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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFormer deputy AG under George HW Bush just called on Bill Barr to resign
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/donald-ayer-bill-barr-must-resign/606670/
Bill Barr Must Resign
The attorney general is working to destroy the integrity and independence of the Justice Department, in order to make Donald Trump a president who can operate above the law.
6:00 AM ET
By Donald Ayer
<snip>
At the end of his first year of service, Barrs conduct has shown that such expectations were misplaced. Beginning in March with his public whitewashing of Robert Muellers report, which included powerful evidence of repeated obstruction of justice by the president, Barr has appeared to function much more as the presidents personal advocate than as an attorney general serving the people and government of the United States. Among the most widely reported and disturbing events have been Barrs statements that a judicially authorized FBI investigation amounted to spying on the Trump campaign, and his public rejection in December of the inspector generals considered conclusion that the Russia probe was properly initiated and overseen in an unbiased manner. Also quite unsettling was Trumps explicit mention of Barr and Giuliani in the same breath in his July 25 phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, as individuals the Ukrainian president should speak with regarding the phony investigation that Ukraine was expected to publicly announce.
Still more troubling has been Barrs intrusion, apparently for political reasons, into the area of Justice Department action that most demands scrupulous integrity and strict separation from politics and other biasinvocation of the criminal sanction. When Barr initiated a second, largely redundant investigation of the FBI Russia probe in May, denominated it criminal, and made clear that he is personally involved in carrying it out, many eyebrows were raised.
But worst of all have been the events of the past week. The evenhanded conduct of the prosecutions of Roger Stone and Michael Flynn by experienced Department of Justice attorneys have been disrupted at the 11th hour by the attorney generals efforts to soften the consequences for the presidents associates. More generally, it appears that Barr has recently identified a group of lawyers who he trusts and put them in place to oversee and second-guess the work of the departments career attorneys on a broader range of cases. And there is no comfort from any of this in Barrs recent protests about the presidents tweeting. He in no way suggested he was changing course, only that it is hard appear independent when the president is publicly calling for him to follow the path he is on.
Bad as they are, these examples are more symptoms than causes of Barrs unfitness for office. The fundamental problem is that he does not believe in the central tenet of our system of governmentthat no person is above the law. In chilling terms, Barrs own words make clear his long-held belief in the need for a virtually autocratic executive who is not constrained by countervailing powers within our government under the constitutional system of checks and balances.
Indeed, given our national faith and trust in a rule of law no one can subvert, it is not too strong to say that Bill Barr is un-American. And now, from his perch as attorney general, he is in the midst of a root-and-branch attack on the core principles that have guided our justice system, and especially our Department of Justice, since the 1970s.
</snip>
Bill Barr Must Resign
The attorney general is working to destroy the integrity and independence of the Justice Department, in order to make Donald Trump a president who can operate above the law.
6:00 AM ET
By Donald Ayer
<snip>
At the end of his first year of service, Barrs conduct has shown that such expectations were misplaced. Beginning in March with his public whitewashing of Robert Muellers report, which included powerful evidence of repeated obstruction of justice by the president, Barr has appeared to function much more as the presidents personal advocate than as an attorney general serving the people and government of the United States. Among the most widely reported and disturbing events have been Barrs statements that a judicially authorized FBI investigation amounted to spying on the Trump campaign, and his public rejection in December of the inspector generals considered conclusion that the Russia probe was properly initiated and overseen in an unbiased manner. Also quite unsettling was Trumps explicit mention of Barr and Giuliani in the same breath in his July 25 phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, as individuals the Ukrainian president should speak with regarding the phony investigation that Ukraine was expected to publicly announce.
Still more troubling has been Barrs intrusion, apparently for political reasons, into the area of Justice Department action that most demands scrupulous integrity and strict separation from politics and other biasinvocation of the criminal sanction. When Barr initiated a second, largely redundant investigation of the FBI Russia probe in May, denominated it criminal, and made clear that he is personally involved in carrying it out, many eyebrows were raised.
But worst of all have been the events of the past week. The evenhanded conduct of the prosecutions of Roger Stone and Michael Flynn by experienced Department of Justice attorneys have been disrupted at the 11th hour by the attorney generals efforts to soften the consequences for the presidents associates. More generally, it appears that Barr has recently identified a group of lawyers who he trusts and put them in place to oversee and second-guess the work of the departments career attorneys on a broader range of cases. And there is no comfort from any of this in Barrs recent protests about the presidents tweeting. He in no way suggested he was changing course, only that it is hard appear independent when the president is publicly calling for him to follow the path he is on.
Bad as they are, these examples are more symptoms than causes of Barrs unfitness for office. The fundamental problem is that he does not believe in the central tenet of our system of governmentthat no person is above the law. In chilling terms, Barrs own words make clear his long-held belief in the need for a virtually autocratic executive who is not constrained by countervailing powers within our government under the constitutional system of checks and balances.
Indeed, given our national faith and trust in a rule of law no one can subvert, it is not too strong to say that Bill Barr is un-American. And now, from his perch as attorney general, he is in the midst of a root-and-branch attack on the core principles that have guided our justice system, and especially our Department of Justice, since the 1970s.
</snip>
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Former deputy AG under George HW Bush just called on Bill Barr to resign (Original Post)
Dennis Donovan
Feb 2020
OP
I hope the voices of current DoJ employees are as loud as those who signed the petition
Dennis Donovan
Feb 2020
#2
The Blue Flower
(5,439 posts)1. He's an enemy of justice
Not just un-American. I hope the pressure increases for him to resign and that Congress starts looking into removing him.
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)2. I hope the voices of current DoJ employees are as loud as those who signed the petition