who truly deserved it. Once Mr. Barr is on board then you can criticize, if in fact he deserves it.
2
@Donald
""This commitment to justice serves as an example to all and ought to go on unimpeded.""
I agree. And the justice to me means the law is applied equally to the investigators, and the investigated. No process crime prosecution of the investigator (unmasking, FISA issue?). It means the lying to the FBI law is applied to Mills and Abiden in the same way it is applied to Flynn.
2
In answer to your question in the headline, the answer is NO, for reasons stated. He should not be confirmed. Please Democrats, fight for this as if our country depended on it. Because it does.
4
Bar is another Scalia and the America doesn't need another self assured demagogue.
1
@Sean Daly Ferris
Scalia was one who applied the rule of law as closely as it could to its understanding at the time it was ratified. We could use more who apply rather than redifned law, and those, who like lady liberty, where a blindfold applying the law equally to investigators and investigated, HRC and Trump.
2
Barr is just one more right wing conservative who believes in an imperial presidency. If he truly believed in the Constitution, which held that Congress and the Executive branch were co-equal branches of government, then giving immunity to a law-breaking president would not be on his wish list.
3
His views outlined in this editorial are extreme and consistent.
After politically answering questions from powerless senate democrats he will be confirmed by Putins Republicans.
To Have to cling to the hope that Barr will become something different then the sycophant that essentially applied for the job by assuring Trump he will do his bidding shows how desperate and powerless we have become.
8
I expect true rule of law justice would require ending the investigation, acknowledging it should legally never started, and prosecuting any who broke the law in conducting the investigation.
Justice can be defined by "the end justifies the means" by some, or by a disciplined and unbiased application of the law to both the investigators and the investigated.
The rule of law form of justice means that if the appointment of an independent counsel law requires identification of a crime as a requirement, then one is identified before the appointment. It means if the law requires forthright disclosure to FISA court judges, then it should have been made crystal clear during the FISA process that the dossier was funded in part by the HRC campaign and that Steele was fired for cause. It means if Rod Rosenstein signed under penalty of perjury there was the new evidence required for the final extension, there was such evidence, and if not he is held accountable. It means the same standard for lying to the FBI apply to Mills and Abiden as applies to Flynn and other Trump people. It means unmasking follows the law, and that the leak about the tapped conversation between Flynn and the Russia ambasador.
It also means Russian collusion suspicions should not be used to support an endless investigation of the opposion. If he had done the things he is accussed of he should have been easily been impeached by now.
4
Congress’s first priority right now should be to end Trump’s senseless government shutdown. As long as it doesn’t appear that Mitch McConnell is inclined to allow this to happen, Congress must pass legislation protecting Mr. Mueller and his investigation. They’ve talked about it...well, OK, they’ve talked about a lot of things that haven’t come to pass, but they haven’t yet acted. How much more of a worldwide laughing stock can we afford to be as a nation? And meanwhile, Putin and Erdogan are drooling over the prospect of our troops leaving Syria; North Korea and China are meeting; property owners along the Southern U.S. border are receiving notices that their property may be taken; the list goes on. Congress must act in the interest of its constituents for once.
5
McConnell will bring no bill before the Senate for debate thathe "knows" or guesses the President will not sign. if all his Senate represents is a rubber stamp for the President, who needs them? what is their contribution to America? precisely nothing.
3
I wish I had the confidence that Republican senators will hold his feet to the fire, but sadly, I don't. They will capitulate as they did on so many other cabinet nominees who clearly were unqualified or unsuited for the departments they were asked to lead.
7
It appears that Mr. Barr believes in the Constitution, and that infuriates Democrats out for a witch hunt. That is, he takes
the words and spirit of "probable cause" and "evidence" at their the usual meaning. That's his major "problem" with the left wing. They want want them to mean "our best chance to whip something up that will "get" him".
And he absolutely should not recuse himself ... Mueller needs a very stern hand on him constantly emphasizing the Constitution.
3
The only reasonable, supportable answer to the question posed by this editorial is a resounding NO. My God, the man is but an obvious Trump plant, whose only “qualification” considered by our corrupt President is that he will protect him by undermining, if not scuttling, the Mueller Investigation. First the scandalous temporary appointment of the sycophant Whitaker, and now this profoundly flawed, even outrageous, nomination of the entirely tarnished Barr. This entire episode should be considered as but another example of the Fake President’s fondness for “collusion”, with the position of Attorney General as the ultimate prize.
17
If we accept the narrative of Senator Lindsey Graham, believing the assurances of William Barr's attitude regarding the Special Counsel's investigation into Trumpian criminality before and after assuming office, we need first to believe Graham, and then to believe Barr.
Either one is a tall presumption to swallow, but the two in tandem is pure fantasy.
An innocent president would want the inquiry to proceed toward its rightful exoneration, closing the case; a guilty president would stop at nothing to short-circuit it.
18
"This theory of executive power has long been prized
in conservative legal circles."
That is only a true statement so long as there is a
Republican president in office. Like every other facet
of the "modern" GOP, this is a theory to be applied only
when beneficial to the GOP. You could say that the single
guiding principle for today's Republicans is hypocrisy. Do
unto us as you would do unto us. Others should follow the
law and the principles of our Democracy. This is
demonstrated in every aspect of Trump's "presidency".
How loud would not the screams be from the red side of the
aisle if Obama had committed a single one of Trump's
multitude of sins against the traditions and laws
of the American presidency? How many investigations,
subpoenas, and calls for impeachment?
So I ask: why in the world should we trust the
assurances from Mr. Barr who has a history of protecting
Republican wrong-doers. Trump will receive special
treatment as one of them. Following the law is for Democrats.
19
I plant my hopes in the evidence that Robert Mueller is a savvy and experienced investigator, who has clearly supervised a sharp team of competent associates, all of whom have displayed their respect for this investigation, and the law, by refusing to leak information and/or gossip confidentially to friendly and eager journalists.
Compare the water-tight state of Mueller’s domain to the leaky, foundering Ship of Trump.
But. If a sleazy new Attorney General tries to shut down the investigation into Russian collusion (collision?) with our elections, then I trust that Robert S. Mueller III, and his capable team, will find a way to get the information they’ve already compiled out of their files, into the news. Mueller has done some this work already by referring many suspicious (nasty, stinking, corrupt) Trump family activities to states’ attorney generals for examination.
This crew of disciplined investigators is not helpless. The information will come out.
Sorry, Donny.
7
Isn't it time the media started trying to find out what was in those Republican emails stolen from the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2016 campaign and never released to WikiLeaks? It seems obvious the Russians, and Donald Trump, have some serious dirt on several prominent Republicans which is being used to blackmail them into these obsequious displays of support for this clearly off the rails President. Find some evidence and save our country!
14
Do we have a separation of powers or not? Do we have three equal branches of government, or not?
I had always thought of conservatives as (backwards) originalists... they even like to tout it...
This is not that.
Everyone, do remember this the next time they claim a democrat president is overreaching...
6
More injustice will be done before justice will be done.
2
Of course Trump wants Barr to lead the Justice Department, in the same way that he wanted Cavanaugh on the Supreme Court. These stooges have shown themselves to have opinions that serve or will soon serve Trump best, given his known actions as president. Democrats in the Senate should do everything possible to delay Barr's appointment until Mueller issues his report. Barring that (no pun intended), they should do everything possible to get Barr on record so there's no doubt that he was appointed for the sole purpose of getting Trump off the hook.
9
Obstruction of the collusion investigation is collusion, as "accessory after the fact."
18 U.S.C . Sec. 3 provides:
"Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.
Except as otherwise expressly provided by any Act of Congress, an accessory after the fact shall be imprisoned not more than one-half the maximum term of imprisonment or (notwithstanding section 3571) fined not more than one-half the maximum fine prescribed for the punishment of the principal, or both; or if the principal is punishable by life imprisonment or death, the accessory shall be imprisoned not more than 15 years.”
6
It's interestkng. Several months ago when Barr was announced as AG most all praised him as a former AG and Deputy Director of the FBI, and with bipartisan support. As we get closer to next week's hearing the drumbeat for his lack of fitness and bias have continuously increased. Now the Times, in affect, is asking for him to withdraw.
Three former AG's, two former Directors of FBI, 70 former U.S. Attorney's and 130 officials at the DOJ have all signed a letter of support. I believe that he is imminently qualified.
3
and maybe one day he will be qualified.
Another partisan hack, like Lindsey Graham and the entirety of the present day Republican Party, always willing to forsake principles and standards for ideological reasons, a travesty of an attorney general if appointed as is virtually certain in the bigoted and obdurate tradition of Jeff Sessions.
As Senator Graham has alluded, he and his political co-conspirators must and will do whatever it takes to ensure the survival of their Party.
3
The "aim" in "aim for transparency" is a less than reassuring fox word that seems to say enough in itself.
2
The terrible truth revealed in this evolving coup d'état by the Republican Party is that patriotism has two faces. There are patriots who believe in truth, justice and equality, and there are false patriots who believe in the attainment of unchecked power by any means in order to empower and preserve a privileged class by weakening, and finally eliminating the rights guaranteed the American people by our constitution.
That an entire political party has been turned by such a small cadre of duplicitous and devious men and women into a movement to subvert democracy, is so hard to believe that many refuse to see it.
Paralyzed by the unblinking stare of the serpent before it strikes -- we, its vulnerable prey, remain transfixed before this unthinkable threat, hoping that what we can't fully comprehend will somehow spare us.
7
At this point, I would not believe any hearsay comments by Lindsey Graham (or ANY comments by him). He has put party above country, and may very well be susceptible to Kompromat from Putin's crowd for reasons that seem all too obvious given his unmarried status and the GOP "amen corner's" demonization of some Americans for totally illegitmate reasons.
5
@Carl Ian Schwartz
Here in Quebec the innuendo could not be used for blackmail. I have said for years that Lindsey Graham should not be be the television spokesman for a totally amoral and destructive anti American cult. I am just realizing the power of John McCain patriotism in keeping Graham's venom and hate in check.
It is time for America to look at its history and realize it is nothing new.
When William Jennings Bryan was the leader of the Democratic Party his base was Donald Trump's base. The fact that Bryan was a socialist does not change the narrative. The base didn't care about politics they just wanted power taken away from the elite. They professed Christianity but were racists, xenophobes and anti Semites.
Maybe it is time to remake Inherit the Wind and have Bryan's minions carrying Lock Him Up signs or better yet signs that say Crucify Him!
2
This is a really terrible, yet unsurprising choice for Donald Trump to make.
More unseemly is Barr’s conduct of late, amounting to an advertisement of his willingness to be totally obsequious to the President.
I heard one of his former DOJ colleagues say that he once was an “institutionalist.”
The charitable view here is that he is a self-promoting and success obsessed man with few scruples.
The uncharitable view is that he will soon be a co-conspirator.
Both may be true.
8
The obvious question is why did Barr take it upon himself to write a scathing criticism of Mueller if not to angle for the AG job? Unfortunately McConnell holds the cards and we will see the Democratic committee members grill Barr for naught. Like Guiliani, Barr is abandoning his once respected reputation to shill for a president who has broken the mold on corruption.
3
@nzierler
Because he thinks Mueller is wrong and that his legal theory, if it wins the day, will harm the country by crippling future presidents in the fulfillment of their duties.
1
Justice will be done with Barr. As in done for.
3
"Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Wednesday that Mr. Barr assured him that he doesn’t think the special counsel is conducting a witch hunt.."
How comforting is that? For crying out loud, Lindsey [tweet] urged Trump last week to call a national emergency! These long term GOP hacks who pined and yearned for Ronald Reagan each day Obama was in the White House are now mysteriously following Trump to the doomsday cliff.
Speaking of Ronny, when was the last time Fox News [Hannity] ever mentioned him? Reagan's legacy of fiscal conservatism disappeared the day Trump was sworn into office. What is going on with these people? Bizarro-World!
5
Yet another Republican suit with pages of credentials, rushed in to put a Band Aid on a presidency that is hemorrhaging blood from hundreds of self-inflicted wounds.
You have to ask yourself why at this point in time would anyone with an ounce of morality serve this monster? What's the long-term financial benefit or historical footnote he's calculating?
5
I fully expect Mr. Barr's hearing before the Senate to be the same kind of clown circus that occurred during Judge Kavanaugh's recent hearing. Spurious claims with little to no actual evidence will be put forward by a series of shameless Democrats crying crocodile tears over the injustice of it all. Republicans will parry and thrust and, eventually, a perfectly normal candidate will be approved after enduring the slander of his good name.
This is the method of the moment and I see little cause to expect anything different. Indeed, just reading the forty or so comments to this article already posted reveals this mindset to already be in play.
We are living in odd times where honor and integrity are widely viewed as the standards of losers. You can say that this is all President Trump's fault, but he didn't cause any of you to choose this path, you are responsible for your choice of behavior.
2
The confirmation vote on Barr is the historical tipping point for Republicans in the Senate, and for the country. If Republicans confirm this Trump enabler, our democracy is dead.
2
The Russian investigation was ongoing for at least a year before Mueller and now two years. It only took the United States four years to build the first atomic bomb. Mueller should submit his report tomorrow. The Mueller investigation has had far more impact on our political system than the Russians ever dreamed of . If Mueller had released his report five months ago, would the Republicans have lost the House of Representatives? We don't know but there is no excuse for this to drag out into the next Presidential election. I don't know if Mueller is incompetent, a fool, or seeking a political outcome but the reins should be taken from him. Submit the report! Now!
To assume that Trump would nominate someone not totally committed to Trump, overtly or covertly, seems naive. Then again, Trump does't have the best track record in picking his underlings so maybe there's some hope Barr won't be what he appears to be. Bur Barr's public utterances don't offer much comfort - he appears to be a die-hard right wing ideologue committed to imperial rule.
2
To be fair, one can see how the ‘Trump - Russia’ issue looks suspicious, but there is, to my mind, so far only evidence and convictions for what I would describe as clumsy and bungling criminal acts by people associated with Trump, rather than a ‘smoking gun’ proving Trump is a Russian asset.
Remember Trump was a complete amateur as a politician and had never run for high office before. He probably didn’t even really believe he would win. Small wonder his campaign team could contain less than savory characters, although that is no reason to ‘let them off the hook’. So far, it looks like Mueller has done a pretty thorough job of making sure the culprits were brought to book.
We must let Mueller finish his investigation without hindrance and it beggars belief that if he is obstructed, he will not say so.
Yet it seems far fetched that any of this will result in President Trump himself being indicted, much as his foes would like that to be the case. Worse, if the whole Mueller investigation and report clears the President, it won’t exactly harm his chances of re election in 2020.
The left wing liberal media should be careful how much they ‘big this up’. It could backfire.
3
This is what I believe: Nobody is above the law, not even the president.
This is what we know: Mr. Mueller has already published almost 40 indictments. Mr. Trump has been directly implicated in a campaign finance felony that almost certainly influenced the election outcome.
Mr. Barr has argued that presidents are not subject to Congressional oversight. That puts him at odds with the Constitution and the founders.
Barr has argued that a president may prosecute political adversaries. He has argued that the president is not obstructing justice no matter what he does. He has argued that the president can stop the Mueller investigation whenever he wants to.
Were this an ethical, decent White House that put the wellbeing of the nation first, Barr would be compelled to recuse himself from the Mueller case.
Vis-a-vis immigration, criminal justice, voting rights, civil rights, etc., Barr's own views on such things as immigration are in conflict with our traditional aspirations and values.
We can no longer trust Senator Graham to put the wellbeing of the nation first. He believes that if this president goes down it will be the end of the Republican party. I believe if this president does not go down it will be the end of the democracy and the end of any decent, democratic version of the Republican party. The day the Republicans sold their souls to Trump, they sealed their fate.
21
@Robert
I agree with everything you said. Thanks for being so articulate and expressing everything so clearly.
2
Some of the comments about this article are laughable. Why wouldn’t Trump pick people to be in his cabinet, etc who agree with him and support his policies and agendas. The president and the people around him are a team and we hope they’re on the same team. For heavens sake JFK picked his very own brother to serve as the AG. The selection of Barr has nothing to do with authoritarian, it has to do with elections have consequences for the people who lost. I am sure Clinton would be doing the same thing, had she won.
2
The most serious problem we have in government today is not so much that the president is skating very close to the edge of the law and policy and political norms, but that there are so many mainstream Republicans whose positions don't diverge very much from Trump's abnormal views.
We presume to know why Donald wants immunity from Justice. But why do prominent Republicans feel suddenly free to abandon all principle to support him?
Donald's legacy will not be the undoing of our national soul, try as he might -- we can recover from that -- but the diminution of the Republican Party from its former glory to a burned-out crisp of a party -- one that recently spent 40 years in the wilderness.
17
We know that Trump demanded that James Comey agree that Comey would be personally loyal to Trump and would put that loyalty to Trump above any duty to the United States, the American people, or the law and fired Comey when Comey refused. Senators should be asking Mr. Barr whether Trump asked or suggested any such affirmation of personal loyalty from Barr and what Barr said in response.
16
by virtue of issuing his audition memo on the limitlessness of executive powers, Barr crawled over to Trump on his hands and knees and began licking his liege's feet. I doubt Trump has to ask him for a blood oath of loyalty or has any question about what he may be getting in this nominee. but suppose Barr is indeed confirmed, then shuts down the Mueller inquiry, or hides Mueller's eventual report in a locked desk drawer for all eternity: how many would see that as an admission of guilt on Trump's part, especially since the cases in the several states will continue? everyone already knows Barr thinks "president" is just a longer way to spell "king."
1
The Con Don is running a criminal enterprise inside OUR government, in concert with the International Mafia including the Koch brothers, Putin, Netanyahu, Erdogan, Assad, Duerte and all the other supposed "strong men" being installed at the top of governments around the world.
Why would anyone believe - for one second - that anything he does will serve WE THE PEOPLE.
Get them all out NOW!
21
The AG needs to be a bastion for protecting the Constitution. Mr. Barr appears to be so opinionated towards the weakening of our system of checks and balances that he should not be confirmed by the Senate. If confirmed he will have to recuse himself so often that he will in effect be a ghost AG.
14
The very acceptance of nomination as a courtier in the Trump administration is a fully sufficient reason for disqualification.
19
Very simple folks. If the Senate approves Barr along partisan lines and, as suggested, he tries to suppress or obstruct the report, the nation will descend into partisan warfare not seen since the Vietnam War. As to assurances by Linsey Graham, I read them as much more ominous than calming.
19
I'm wondering whether an Attorney General can be compelled to recuse themselves. Ostensibly, Whitaker chose to ignore a legal suggestion. He should recuse but the legal counsel didn't exactly demand recusal either. I wonder what the enforcement looks like when legal counsel tells a client they are violating the law without recusal. I know lawyers can motion to have a judge recused. How does that work for the Attorney General?
This question is vitally important because Barr may refuse to recuse under the assumption that his appointment carries immunity. Trump is floating pardons left and right. In an obstruction case, Barr's mere presence is more than a little compromising. His legal review necessarily takes place after Senate confirmation. What happens if legal counsel tells him no on the Mueller investigation?
9
@Andy
After Barr's pre-nomination (unsolicited) memo to the White House criticizing the Special Counsel, any professional ethics advisor in or out of the Justice Department would advise Barr in the strongest terms to recuse himself. It's not just that the appearance of impartiality has been compromised; it's that his partiality has been confirmed. But no, an AG cannot be compelled to recuse, nor would s/he be violating any law by not recusing, unless a corrupt intent to obstruct justice, or to promote some illegal conspiracy or action, could be established. The President could direct Barr to recuse himself, and fire him if he won't, but of course it's risible to expect that from Trump.
12
@Greg Weis
Thank you for the explanation. In response, I would posit Barr is involved in an illegal conspiracy to obstruct justice if he refuses to recuse against the advice of an ethics adviser.
Whitaker was in a similar situation but he was dismissed as a viable candidate for AG. He never had to face Congress.
With Barr, there's a simple test. The Senate can ask, "Will you follow the advice of White House ethics advisers?" A reversal means perjury. A refusal to answer is equivalent to "No."
Barr might get appointed anyway. However, we have an easy mechanism to reveal his intentions.
3
“Mueller’s obstruction theory,” he wrote, “would do lasting damage to the presidency.”
We must have confidence in Mr Mueller and the other prosecutors. They have proved that they act in full respect of the law. And let's be clear : Mr Mueller does not entertain any "obstruction theory", he works with facts. If Barr takes the step to stop the investigation, he - and Trump - must face the consequences. As for the "lasting damage", it is inflicted on the US since November 2016 by Trump and his GOP supporters.
16
possibly what Barr means by "Mueller's obstruction theory" was expressed more simply by President Nixon when he said that if the President does it, it's not a crime (even though it would be a crime for anybody else). this is, for both of them, the very essence of Republican views: we're better than you are, above the law, and should be allowed by our divine right to get away with anything we want, while you peons are little more than dirt beneath our feet. plus, you can't join our exclusive country clubs. MAGA (make America grovel again).
1
One thing we need to remember is that Rosenstein based his appointment of Mueller not on any federal law but rather on his own authority as acting Attorney General with respect to the Russia investigation. Because of that, and based on Barr’s belief that certain presidential powers are absolute, I expect as Attorney General Barr would dramatically curtail Mueller’s mandate and thus his report.
There is no question Barr believes Trump has the absolute right to fire any executive branch officer for any reason. He says as much in his 1989 memo, basing that position not just on the Constitution’s appointments clause, but also—ironically—on the president’s constitutional duty “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed” and his need “to ensure the executive branch speaks with one voice” on that account. Barr also makes clear in the same memo that he believes the president’s power to deal with foreign sovereigns however he sees fit is similarly absolute.
Given all that, it seems likely that as AG Barr would conclude Rosenstein could not constitutionally appoint Mueller to investigate either Trump’s termination of Comey or his dealings as president with Putin and that he would thus withdraw that portion of Mueller’s mandate and likely even order the destruction of those investigative findings.
It is a move that would make any president who commits treason in office untouchable but one totally consistent with GOP “principles”—which apparently is all that counts.
20
As this editorial is being read to the president, he is calculating his next moves. He does nothing that is not first 'suggested' and then acts upon it. I await the editorial that bolsters his ego while suggesting resignation would preeminently place him in history as the president with moral fortitude. Now that would be the kind of "fake news" we could all cherish!
6
As Shakespeare said: "History is prologue." This man should not become attorney general. But as Shakespeare said: "history is prologue." The Republicans will ram him through .
8
@KC
Barr will be an excellent Attorney General for POTUS. Just as Obama had his wingman and boasted about it.
Here's a possible scenario to contemplate: Barr gets approved. Barr fires Mueller. Republicans in Congress do nothing. Democrats sweep the Senate and presidency in 2020. Many Republicans and Trump associates, including Trump himself, get investigated, prosecuted, convicted and sent to prison. This would ideally include people like Mitch McConnell, Steve King, Devin Nunes, and all the other enabling and apologizing criminals of recent years.
Let us learn the Obama lesson of failing to prosecute the predatory and other illegal financial practices that caused the bank failures of 2008. Let us hold the perps accountable and send them to prison, so that we can avoid a repeat of Weimar Germany.
And let us get simultaneously get right to the business of addressing global warming, gun safety, income inequality, healthcare, infrastructure, immigration reform, prison reform, and all of the other problems that are truly at a crisis level bordering on emergency (is not every bridge that collapses, every lead-poisoned child, due to criminal Republican negligence an emergency?).
22
With Barr, will justice be done? Never. In 1992, Barr's "in for a penny, in for a pound" proud counsel held sway when Bush 41 granted Christmas Eve pardons, "executive clemency," to Iran-Contra lawbreakers, not just to Cap Weinberger, but also to Messrs. McFarlane, Abrams, George, Fiers, and Claridge. The Republican Congress, complicit in smothering special counsel Walsh's six-year investigation, cared not that half this group had pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress, one had been convicted of two counts of lying to Congress, and one was set for trail on seven counts of perjury and making false statements to Congress. Weinberger was merely under indictment for concealing notes from Congress and from the special counsel. This is the kind of Iran-Contra justice that Barr would urge upon Trump, the rule of lawyering. This is the kind of justice to which "political stunts" McConnell will give full backing.
17
Trump has made no secret that justice is the last thing he wants at the DOJ.
Any individual who can accept Trump's treatment of law, and the 'example' he made of Jeff Sessions is, by definition, unfit.
7
Only an insane person would conclude that Trump nominated Barr because of anything else but his desire to derail the Mueller investigation. Once Trump learned that Barr's lengthy paper was highly critical of Mueller and prosecuting a sitting president, bingo! Barr's paper was essentially a job application that Trump jumped on. Even if Mueller's investigation is nearing completion, Barr would have significant influence in how the report would be rolled out and it would certainly be a travesty of justice if Congress and the American people were denied full access to the report.
17
How can anyone be comforted if Barr said he’d "aim" for transparency when Mr. Mueller delivers to him a final report? Talk about leaving the door wide open to suppress parts of, or all of, the report! Lawyers are practiced at using precise language in contexts like these. Perhaps Sen. Graham, recently converted to Trump toady, was reassured precisely because of the use of the weasel word, but we should all be very un-reassured.
7
I would like to know if Trump and those near and dear to him and I include Pence go down, do Kavanaugh and Mr. Barr, if he slithers in, get to keep their jobs? I believe they have been picked by Trump to save him from any repercussions from his probable crimes. And if they cannot do so, which I hope they cannot, aren't they connected to obstruction? Or is that too hard to prove? Lindsey Graham and Fox news too as long as we are at it. Puffing Sean Hannity especially.
8
It won’t matter if, as I suspect, someone leaks the Mueller report. It’s just too important to not see the light of day.
4
Dear Editorial Board, regarding With Barr, Will Justice Be Done, Jan. 12, 2019:
Mr. Trump belongs in Jail.
As the lawyer on "Law and Order" says, the President has to follow the law.
Impeachment, as we know, does not necessarily even take him out of the President's position.
5
Mr. Barr has demonstrated that he is nothing more than a partisan political hack who doesn't belong in any department with the word justice in its title. He was cherry picked by Trump because of his previously expressed sympathy for the president's plight. His confirmation should be resoundingly rejected.
6
The way Trump picked Whittaker and Barr is an obvious move towards obstruction of justice. If he is ever asked how he chose them among many others, Trump might not even hesitate to answer something like: "Because of the witch hunt".
What a ludicrous situation! Dozens of Government and White House lawyers working on the fine points of the Law applicable to a deranged man who thinks he is invested with legal powers he does not even understand, while continuously insulting the whole judiciary and intelligence establishments of the country he is supposed to lead. The whole world knows he shouldn't be there. Since when the President has become more sacrosanct than Congress and the Rule of Law? Whatever his competence so far, Mr. Barr' statements and memo do not inspire trust, to say the least, and would be normally quite humiliating for a seasoned prosecutor, unless... he intended from the start to not recuse himself AND to deliver the Mueller final report to Congress as soon as he sees it, thus claiming another place among Trump appointees who pretend to be there to "save the Nation" from him.
7
One requires a blindness to feel anything other than trepidation at the thought of the GOP led Senate approving anything that might uphold the Constitution.
Admittedly, how could anyone #45 nominates pass the smell test? He has surrounded himself with likeminded criminals for his entire life and into his presidency.
Again relying on the GOP to protect and uphold the Constitution seems more impossible now than when McConnell denied Obama a SCOTUS.
9
Remember - this is the GOP we are talking about. So - OF COURSE Barr is lying when he says he will not interfere. OF COURSE he has already made a back room deal with Trump. OF COURSE the GOP senate will do nothing to protect America from being under the thumb of Russia. It is all about power and using it for personal ends - has nothing to do with justice, the law, or patriotism.
9
No one appointed by Trump, to any position, should be considered, or confirmed, until the Mueller Investigation is concluded. It's quite possible, and I believe probable, that we have a compromised Russian/Saudi asset in the White House whose sole purpose is to enrich himself and his family while protecting those that helped get him elected and who have monetarily supported his grifter family. In addition, if Trump is found to have acted in the interest of a foreign power rather than the U.S., all of his past appointments, especially those to the courts, should be nullified through impeachment and removal. Unprecedented-yes, but so have the past two years. What's left of our democracy is at stake.
10
Barr came "perilously close" to reassuring the POTUS about his exposure regarding obstruction of justice because Barr wanted the job … a criminal would never hire a defense attorney who told him he was guilty and should go to prison.
That is of course what Barr would have said were he an honest man.
He didn't so he isn't and therefore I wouldn't trust that Barr will defend the nation against Trump's panoply of misdeeds.
8
"At the very least, Mr. Barr can commit to standing up for the integrity of the office he aspires to hold"
WOW... can you possibly be that naive? Just have a look at the Republican party for the last 30 years and tell me that as a general rule, Republicans always act with integrity and put country over party. I do not believe you could prove this.
5
We are fast reaching a tipping point in American democracy. Barr's poorly constructed expansionist Memo defines the man and is a predicate to how he will act on behalf of this rogue President and the ultra right wing extremists who stand in the shadows behind Trump.
Lets face the fact that autocracy, previously disguised within our so called constitutional republic is now a clear and present danger to any semblance of our notions of rule of law, common decency and egalitarian justice.
It would be foolish not to prepare for further disasters and one would hope that preparations be made to protect the Special Counsel's report from being shredded by this proposed Attorney General. Copies of the forthcoming report should closeted away for distribution [leaking], the House should ready itself to call Mr. Mueller to give testimony [revealing its contents] and various state prosecutors must consider indictment options against Trump, his family members and his operatives.
Not much is at stake-only our constitution and democracy!
9
Didn’t Nixon state unequivocally during his Presidency that he couldn’t commit a crime because he was the President, and as President he was immune from prosecution. If Trump had his way, he would arrest and imprison the news media who criticized him, in spite of the First Ammendment. Barr is an enabler of presidential abuse of power and his writings, actions and verbal comments confirm that. He is the wrong person for Attorney General. The people surrounding Trump remind me of the same crooks that Nixon employed during his failed presidency. And don’t forget, most of them went to prison. Trump is another Nixon, only Trump is more destructive to our nation. It would seem Trump is truly a Manchuria Candidate in his attempt to shutdown government over a $5Billion dollar wall that isn’t necessary. Trump worries about a wall but doesn’t care about the people who provide security. Trumps wall is a red herring and Barr is a conspirator in Trump’s insanity.
131
@jeff bunkers
John Karl, ABC Chief WH correspondent, shocked "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos this AM, when responding to a NYT story on Trump being a Russian agent. Karl said: "My sources indicate when Mueller issues his final report it will be anti-climatic." He continued "these sources also indicate that there has not been any evidence of collusion nor obstruction."
Then when George asked him to comment on the WAPO story on Trump-Putin transcripts missing, Karl indicated "Trump has had many similar meetings with other world leaders, giving examples." Trump distrusts leaders so Karl dismissed any wrong doing, again surprising host Stephanopoulos.
This is the FIRST TIME I've heard a MSM correspondent make such a positive and declarative statement about Trump's future. It should be noted that Karl has the reputation of being a very objective and respected reporter and member of the WH press corps.
3
@jeff bunkers
I think Barr will be a fair arbitrator of matters he will face as he did as previous AG and Deputy Director of the FBI. But based on the information below, that just occurred today at 9:30 AM, his Mueller task perhaps has become much easier.
John Karl, ABC Chief WH correspondent, shocked "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos this AM, when responding to a NYT story on Trump being a Russian agent. Karl said: "My sources indicate when Mueller issues his final report it will be anti-climatic." He continued "these sources also indicate that there has not been any evidence of collusion nor obstruction."
Then when George asked him to comment on the WAPO story on Trump-Putin transcripts missing, Karl indicated "Trump has had many similar meetings with other world leaders, giving examples." He distrusts leaders so Karl dismissed any wrong doing, again surprising host Stephanopoulos.
This is the FIRST TIME I've heard a MSM correspondent make such a positive and declarative statement about Trump's future. It should be noted that Karl has the reputation of being a very objective and respected reporter and member of the WH press corps.
Barr's name was certainly not picked out of a hat. He was picked for his ideas, posts, memos and thoughts regarding far right ideology including presidential power. He is just one more of Trump's foxes brought in to guard the hen house.
6
America's Department of Justice does not pass the smell test during the last 19 months of Trump bedlam. Trump firing Sally Yates, or placing the felon Matthew Whitaker as acting AG did not reassure our nation of a sense of honorable justice. Most small businesses would not hire Brett Kavanaugh, and Jeffery Sessions and his igor, Stephen Miller, will be recorded in history as shameful. Mr. Barr slithering into the AG's office chanting, 'lock her up' will not provide America with any reason to respect our Judicial System. Our national security and Intelligence Agencies will never have the opportunity to uncover how Trump and Russian Intelligence officers invalidated the 2016 election, and the will of the American voters.
109
@Steven of the Rockies
The Office of the Special Counsel will restore confidence in our justice system when the SC report is released. You can be assured it will be released, regardless of efforts to the contrary.
The guy in the White House will not be able to have a "fixer" take care of his problems. I predict there will be a spiderweb of contacts between Russia and Individual-1, or his minions (sons included). I can almost hear the mumblings of..."lock him up!"
17
@Mike Westfall I hope and pray that you are right! Barr will be an enabler and will become a co-conspiritor. It seems to me, Barr supports the same notion as Trump, namely that the POTUS is King and the Attorney General of the US his private/personal attorney to defend him no matter what and hence, never mind the ordinary citizens of the US. Barr is the kind of guy Trump wanted and did NOT get in the previous Attorney General of the US, namely Session. He had good sense to get out before things got worse.
13
William Barr should not be confirmed unless he recuses from the Mueller investigation. And one could argue that he shouldn’t be confirmed at all, given the over-the-top unsolicited memo he sent to the White House sharply criticizing the Mueller probe. We’re in a real mess as a country. Sad and tragic.
19
@Craig
No pathetic and unconstitutional (where the constitution is not an archaic piece of nostalgia from the eighteenth century).
Let’s call a spade a spade. Sad and tragic does not cut it.
When the occasion arises for the Senate confirmation process for cabinet members, judges, et al, I'm once again angered at the undemocratic representation that exists in the Senate, with the small, conservative states being equally represented as large population states, i.e., Wyoming with barely 1/2 million people, and California with nearly 40 million people.
10
And so goes the Trumpian Horse, the modern version of the Trojan Horse, except that we are the independent city of Troy, and having pulled the Trumpian Horse into our midst, stand awestruck in fascination and horror at the spectacle before us while in the back, special interests plunder our legacies, our checks and balances are undercut, our system of justice is increasingly stacked and our standing abroad is abandoned.
In the Trumpian Horse, it is not Greeks who are inside, it is the Greeds, and while the Trojan Horse allowed a wall to be breached by the Greeks in Troy, signalling its demise, it is the Trump wall that has distracted us from the spreading plundering and destruction, which may lead to our demise.
Nobody saved the Trojan Horse, though it became a legend. Will we wake up in time to avert our attention away from the Trumpian Horse long enough to stop the plundering and relegate our modern day Horse to a cautionary legend?
16
Justice will be done. The Justice department will be done with investigating Trump and will finally become the tool to protect the president that Trump always hoped it would be.
1
This is the man who stopped justice under the late Bush Sr. The man who advised pardoning people found guilty - the elites in DC, particularly Republican elites off the hook enmasse. Pardoned people who actually took an oath to protect the constitution and did not! There are no two ways to look at it. He has a precedent for helping the elites escape the clutches of justice. How he even qualifies for consideration escapes me, but knowing the actions of this potus is it any surprising?
His very memo to the potus smacks of an indirect application for the post he is seeking. In hindsight Sessions was a better man and I did not think I would say that. With his precedence in the practice, I doubt if he is interested in serving justice. I am afraid justice will be DONE FOR! And yet again!
18
It's nobody's business what his opinions are.
The only question is, whether or not he is qualified to hold the position. And he definitely is qualified.
Nobody can or should say "I will support you if you agree with me". First of all, it is not right - the job is his, not yours, and secondly, no person can agree with another person on every issue.
Those Democrat weasels who try to condition their vote to having the nominee agree with them are not qualified to even ask most of the questions they are asking.
Just keep it to within the four corners of the resume please.
1
@Michael Nicula
This is not at all how the confirmation process works, actually. And it is certainly not how the Republicans have used the confirmation process in the past.
11
@Michael Nicula
It's called "advise and consent", and Senators have a duty not to vote for confirmation if Barr indicates a belief that the President, or any elected official, is above the law.
10
@Michael Nicula
Luckily you don’t vote in the US.
Similar arguments were made during Watergate regarding presidential powers. Even in the face of mounting evidence of corruption and criminality, blind and powerful support of a President created its own circle of obstruction to protect a man for purely political and personal gain. The Constitution was not permitted to work. Impeachment was voided and Congress undermined by selfish aims. The valiant efforts by some to stick to the rule of law and not bend under pressure were essential to defeating aims to redefine the clearly established constitutional powers of a corrupt presidency, aims that were corrupt in and of themselves and suspect by their “convenient” timing. There was no reason to ever increase the constitutional powers of a Presdient to that of a king until the President demanded being treated like one.
It is clear a circle of obstruction has been formed around President Trump for all selfish reasons imaginable with no thought to the reasons that should, like the rule of law, Justice, the Constitution, democratic and American values. We saw it in the Republican-led House of the previous Congress and we see it today in the failure of GOP-led Senate Leadership to permit the Constitution and the government to work, abdicating their constitutionally defined roles to blindly serve authoritarian demands. We see it in corrupt aims conveniently resurfacing for corrupt purposes.
20
The concerns about the nomination for Attorney General of William Barr expressed in this editorial are all valid, but the editorial seems resigned to the inevitability of Barr’s confirmation.
Have we sunk so low during the presidency of Donald Trump that we meekly accept having a man who believes the president is above the law become the nation’s Chief Legal Officer?
William Barr brazenly admits that he will oversee and orchestrate the effective firing of Robert Mueller, the person appointed by Congress to investigate the Russian interference in the 2016 election to defeat Trump’s opponent.
The New York Times Editorial Board ought to be able to summon a little old-fashioned outrage about the planned death of the oldest liberal democracy on the planet.
29
I couldn’t agree more! Outrage is in short supply today at the NYT Editorial Board.
Barr will probably be confirmed and then go about obstructing the investigation against Trump in plain sight with the full support of the Republicans in the House and Senate. If we continue to ignore the corruption in this administration and its probable ties to Russia and Putin--we are giving our country away. It just keeps happening. And we just keep looking the other way.
20
Trump is building a wall- a wall around himself so that no one in government can press impeachment charges! He has Speaker McConnell in the Senate trained not to oppose any of his actions-he has Pompeo who will parrot his positions, he ignores the CIA, the department of Homeland Security is in his pocket, and now he has found a candidate for Attorney General who advocates for the Chief Executive and is in favor of pardons.This is all to protect Trump.His big problem is the House-they have broad powers which are a challenge to him.He is already trying to minimize “Nancy” - that will not happen!
29
There seems to be some belief in rational thought here with regards to Barr. Trump would never want to hire someone he thought was going to be rational, or who had integrity. Loyalty, to him or at least to the Republican base/Fox News, are the only way you would be considered for this position. Trump and those looking to protect his criminal activities from public view have long since given up the presumption of innocence.
9
Justice will be done in the USA when the country accepts the findings of fair investigations brought to an expeditious conclusion. Barr will be just fine. Yes the president's has repeatedly said the Russia investigation is a hoax and colossal waste of money. But Barr knows that it will not be prudent to fire Mueller or prematurely end his investigation. At the same time Barr will be fully justified to demand that Mueller stop futzing around and bring to a conclusion his long drawn investigation.
3
@Girish Kotwal
"At the same time Barr will be fully justified to demand that Mueller stop futzing around and bring to a conclusion his long drawn investigation."
Why would he be justified in doing that? I don't remember that happening with any other investigation. What's the legal precedent for that? There's obviously a lot to untangle here and that will take time. The majority of Americans would like Mueller to not be rushed.
50
@Girish Kotwal Then they can get to serious investigations like Benghazi and emails and they can take as long as the want with those investigations.
Barr suggesting Clinton be investigated for the Russian uranium deal just displays a vast amount of ignorance so he is perfect for trump. They can create their own fantasy world.
8
There’s no evidence or history of Mueller as a “futzing around” type of guy. Perhaps Mueller and team have much fertile ground to till. As a Republican special counsel, he may just be the most sober, methodical, no-nonsense and thorough person in DC. Take all the time the case demands, Mr. Mueller.
3
All of President Trump’s judicial appointees need to remember one thing when they go about to do his bidding. Obstruction of Justice.
So as they sally forth, they need to come to grips with how much time they are willing to spend behind bars, in service to this man. My guess is very little.
24
Looking back on the cultural decline of my native country, I should not be surprised this dysfunction of American culture would inevitably lead to election of presidents like Trump who would accelerate the country’s downward movement.
Trump has singlehandedly speeded up the acceptance of public lying and deceit by his own unethical behavior.
When we look back on this deterioration of American national character I believe we will find that the internet and social media were indirectly responsible for the trashing of our nation by our degraded population.
Here in France the yellow vest movement was made possible by the internet.The mutual support of the demonstrators on the internet has reached the lowest levels of violence and destruction of personal property.
It is frightening that this violent behavior has been met with overwhelming support of the French public!
10
That Mr. Barr was strongly behind if not influential in promoting the pardon of Casper Weinberger and the other six? people involved the the Iran-Contra deal is sufficient to reject him as the Attorney General.
We currently face the strong probability that Donald Trump is connected with high crimes and misdemeanors throughout his campaigning and as President. The American people deserve more than a lawyer who sees presidential power as untouchable or pardonable as he has made clear in his Iran Contra actions.
He ought not e confirmed or confirmed on a contingency: Recuse himself from the Mueller investigation and anything connected with the Russian involvement in our 2016 presidential election.
29
One of the heroes of the Watergate and Agnew cases was Attorney General Elliot Richardson, whose rock-ribbed integrity prompted the expeditious removal of a criminal vice president and whose principled resignation -- after refusing a presidential order to fire the special prosecutor -- accelerated the urgency of also ridding our country of a criminal president.
In many respects, William Barr is the anti-Elliot Richardson. He's a political hack, akin to Nixon's first two attorneys general before Mr. Richardson, and his bias against the Mueller investigation alone ought to be not only a red flag, but an immediate disqualifier. How can you prejudge an investigation of the president without knowing the pertinent evidence?
The current acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, is the proverbial fox in the chicken house, and Mr. Barr would be no different. What the American people need most to restore their faith in the rule of law is a facilitator of justice at the highest level of government, not someone who serves as an obstacle.
56
One wonders what would be happening now if the events during the Nixon administration had never happened? Who would have thought we would be thanking Nixon now?.....He set the bar, not for what was acceptable and admirable behavior, but for what needed to be confronted and addressed. Mr. Barr should consider history and what the consequences would be if his and Trump's way of thinking were allowed to go forward. If the American people wanted to live under a dictator, they would move to Turkey or Russia.
9
I think we know how this story will end.
What Trump wants from Barr is an attorney general who will negotiate a deal with Congress under which every member of the campaign and every member of the administration will receive full and complete immunity from all federal and state crimes and from all civil liabilities in exchange for Trump's resignation as President.
And that will save the country (even if we have to live with Pastor Pence for a while). But at what a cost!
3
It's true that diversity of opinion should be valued in our society, despite how much any one of us disagrees with any given opinion.
When it comes to law enforcement, however, I think we need more of a baseline test that a nominee's suitability for office does account for their stated or documented views regarding enforcing the protections of our legal system.
I despised Jeff Sessions, but he understood his obligation to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation due to questions about his own questionable Russian contacts related to Trump's election.
It's clear Trump bypassed Rosenstein and appointed Whitaker because he believed the latter would seek to obstruct Mueller if at all possible. Barr's positions regarding Trump's abilities to be above indictment and to grant pardons are precisely the reasons for his nomination.
Alternatively, it's absolutely NOT clear that the Senate will weigh those views in light of what have been clear transgressions by Trump and his associates, political or familial. In my view, the Senate will confirm Barr precisely because he'll protect Trump at the expense of the nation, and because they think it may absolve themselves of their complicity of enabling Trump.
Barr may be a smart attorney, but he's the wrong attorney to head up our justice system.
24
And just as it was a charade of nonsense during the Kavanaugh hearings, it will be a similar Republican dereliction of responsibility when the Senate holds hearings on the confirmation of yet another enabler.
He will be confirmed against the will of the American people but for the protection of the president, with a wink and a nod from the senators will to do anything to maximize their agenda before they lose their last remnants of dwindling power and lose all three houses in 2020.
32
The hearings will be interesting. The Dems must pursue lines of inquiry that ensure Barr's responses are unequivocal with regard to protecting the Mueller inquiry and with regard to any matters that might indicate that POTUS is above the law. Looking forward to in particular Kamala Harris. Then a few Republicans must refuse to accept, unlike in the Kavanaugh hearings, parsed, slippery responses, nor any political grandstanding.
19
Barr’s unsolicited memo on the Mueller investigation should effectively disqualify him. The AG’s principal loyalty should be to justice and the rule of law; his loyalty is already compromised. If he is confirmed on straight party lines, it will be very bad for the country. These four Republicans at least should vote against: Gardner, Murkowski, Collins, and Romney. The first two are obvious. Collins is mercurial and often talks one way and votes the other. And if Romney does not vote against, what was the point of his running? Further, a straight party vote will be worse for Republicans in their re-election efforts in 2020 as they will have proved themselves mere Trump lackeys. Barr must not be confirmed. Trump’s behavior creates a case of first impression on many levels. The justice department should act aggressively on any crimes of which he is suspected and let the courts decide the constitutional issues. That is their job. To restrict or stop the Mueller investigation at this time or to prevent disclosure of any report from the investigation would be a violation of the AG’s oath of office, obstruction of justice, and a gross offense to the American people that we and history will long remember.
67
Law is one of our most valued assets in our Constitution. It’s the one thing that protects us when politicians of either party decide they know better than the rest of us and use or abuse their power as Donald Trump seems to do on a daily basis.
I’ve given up trying to figure out why and how my brothers and sisters on the “Other Side of the Aisle” contend with reality today. My only solace is LAW. It’s not that the LAW is always correct, but it does act as a buffer to the whimsical ideas put forward by people in power on the spur of the moment.
Using Lindsey Graham as a barometer on anything since the passing of Senator John McCain is absurd.
William Barr is the proverbial Fox in the Chicken Coop.
35
The very fact that this piece needed to be written bodes ill for the future.
The American Presidency has always been much more imperial than is commonly acknowledged, but because of an extraordinary run of good fortune, the people selected for high office have most often been mindful of the authority and power that was bestowed upon them.
Now your luck appears to have run out. A set of circumstances has arisen that combines haughty and elitist, money-grubbing Republicans with a malicious cartoon character for President. This has opened the door for the appointment of partizan second-raters to the highest positions in the Executive (and, it would seem, the Judiciary).
As this is an outgrowth of an imperfect system, it will be very hard to correct. Unless the Democrats manage to gain the Senate, as well as hang on to their current majority in 2020, which, I don't have to remind you, is also a Presidential Election year, the omens are not good. In a worst case scenario, the GOP reclaims Congress and Trump gets his second term.
The only focus of all well-meaning Americans should be to make sure this doesn't happen.
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Even with so few comments thus far, it seems clear that there will certainly be some repetition. That presence of mind should in no way restrict saying a brief piece. Mr.Barr has not made a history of standing up for enforcing the rule of law. He comes up with difference of opinion as if to gain attention, not to further the cause of Justice (upper case J).
So why would anyone promote himself for a job in which he would enjoy no pleasure in upholding? He might be an insurgent. The Senate, unlikely as it is, could question him Socratically but that is unlikely given their behavior in recent Court confirmations. In addition, the remaining members of the Senate have less, not more, will to correct the errors of their past. Mr. McConnell's swan song might as well be this Ode to Injustice.
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A President's power is checked by the Courts and Congress. When that is not present, we are in trouble.
I don't see the Attorney General as the problem, although I suspect that Barr is a poor candidate. I see the Senate as the problem, and I wonder about the Court.
People get upset when you bring up fascists, and the descent into authoritarianism in Europe, and compare past and present. I don't see our nation starting a campaign of terror and genocide, but those actions were made possible because the country surrendered control to a small group of people with a large amount of unchecked power. And one of those people was a narcissist with crazy ideas about how to make his nation great again.
I hold Congress - mostly the Senate, because McConnell abuses power fully as well - and John Roberts responsible for the fate of the nation. Others should too.
The Constitution has the solutions.
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@Cathy
Cathy of Hopewell Junction: Yours are comments I customarily read and recommend, but I disagree with you today.
Our Constitution is a brilliant document, and has served as a template for many other nations. However, written in 1787, it is a document of its time, intended to promote the survival of the new nation and birthed in political compromises necessary for its adoption.
Its strength has been its generality and adaptability, not its perfection as written. It has been amended 27 times and will be amended in the future - it is hoped to eliminate the electoral college. It doesn't have all the answers and it couldn't anticipate all the questions.
One of the things that could not be anticipated is the vast administrative state that is now foundational to the functioning of the country.
It's inevitable that great power be entrusted to the specialized expertise of agencies, it being obvious folly for our legislators to substitute their opinions for the judgments of trained and experienced experts. For example, we have seen a Senator suggest that rising sea levels could be resulting from rocks falling into the ocean.
The power of the DOJ to choose who and what to investigate, for example, is not contemplated within the 4 corners of the Constitution.
The framers relied on our elected officials acting in good faith, incorporating measures for the worst abuses only.
Bad hombres wielding administrative power can do vast harm.
Jim from Canandaigua.
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@Cathy
When teaching the descent into authoritarianism in Europe prior to WWII, I always pointed out that the fascist leaders came to power legally. While there were a lot of breaking laws by their followers, they trod a slim line keeping themselves publically above the illegality. It is looking more and more like that in our country. We have managed to keep it above that so far, but it is looking darker than ever before.
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Congress had better prepare itself as if were about to take the New York or California bar exam because in its hearings on the nominee, it will need to explicitly, factually, and repeatedly call out Barr's every lie, distortion, evasion, and waffle with hard, cold evidence to the contrary. Otherwise, the guy will just skate as Trump's Congressional troops squash anything that could give pause to what an ordinary American might conclude. Evidence? Kavenaugh hearings.
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Republican overreach has been in evidence for 2 years. If they fail to take account of the vox populi that has been speaking in reaction to the debacle that is Trump, they will do so at their own peril. Recall the women's march the day after Trump was inaugurated. That will pale in comparison to what will happen if the republicans try to suppress the Mueller report.
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@Susan Vox populi's bark no mater how loud no longer matters in what has become--no longer becoming--a full-fledged banana republic
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One thing that everyone who is paying the least bit of attention should know by now is that no one who agrees to be in the Trump administration can be trusted to honor their oath to the defend Constitution. No one.
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From his statements and actions, Barr now seems pretty closer to Giuliani, Graham and the current excuse we have for an allegedly Acting Attorney General with plenty of patent experience.
He needs to justify his statements rather than just pandering to Trump for the position.
This will be more interesting to watch, with our fearless President having to actually respond to all of the people, and not just his coterie!
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While I would like to think all Attorneys General rose to the occasion of their selection to support the rule of law as described in the Constitution, not all do. The whole concept of expanding executive power within our democracy is odious. The founders were careful not to permit a runaway President from usurping the collective will of the majority through a bicameral legislature and a Supreme Court to preserve the balance. The supporters of white privilege like Trump and his minions will stop at nothing to obtain and preserve white, elite oligarchic control of the country. Barr will most likely be an enabler.
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Barr's job will be to protect Trump, McConnell and the rest of the complicit GOP from the necessary accounting for the things they have done to destroy democracy. For Trump it's the Mueller probe and if it cannot be stopped, then construction of a pardon regime as unconvincing as the one that kept HW Bush from accountability. For McConnell it's the use of the courts to preserve GOP donor priorities.
In the face of the Democratic House it will be difficult, after the 2020 election, it will be all over for all of them. This time around the country will not accept looking forward not backward until the stain of Republican actions is cleaned up once and for all.
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Truly, it’s hard to have much faith that Mr. Barr will comport himself as befits his office. He seems predisposed to take a pre-determined position on every critical question which might impinge on Donald Trump. In short, he’s a YES man.
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Barr would be the perfect Attorney General in an authoritarian state since he seems to believe that the President is above the law and that our Constitution would allow only a very limited Congressional oversight of the executive. This is a radical and Nixonian vision of our Constitution. It is not Conservative and it defies the traditional idea of checks and balances and limits on executive power.
Barr is the wrong man for this job at this time and he must be filibustered and rejected overwhelmingly by the Senate for the sake of the country and the rule of law and justice.
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Former U. S. Sen. Harry Reid (D. Nevada) eliminated the filibuster for executive branch appointees, not just judicial ones.
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@FLP Reid did the wrong thing for the right reasons. And let's be real, McConnell would have pulled the filibuster to allow confirmation of all of Trump's illegitimate and corrupt nominees regardless.
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@IN
You are right. I would add: radical and Erdoganian...
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I don't see how anyone who isn't a Trump supporter can think "assurances" from people like Barr are worth anything. Asking for "assurances" is playing their game.
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I don’t see how you can give a balanced account of Barr would stating that he was Bush I ‘s attorney general and served a relatively uncontroversial term during which he was generally reviewed as competent and respectful of the law. I say this having served in his Justice Department with career professionals who far preferred him to Ed Meese, a predecessor whose term as Attorney General was infinitely more suspect.
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Being better than Ed Meese is not what I would call a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
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@michjas -if you take a look at Geo H W Bush's administration and controversial scandals, you'll recognize the hand of Barr.
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In addition to the troublesome questions raised by Barr's nomination mentioned in your editorial, he has already displayed a worrisome partisanship in the nomination process. It is customary for an attorney general nominee to meet with Judiciary Committee members of both parties prior to the confirmation hearing, and your editorial notes the (totally inadequate) assurances purportedly given by Barr to Lindsey Graham, the committee's new Republican chairman and, of late, Trump's BFF. Barr has also met with other Republican members of the committee. However, Barr has refused to meet with Democratic members of the committee until after the hearing, citing the current government shutdown as justification, which is both nonsensical and risible on its face. This is likely part of a deliberate White House strategy (like Mnuchin's virtually fact free briefing behind closed doors in the House this week) to wage a scorched earth campaign against Democratic members of Congress in which they will be lucky to get even name, rank, and serial number from administration witnesses. Before this war is over, the Kavanaugh hearing may look like a Victorian tea party.
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Anyone proposed by Trump as Attorney General will be someone Trump believes will protect him from pesky investigations. The only way to avoid that is to block all nominees until Trump either gives up or is thrown out of office. Whatever assurances of independence a nominee gives are nullified by the fact that he is willing to serve under Trump.
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@serban Unfortunately there is no way to block the nominees as long as the Republicans hold the Senate. The Democrats can certainly slow the process down, but they can't stop it. Even more unfortunately, we didn't have to go through this. The DNC's decision to manipulate the nominating process to ensure that Hillary Clinton was the Democratic Party's choice is what put Trump in the White House.
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We will find ourselves watching the Dems trying to protect our Democrocy during the conformation hearings and the Republicans continuing to do everything they can to harm it by appointing a man who will make every effort to assure justice is not served in service to the American people. His oath to the Constitution will be ignored in service to greed and the continued power grab by the Republican party. We are at a cross roads and with an already stacked deck against us, we must demand that our government do its job and that a willingness to destroy the very core of our Democrocy be met with consequences that assure that those who would consider doing it again are unwilling to follow through. We have lost control of our Democrocy to a group of men who have willingly grabbed power, ignored their oath to the Constitution, blatantly broken the rules of governing with no consequence and funneled money from the tax payers to thier friend's and benefactors. This cannot stand.
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@JDH BRAVO I could almost hear you speaking!
Anybody who believes that Barr will be a honest, unprejudiced, fair, or moral AG has got to be smoking something.
His prejudices and hostility to women, people of color, and vulnerable populations, in the service of the likes of Trump and McConnell, are simply too well known and documented.
But McConnell will see to it that the supine GOP in the Senate will confirm him.
Another indirect step on the part of the authoritarian/totalitarian leaders slowly undermining American democratic values: Capture the judiciary!
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@Kathy The Judiciary has already been captured - i.e. the Republican Supreme Court
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@Kathy
I am unaware of any documentation of hostility to women and people of color. Did you just make that up?
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It’s hypocritical how certain dogma wax and wane in importance with conservatives depending on whose party is occupying the White House. So, “deficits do not matter” during the administrations of George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump but were critical national priorities during the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations. It’s the same issue with the imperial presidency, which is OK when Bush and Trump are in charge but was anathema when Obama was president.
And now, along comes William Barr, who “has a long history of advancing an aggressive, expansive conception of presidential power,” as Trump’s nominee to be the next Attorney General. Trump, who has clearly demonstrated his autocratic tendencies, is the last president deserving of any “imperial largesse.” More importantly, given his clear conflict of interest, Barr should not be confirmed by the Senate unless he promises to recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation.
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@Jack Nargundkar
could we just say "Barr should not be confirmed by the Senate " period
Promises are worthless.
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William Barr sounds like a guy just like Trump, who prejudges and speculates without becoming confused by the facts.
For that reason, Trump and Barr, if confirmed, would probably get along well. And the pair might just get each other into more trouble of the obstruction kind because of this shared blind spot.
Those who have tried to steer Trump clear of legal issues have mostly already departed his Administration or will shortly.
Those left are actually increasing the President's jeopardy by their fawning complicity.
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Funny how the 'law and order' Republican Party has completely devolved into a lawless monarchy party that happily suspends the Constitution when a Democrat wants to legally appoint a Supreme Court Justice.....and suspends the Constitution again when their GOP Scofflaw-in-Chief needs his high crimes and misdemeanors glossed over....and suspends Senate voting until Mitch the Monarch and the Monarch-in-Chief reopen the Senate and the government when they feel like it....the American people be damned to wall-to-wall stupidity.
William Barr supports the GOP monarchal view of the Constitution that the President is above the law.
His appointment would be yet another act of obstruction of justice by Individual #1.
Barr's appointment is Kremlinesque, reminiscent of Russian judges who know to rule strictly in favor of the Kremlin if they want to remain a judge.
Russia is a lawless nation.
Trump is turning America into a lawless nation.
If for any reason Robert Mueller and his team of patriots are not allowed to finish their investigation, let's hope that state attorney generals prosecute the Trump family for crimes against American humanity.
Voting Republican has also become an act of lawlessness, corruption and a vote of confidence for Mother Russia.
Heckuva' job, Grand Old Putinistas.
Very patriotic.
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@Socrates way to go, in rare form tonight!
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@Socrates Preach!
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With the departure of the so-called adults from the Trump Administration (Generals McMaster, Kelly and Mattis and some others), Trump has surrounded himself with a sycophantic group unable or unwilling to tell the emperor anything unpleasant or disagreeable.
The last thing we need is for Trump to add to the sorry group of sycophants with an Attorney General who advocates an expansive view of presidential power, especially when Trump is predisposed to dictatorial powers and is even considering declaring a national emergency to build a wall that Congress is unwilling to fund.
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@RK President Trump seems to be against permanent war by the United States. The 'Adults' are rabid warmongers. Which approach is better for the American People?
The headline's question is rhetorical. The answer is an obvious negative. The Mueller investigation has a short life expectancy once the Republican Senators ram this confirmation through in the ways they have shown themselves to be adept.
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As this legal business continues to develop, can anyone still deny that these guys are making it up as the go along?
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There is so much more than the Mueller investigation at risk here: our very constitutional guarantee of checks and balances in the federal government is hanging by a thread, and that thread is held by the Attorney General of the United States.
It is clear that if the US Senate confirms Trump’s nomination of William Barr as Attorney General, we will be thrown into a constitutional crisis unlike any we have seen before. His recent promises to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham aside, the long list of pronouncements by Mr. Barr regarding presidential power should give us all - Republicans as well as Democrats - cause for alarm. Especially since the man sitting in the Oval Office has displayed such autocratic tendencies in the face of a divided Congress that no longer rubber-stamps his every move.
Just ask the 800,000 federal employees who did not receive a paycheck on Friday how they feel about the health of Democracy in America today. Can we really afford to have the head of the Justice Department in the president’s pocket? Do not confirm William Barr as our next Attorney General of the United States of America!
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With Mr. Barr, biased as he seems, with his uncalled-for outburst on Mueller's task to uncover the truth of Trump;s suspected colusion and obstruction of justce, is another yes-man for Trump, reason the latter chose him out of loyalty however wrong or complicit of graft. Barr, from what we know about him, is an awful choice to allow justice a say.
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At this point it is impossible for me to believe anything that comes out of the mouth of a possible Trump appointee. As for Linsey Graham giving assurances about Mueller protection, I can't stop laughing.
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@Arlene Exactly. As soon as I saw NYT quoting Linsey Graham as someone credible giving assurances on assurances that Barr gave him, I thought: there the media (including gullible NYT) go again, buying GOP assurances that there are adults in the party when it's clear by now that GOP is full of lying liars who will assure anything just to stay in power and support this egoist boy-man.
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A fair number of folks had the same question when Loretta Lynch was Attorney General. We still don't know the answer to that one. It sure seemed like the Clinton investigation was designed from the beginning to exonerate her. Anyone else who had a private email server designed to evade FOIA requirements, who only provided paper copies of emails with metadata deleted, who destroyed all electronic devices related to her time as SOS, and who said "I don't recall" to most of the questions she was asked under oath, would have been prosecuted and convicted of obstruction of justice if not even more serious crimes.
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@J. Waddell
I don’t recall Loretta Lynch making pronouncements implying that the president is above the law. Nor do I recall Obama making such pronouncements in a pound-the-table manner.
So please spare us the whataboutisms. In addition to them probably being quite overblown, are you sure you want to use HRC’s perceived transgressions to advance trump’s march towards totalitarianism?
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"But...but...but Hillary's emails!" (accompanied by the fading whine of a deflating balloon.)
@J. Waddell, we are SO past that.
4
Attorneys in this country and especially the AG are subject to the rules of courts. As such they are representatives of our country's sense of law and order. Over the decades lawyers have been derided as sometimes hacks and unscrupulous, but our best lawyers the ones that should be considered for the AG post are still representatives of courts that work for justice impartially.
When a president is corrupt and is being investigated, the AG is not the president's lawyer and can not cover up his wrong doings. If Barr is truly on the side of Justice as the title of Justice Department implies then his first obligation is to seeking the truth of guilt or innocence and to act accordingly. Justice is not served if the court and its representatives decide the case before all the evidence is in.
Barr's declaration of Trump's innocence before the evidence is in must disqualify him for the post and if he assumes office and covers up the truth then he becomes as guilty as the man under investigation. More than ever we need an impartial representative of the law if we are not to desend into anarchy or a country where no rule of law exists at all. our country needs a hero right now, not a hack.
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Given Barr's history of spouting radical conservative doctrines, the chances are that he will distort relevant laws and precedences to defend all presidential transgressions. And there to run interference for Barr is another conservative firebrand, Mitch McConnell, whose impassive, self-righteous declarations serve the same purpose. The only hope now for a complete and public report when the investigation finishes is in the House.
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@William
Also “given Barr's history of spouting radical conservative doctrines,” the chances are that the GOP-controlled Senate will enthusiastically support his nomination. Supreme Court: check. Lower courts: check. Justice Department: check. State of emergency based on presidential whim: check.
The doomsday clock advances...
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Barr can't be any worse than Sessions. The only change is Barr likely won't recuse himself from the Mueller investigation. Rosenstein leaving also is of minor consequence to the investigation.
The only real barrier to firing Mueller is Congress, they hold the key to real justice. The House will protect Mueller, the Senate has always been in question with "Under the Desk" McConnell.
If Trump or Barr fire Mueller, there will be a constitutional crisis, just like Watergate. And we all know how that turned.
26
Frankly, I think anybody DT picks must be de facto unfit for the position of AG.
That's because all these judicial misfits are carefully screened and presented to the president after passing personal muster with an audition for the job.
I don't understand why Barr wants the job so badly. Does he really need the money or the "prestige, " if its found that the president is truly a traitor, as we expect he is?
I keep scratching my head at how fast (or maybe it just seems so) the GOP has been turned into an authoritarian party where the chief executive is given unlimited power and the other branches of government are subservient.
Conservatives used to be all about the literalism of the Constitution. I think even Antonin Scalia would be horrified at how the Republicans are allowing greed and corruption to win out over the rule of law as per our founding document.
With voting rights under siege and presidential power elevated (unless said president is a Democrat), we seem to be ceding integrity and Democratic values even faster than I ever thought possible.
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@ChristineMcM. The Republican Party has been authoritarian in orientation since Ronald Reagan. They’ve had the money and the intellectual chops to work through the states but it took a true despot-in-the-making to reveal to many people in this country how democracy is killed. It may already be too late to save it unless the Republican Senate decides to honor their Oaths of Office to the Constitution.
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The question remains: Why did William Barr write a multi-page memorandum auditioning for the AG job by playing to Donald Trump’s desire for unlimited presidential power? Even if he served credibly as AG in a previous administration, this unsolicited memo flaunts a biased approach to the relationship between the Executive branch and the Justice Department. Here he’s ceding his authority before he assumes the position. I hope the Judiciary committee will put him on the spot about this but Republican senators have so far shown no independence, so I am not hopeful.
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@Barbara
Concisely and well stated. it's nice when, in a few words, there is a reply that sums up the state of affairs. Clarity of thought.
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@Barbara
The Justice Department IS part of the Exevutive Branch and it is through the President that it is held accountable.
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Like Justice Kavanaugh, William Barr is unfit to be the nation’s AG. His views and attitude towards unlimited presidential power are exactly why the president nominated him for the post. If Barr thinks that a nonexistent uranium deal is more serious than a president’s possible collusion with a foreign power, his political bias is showing.
Barr’s confirmation for Attorney general “would do lasting damage” to the rule of law and the country. Barr and Matthew Whitaker are in place, poised to protect this president from any investigation of wrongdoing.
Kavanaugh’s already on the Court, ready to defend the president but his protection won’t be necessary if Whitaker and Barr form the ramparts at the Justice Department to shield him from accountability.
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@silver vibes
Barr et al. are mayflies.
Kavanaughs et al. are forever.
2
Mr Barr seems to aspire to being an arriving passenger on a sinking cruise ship. What’s in it for him? That’s my question. Even a hardcore member of the GOP must realize the perils of attempting to control a rudderless administration.
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@Desert Rat
All you have to do is consider the man who said yes after the Saturday Night Massacre, Robert Bork. He did the GOP's dirty work and was rewarded the very next decade with a Supreme Court nomination. Republican crooks take care of their own sadly. Thank goodness for the loyal opposition.
10
The questions are: Is Trump a king or a president? Is any American above the law? If a president is controlled or manipulated by a foreign power, should the president be removed and then prosecuted? Do you prefer democracy or autocracy? Should we pardon all government employees convicted of crimes especially if they are colleagues or friends, of his, or of other high-ranking government officials. Etc., etc. So many questions.
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@Gaff-Good questions. Here's one more: should Trump be able to nominate the head of the DOJ and Supreme Court justices when he gained office with the help, money, and backing of Russia and possibly other countries? And he may be indicted and further investigated -- putting his fate possibly in their hands?
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