Barr Is A Low Bar For Justice

William Barr is Trump's nominee to be Attorney General.  Barr has already been A.G. -- 28 years ago.  Now age 68, he's a millionaire lawyer in private practice.  Why on earth would he want to be A.G. again?  Does he have some sort of agenda?

Barr met with Trump in 2017 about the possibility of becoming Trump's personal attorney.*  Barr declined the offer.

I call Trump "Safe!"

But in mid-2018, Barr wrote a weird legal opinion memo.  In 19 pages that no one asked for, he described his opposition to the Mueller probe, said the president can't be indicted for obstruction of justice, claimed the president has unlimited "unitary" powers**, said Trump did nothing wrong in pressuring James Comey to go easy on Michael Flynn, said Trump was justified in firing Comey, and asserted Trump should not be investigated.

Barr's memo does not align with the majority of legal opinion on these matters.  Unsolicited, he sent his memo to Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein, and sent copies to all the lawyers in Trump's inner circle. 

Why -- out of the blue -- did he write such a position piece and distribute it so widely?  At yesterday's confirmation hearings, Barr said it was common practice, an academic exercise, and entirely proper.  B.S.!  It's most uncommon, especially for a lawyer in private practice.  Barr is indeed a man with an agenda, and his memo was his job application/resume on the one issue that frightens Trump the most.  

Mueller's final confidential report will be provided to the DOJ.  At the hearings, Barr refused to guarantee that he would release the full report to the public.  He might use his black Sharpie and redact the shit out of it, or he might decide to release nothing and just sit on it.  What an insult that would be!

Some believe Barr's partisan memo should disqualify him as A.G., or should at least necessitate his recusal from any decisions regarding the Mueller probe.  Yesterday, Barr said he'd welcome advice from the DOJ's ethics professionals on the question of his recusal, but if he didn't like their advice, he'd disregard it and do whatever the fuck he wanted, regardless.  Don't look now, Bill, but your bias is showing.

The prospect of William Barr as Attorney General is not comforting.  He is far more likely to be a Trump-protecting roadblock than an independent arbiter of justice.  But given the Republican majorities on the Judiciary Committee and in the Senate, he is virtually certain of confirmation.

The silver lining for us is that Trump is doomed and, one way or another, Barr will go down with the ship in no more than two years.
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*  Trump has just added another 17 lawyers to the White House legal team, bringing the total to 35 lawyers on staff.  It seems to me that most people who are so completely innocent of all wrongdoing, as claimed by Trump, do not require 35 lawyers.

** Unitary executive powers, as desired by Trump and upheld by Barr, means that the president is commander-in-chief of not only the military, but also of the judiciary, the legislature, and damn near everything else.