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Barr captured Trump’s attention with a 19-page memo critical of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible ties between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia and Russia, leading him to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general later that fall.
Barr was an influential presence at the Department of Justice, protecting government initiatives against legal challenges from an array of litigants. A master of legalese, he knew how to use words to achieve his desired results.
William Barr was raised in New York City and educated at Horace Mann School, Columbia University and George Washington University Law School. Following graduation he worked for both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a Washington, DC law firm before serving on domestic policy at Ronald Reagan’s White House.
He served as Attorney General from 1991-1993 under President George HW Bush, and has been reappointed by President Trump. His supporters hold that he embodies integrity by adhering to law while Democrats dispute this claim.
Their key point was Barr’s position on voting fraud, which ran counter to Trump’s repeated accusations of massive election fraud and to Justice Department policies. Critics further allege he is taking measures to shield President from investigations while appointing his loyalists into high-level Justice Department posts. Barr is currently the subject of a congressional hearing where he will have the chance to defend his decision to release a four-page summary of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report and hold discussions for several hours.
Barr has managed to remain in his post despite mounting criticism from Democrats and other observers of the Justice Department regarding his efforts to shield Trump from scrutiny. From downplaying the Mueller report to burying whistleblower allegations regarding Russia and publicly validating Trump’s baseless claims about mail-in voting fraud, Barr has shown his priority lies with protecting Trump above all else.
He has also taken steps to defend Trump supporters such as Flynn and Stone from accusations. And in an unusual move for the Justice Department, he informed Congress there was no evidence supporting Trump’s claim of voter fraud in losing him the presidency.
Barr, an experienced prosecutor by trade but never practicing as one before his appointment to lead the Justice Department, has subverted many of its key practices and diminished its reputation of independence from politics. A new book called Hatchet Man: How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor’s Code and Corrupted the Justice Department documents all the ways that serving Trump’s political interests has come to be confused with upholding mission and constitutional duties of the department.
Barr’s public statements made it abundantly clear that he no longer represented Trump loyalists. For example, he dismissed President Trump’s theories regarding voter fraud, labelling them “idiotic” and noting there had been no evidence to back them up.
At a House request for an unredacted version of the Mueller report, he declined to submit to partisan politics by providing such information. Additionally, he became involved in multiple legal cases, such as defending Facebook against allegations it violated users’ privacy rights.
After leaving the Justice Department, Barr was named a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and appointed executive vice president and general counsel of GTE Corporation (which later merged with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon Communications), also serving as attorney-of-record at Washington Federal Court of Appeals and founding Torridon Law – both positions he held concurrently.
Barr’s refusal to support President Donald Trump’s baseless accusations of voter fraud was one of his most remarkable acts as attorney general. According to an Associated Press report in December, Justice Department investigations had revealed no substantial evidence of large scale fraud that would have altered the outcome of any election.
Barr also earned significant criticism for allowing the Justice Department to intervene and secure a lighter sentence for Trump political fixer Roger Stone and for dropping charges against his first national security advisor Michael Flynn, effectively shielding President Trump. Barr’s efforts earned him the moniker “enabler-in-chief”.
After leaving office, Barr will become chairman of a business lobbying group designed to be an alternative to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – The Center for Legal Action. He also remains a partner at Washington, D.C. law firm Shaw, Pittman Potts & Trowbridge which specializes in complex litigation and international trade disputes.