William Barr

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William Barr
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“”The American people deserve an attorney general who serves their interests, leads the Justice Department with integrity and can be entrusted to pursue the facts and the law, even — and especially — when they are politically inconvenient and inconsistent with the personal interests of the president who appointed him. William Barr has proved he is incapable of serving as such an attorney general. He is unfit to lead the Justice Department.
—Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015.[1]

William "Bill" Barr (May 23, 1950–) is a former Attorney General, serving under both George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump, becoming Trump's second Attorney General after Jeff Sessions resigned in November 2018.[2] This has caused him to be the first Attorney General to serve two non-consecutive terms since John J. Crittenden was confirmed for one back in 1850.[3]

Authoritarianism[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Authoritarianism

Barr is also infamous for his advocating the "unitary executive theory," which calls for a massive expansion of executive power.[4] Barr could be called pro-authoritarian on that basis alone, but he additionally asked Congress in March 2020 to grant the Justice Department to ask judges to detain people indefinitely without trial. In June, Barr fired Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Berman had been prosecuting Trump cronies, including his personal lawyers Michael Cohen and Rudolph Giuliani. It was obvious that Barr was attempting to neutralize the prosecution of any crimes within the Trump Organization.[5]:87

Working for Bush[edit]

During his time working for the first George Bush, Barr was known as somebody who has had a contrararian view regarding laws. On one hand, he praised and authorized the public release of The Case For More Incarcerations where he argued for harsher punishments to be leveled against those who commit unlawful acts.[6][note 1] "His contention," wrote David Johnson of The New York Times, "that violent crime can be reduced only by expanding Federal and state prisons to jail habitual violent offenders" was a "central theme" of his time at the job.[8][note 2] On the other hand, Barr played an important part in defending his boss against both Iran-Contra[note 3] and Iraqgate, causing New York Times columnist William Safire to nickname him the "coverup general"[12] and for several top Democrats to call for his resignation.[13] He similarly worked with the CIA to prevent an investigation into the Bank of Credit and Commerce International despite the series of highly illegal things that the bank had been engaging in.[14] For some hypocrisy points, he went on to go after Bill Clinton for merely criticizing certain aspects of the Starr ReportWikipedia regarding Clinton's impeachment in the 1990s.[15]

Before he got the top job, he also had a habit of defending the right of the United States to do whatever it wants. He famously wrote a legal memo defending the United States invasion of Panama and the arrest of Manuel Noriega as well as a legal opinion stating the United States government could arrest people from other nations without the consent of the governments involved.[16] (When Barr was asked to give this opinion to Congress, he responded to this by giving them a summary which was found to have omitted key parts of the memo.[17])

Barr infamously expanded the surveillance state during his time in Washington, engaging in a program to gather records on the international phone calls of innocent Americans in 1992, which he did without going through proper legal review.[18]

Working for Trump[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Donald Trump

Barr's involvement with the Trump Administration goes back to its start. Throughout the early years of the Trump Presidency, Barr defended Trump from legal challenges related to investigations that the Administration was undergoing.[19] At one point, he went so far as to send a twenty-page memo to senior Justice Department officials as well as members of Trump's legal team totally unsolicited.[20] (Many jokingly called it a job application for Trump due to the nature of the memo.[21] John Oliver called it "a lawyer version of sliding into Trump's DMs."[22])

When he was not defending Trump, he was attempting to get the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional,[23] refusing to bring charges against the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner,[24] and bringing back federal executions.[25] The last one was especially notable as not only had no federal executions not taken place in nearly two decades before Barr brought them back,[26] but he ended up doing the most in one year since 1896.[27]

In response to the protests of the police murder of George Floyd, Barr had a habit of attempting to paint those protesting as the bad guys and find excuses to punish them. The year before this occurred, he had already threatened communities that fail to show "the respect and support that law enforcement deserves" by saying "they might find themselves without the police protection they need."[28] After the protests started, Trump ordered Barr to find "anarchist jurisdictions" so he could cut their funding.[29] Barr labeled New York City, Portland (Oregon), and Seattle (Washington) as "anarchist jurisdictions in response to this order.[30] He also discussed bringing charges of sedition against those who engaged in looting and rioting.[31]

In response to COVID-19 lockdowns, Barr said "other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history."[32]

Other opinions of note[edit]

Barr is famous for his hatred of parole, even getting named the "leader of the parole-abolition campaign" in Virginia at one point.[33]:231 George Allen, the then Governor of the state, even appointed Barr to a committee with the purpose of creating tougher-on-crime policies, with parole abolition being one of them.[34]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ Michael Tonry spent five pages of his book Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in America basically proving the report was utterly nonsensical.[7]:20-24 It notes, among other things, that Barr claimed that all increases in crimes were due to lack of incarceration. however, there is no reason to believe that. For example:

    Because public attitudes have rightly become less tolerant of assaults and sex offenses, in recent decades most analysts believe that significant parts of the apparent increases for rape and aggravated assault result from greater likelihood that incidents will be reported to the police and that the police will record it as a crime.[7]:20

  2. ↑ For the record, actual research on crime finds this claim to be questionable at best. One source notes that "criminals seldom know the legal sanctions for specific crimes" and finds that increasing the chance of criminals being caught does far more to deter criminals than increasing their sentence.[9]
  3. ↑ He has since admitted he was the one who advised Bush to pardon six people, including Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, after documents had been found which showed "that Mr. Bush, as vice president, was more implicated in the arms shipments than he had claimed."[10] Lawrence Walsh, the lead investigator for the Iran-Contra scandal, argued that Bush used these pardons as a way to stop top Reagan cabinet members from testifying.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ William Barr is unfit to be attorney general by Eric H. Holder Jr. (December 11, 2019 at 9:13 p.m. EST) The Washington Post.
  2. ↑ William Barr
  3. ↑ William Barr is right man for the times
  4. ↑ The real reason Bill Barr is defending Trump
  5. ↑ Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat (2021) W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393868419.
  6. ↑ The Case For More Incarcerations by Steven R. Schlesinger & Edward Himmelfarb (October 28, 1992) U.S. Department of Justice. NCJ-J39583.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in America by Michael Tonry (1996) Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195104692.
  8. ↑ New Attorney General Shifts Department's Focus by David Johnston (March 3, 1992) The New York Times.
  9. ↑ Is increasing criminal penalties effective at reducing crime? by Todd Butterworth (2023) The Nevada Independent.
  10. ↑ People Are Trying to Figure Out William Barr. He’s Busy Wielding Power. by Sharon LaFraniere et al. (June 9, 2019) The New York Times.
  11. ↑ Walsh Implies Bush Used Pardons to Avoid Testifying by David Johnston (Feb. 9, 1993) The New York Times.
  12. ↑ Bill Barr Is The Master Of Covering Up Political Scandals by Thom Hartmann, The Trial Lawyer.
  13. ↑ Barr names special counsel in BNL case, his resignation still demanded (Oct. 16, 1992) UPI.
  14. ↑ Iran-Contra: The Cover-Up Begins to Crack by Richard Lacayo (July 22, 1991) Time Magazine.
  15. ↑ How William Barr, now serving as a powerful ally for Trump, has championed presidential powers by Tom Hamburger (May 16, 2019 at 12:49 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  16. ↑ For Nominee Barr, An Unusual Path To Attorney General's Office by Sharon LaFraniere (November 11, 1991 at 7:00 p.m. EST) The Washington Post.
  17. ↑ Barr’s Playbook: He Misled Congress When Omitting Parts of Justice Dep’t Memo in 1989 by Ryan Goodman (April 15, 2019) Just Security.
  18. ↑ Justice under AG Barr began vast surveillance program without legal review – in 1992, inspector general finds by Brad Heath (March 28, 2019) USA Today.
  19. ↑ Barr Says He Is Fighting for the Presidency, Not Trump by Sadie Gurman (May 20, 2019 7:00 pm ET) The Wall Street Journal.
  20. ↑ Barr sent or discussed controversial memo with Trump lawyers Ariane de Vogue (5:45 AM EST, Tue January 15, 2019) CNN.
  21. ↑ Barr’s legacy on the line as Mueller team fumes by Darren Samuelsohn (04/04/2019 05:56 PM EDT) Politico.
  22. ↑ William Barr: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (Nov 1, 2020) YouTube.
  23. ↑ In Reversal, DOJ Now Says Whole ACA Unconstitutional by Nate Robson (March 25, 2019 at 10:14 PM) The National Law Journal.
  24. ↑ Barr sides against civil rights officials in declining to bring charges against NYPD officer in Garner case by David Shortell (12:12 PM EDT, Tue July 16, 2019) CNN.
  25. ↑ US justice department resumes use of death penalty and schedules five executions by David Smith (25 Jul 2019 17.31 EDT) The Guardian.
  26. ↑ Attorney General William Barr orders first federal executions in nearly two decades by Tucker Higgins (Jul 25 20192:16 PM) CNBC.
  27. ↑ The US government has executed 10 people this year — the most since 1896 (Dec 19, 2020 1:24 PM CST) WDJT (archived from December 20, 2020).
  28. ↑ William Barr says communities will not have "police protections" without respect for officers by Jeff Pegues (December 4, 2019 / 9:29 PM EST) CBS.
  29. ↑ Trump seeks to cut federal funding to what he calls ‘anarchist jurisdictions’ by Christina Wilkie (Sep 3 202012:58 PM EDT) CNBC.
  30. ↑ DoJ labels New York, Portland and Seattle 'anarchist jurisdictions' by Lauren Aratani (21 Sep 2020 11.50 EDT) The Guardian.
  31. ↑ Bill Barr reportedly suggested bringing sedition charges against protesters by Lauren Aratani (16 Sep 2020 22.16 EDT) The Guardian.
  32. ↑ Barr creates firestorm with comments that appear to boost Trump’s reelection campaign by Quint Forgey & Josh Gerstein (09/17/2020 06:13 PM EDT) The Guardian.
  33. ↑ Virginia in the Vanguard: Political Leadership in the 400-Year-Old Cradle of American Democracy, 1981-2006 by Frank B. Atkinson (2006) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0742552101.
  34. ↑ Allen Offers Plan To Abolish Parole by Peter Baker (August 16, 1994 at 8:00 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
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