The bizarre rise and humiliating fall of William Barr

The ever-loyal Attorney General’s story proves you can never be loyal enough for Trump

(REUTERS)

William Barr has been a shrewd Washington operator as well as a conservative ideologue for decades. He auditioned for his second tour as Attorney General with a 19-page memo which made clear that he would do the Infant King’s bidding as a matter of principle. When Donald Trump asked, “Where is my Roy Cohn?”, Barr was there to fill the bill — not because he was a mobbed-up snarler, but because he believed that the president was the chief law enforcement officer and the Attorney General was there to do his bidding.

William Barr believed that America was truly in existential peril, not because of the feckless narcissist in the White House, but because of sinister left wingers protesting in the streets; it was 1968 all over again, with dangerous subversives and people of color threatening the white suburban bubble that defined his America. He believed that gay marriage and abortion foretold the apocalypse. He thought that the Justice Department was staffed by Montessori kindergartners and secret Never Trumpers out to get the president’s friends, who were themselves blameless. He could kneecap his old friend and fellow Republican Bob Mueller, because Mueller’s investigation was somehow tainted by politics — another instance of the mass projection phenomenon of the Trump administration. He thought — and indeed thought until the very end — that President Trump was subject to a McCarthyite “conspiracy so immense” of the deep state, the left-wing media, hostile prosecutors, an out-of-control FBI, an out-of-control CIA and anyone else who dared to question the honesty, competence, quotidian cruelty and racisms of the president of the United States.

Loyalty created no real cognitive dissonance for the William Barr worldview.  He could not give enough of it and the president praised him for it. It was fine to get campaign dirt on your opponents from foreign countries. It was the Obama administration that was “spying” on the Trump campaign. Mike Flynn was targeted for lying to the FBI about contact with Russians, but the FBI already knew he was dealing with Russians, so what was the problem? No harm, no foul.  

Trump could not be obstructing justice, because he believed himself to be innocent; Trump was the chief law enforcement officer and there was nothing to enforce against a self-proclaimed innocent man. No problem there. He tried to fire US Attorneys who were investigating Trump’s friends, but he even screwed that up, announcing that the Southern District of New York US Attorney had resigned when he had not, and Barr could not fire him.

The Justice Department filed a sentencing recommendation within the sentencing guidelines against the convicted Roger Stone because lying to Congress about a presidential election is, well, serious. After a Trump tweet, Barr pulled it the next day as too harsh and ordered no recommendation. Barr is severe enough to demand the death penalty for federal prisoner after federal prisoner, executing more in a single year than any other year in American history, with further scheduled up to inauguration day. Yet he has a soft spot for a lovable dirty trickster friend of the president like Roger Stone.  

Barr even went outside his lane, showing up to support Trump’s crackpot theories on Covid treatment and complaining that there was something inherently fishy about voting by mail, a process that has been in place in many states for decades. He declassified information that served the president’s interests. It is hard to imagine a more dedicated courtier.

Yet in the end, he too got pushed out the door. What William Barr failed to understand is that you can never be loyal enough to Trump. Trump’s demands are unceasing and ever more outrageously deranged and impossible. There are no mulligans.

At ten minutes before midnight, Barr drew certain uncontroversial lines that were reality-based and legally required. He would not disclose an ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes; the Department of Justice does not disclose such information unless it is ready to bring charges. And the final betrayal: he said there was no evidence of significant voter fraud because there was no evidence of significant voter fraud.  He would not invent evidence that he knew did not exist.

Had Barr had enough? Did he want to salvage a shred of credibility as he hit the job market? Was there some residual resistance to succumbing to pure fantasy? It may always be a mystery. His letter on the way out gave no hint of any epiphanies. It had the cadence and objectivity of a Trump Cabinet meeting. He spoke of Trump’s “unprecedented achievements” despite “implacable opposition” in which “ no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds.  He waxed eloquent on “the strongest and most resilient economy in American history,” which ignoring the massive unemployment and economic collapse. He mentioned Operation Warp Speed, but seemed to forget super-spreader events, mocking mask-wearing and 300,000 dead.  He hailed Trump’s curbing of illegal immigration, skipping the cages and the hundreds of children who have not and may never be reunited with their parents. He talked of support for law enforcement, ignoring the prosecutors, investigators, intelligence agents and judges that President Trump slimed on an everyday basis.  

Perhaps it was the price to be paid for Trump allowing him to resign rather than being kicked to the curb and being maligned as stupid or cowardly like so many before him. It does not really matter. William Barr’s loyalty caused untold damage to the rule of law. And in the end, it didn’t save him. Good riddance.

Eric Lewis sits on the board of ESI Media, the parent company of The Independent