Barring Disaster
Yesterday’s confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee William Barr was the usual kabuki theatre in which Barr spouted some general platitudes that were meant to assuage concerns and evaded answering any really tough questions. Barr was Attorney General over 25 years ago, under G.H.W. Bush, and acted like a political hack even back then. He actively intervened with and then overrode the decisions of local federal prosecutors in the Whitewater investigation in an attempt to damage Bill Clinton in time for the 1992 presidential election. Barr also supported Bush’s pardon of those involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, pushing for the pardon’s widest possible use. Barr bragged, “I favored the broadest pardon authority. There were some people just arguing just for Weinberger. I said, ‘No — in for a penny, in for a pound'”. While Barr’s views on criminal justice aren’t quite as Neanderthal as Jeff Session, he seems to have not evolved in any way since his tenure as AG over a quarter century ago and perhaps spent the intervening years watching too much Fox News.
At least Sessions served on the Judiciary Committee and had some inkling of the kind of current issues facing the DOJ. Outside of his thoughts on the Special Counsel’s investigation, Barr seemed incredibly ignorant, whether willfully is undetermined, about so many important legal issues. He told Kamala Harris he doesn’t know what the Presidential Records Act says. He responded to a question from Feinstein about the emoluments clause by saying “I think there is a dispute as to what the emoluments clause relates to… I can’t even tell you what it says at this point”. When asked directly whether waterboarding was torture, he said, “You know, I would have to look at the legal definition”. Hirono’s questions about birthright citizenship was met with “I haven’t looked at that issue legally”. Despite Republicans’ desire to change it, that right is enshrined in the 14th Amendment. A question about family separation elicited this response, “I’m not sure I know all the details…My understanding is DHS makes the decision as to who they’re going to apprehend and hold”. When asked about jailing journalists, Barr answered, “Um…. I think that — I know there are guidelines in place and I can conceive of situations where, as a last resort, and where a news organization has run through a red flag or something like that, knows that they’re putting out stuff that will hurt the country, there could be a situation where someone would be held in contempt”. Even Republican courts would look askance at that kind of attack on free speech. I’m pretty sure that if I displayed this much total ignorance on important issues on any job interview I went on, I would not be hired.
Even when Barr did care to offer an answer other than ignorance, he was wrong. He claimed that there were simply “allegations” that Russians “attempted” to interfere in the 2016 election. Dear God, the intelligence community is united in its view that the interference occurred and Mueller has indicted nearly two dozen Russians for doing exactly that. When asked about acting AG Whitaker’s business dealings, Barr replied “first, I don’t think there was anything wrong done”. The company paid a $26 million settlement for fraud, which certainly seems an admission of wrongdoing. Remarkably, too, Barr “did not recall getting any confidential information” when asked by Feinstein if he had receive non-public information on the Mueller probe.
Other items highlighted his apparent reliance on Fox News for information. Barely over a year ago, he wrote, “I have long believed that the predicate for investigating the [Clinton] uranium deal, as well as the [Clinton] foundation, is far stronger than any basis for investigating so-called [Trump campaign-Russia] ‘collusion'”. He mischaracterized this statement when asked about it yesterday. He also promised Graham that he would essentially investigate the investigators involved in the Russian collusion investigation, claiming he was “shocked” by the messages between Strzok and Page. He believes that the border wall is critical to national security, citing drug interdiction, apparently unaware that the vast majority of illegal drugs enter through ports of entry. He thinks that sanctuary cities attract “illegal aliens coming in”. He seemed to support the Muslim ban by making the outrageous claim that national security trumped any judicial oversight, saying “A judge with a lifetime appointment sitting somewhere in the country who doesn’t have the access to the information has no political accountability can stop a national security measure?… that’s really troublesome to me.”
His answers directly regarding the Mueller investigation were more of a mixed bag but hardly reassuring either. He declared that it would be “in the best interest of everyone — the president, Congress and, most importantly, the American people — that this matter be resolved by allowing the special counsel to complete his work”. When asked by Coons if he would let Mueller get testimony Trump, Barr obfuscated saying, “Ah…You know, I think, as I say, the regulations currently provide some avenue if there’s some disagreement… [but] I’m not surrendering that responsibility.” It got worse when Barr indicated that he would not release the Mueller report but instead release his own report that summarized what Mueller had found. Even GOP Senators found that troubling. In addition, he refused to say he would follow the advice of the DOJ ethics officials recommending recusal. Barr stated he would ignore their advice if he disagreed with it, but offered no rationale for such a decision beyond just disagreement.
Finally, Patrick Leahy asked if it would be proper for the president to offer a pardon in return for a promise not to incriminate the president. Barr declared this would be a crime. But that is essentially what he recommended George Bush do with the Iran-Contra defendants all those years ago.
William Barr’s only seeming interest in becoming Attorney General is because of the Mueller investigation. His incredible ignorance about other important DOJ issues highlighted that. He wrote a 19 page memo that theorized that the Trump could not be investigated for obstruction of justice. He sent that unsolicited memo to Rod Rosenstein, the White House Counsel, Trump’s person lawyers, Kushner’s lawyer, Pence’s lawyer, and the man who was in line to replace Rosenstein should he be fired. He has admitted that he was asked to join the President’s legal team and had at least a cursory discussion with the President about the Mueller probe. As Matt Miller says, Barr has acted as “essentially a member of the president’s legal defense team”. And now it is almost certain he will be confirmed and become the chief law enforcement office in the country.
