Goodbye William Barr.
And some Americans say “good riddance”.
President Trump announced on Twitter on December 14, 2020, that Mister Barr was resigning his position as Attorney General of the United States. “Bill” confirmed that announcement in a written resignation letter the same day. His resignation being effective the end of day December 23, 2020. On December 7, 2018, President announced his nomination of William Pelham Barr to be Attorney General of the United States. Mister Barr was confirmed February 14, 2019. He was lauded as straight-down-the-middle, unbiased, unwaveringly fair, deeply dedicated to the Constitution……….the PERFECT pick for Attorney General.
Weeeeeelllllllll….in the opinion of some…….while Mister Barr may be all those things and an intellectual……he was possibly President Trump’s second Attorney General mistake. President Trump’s first Attorney General mistake being Jeff Sessions. And, that’s another story for another time.
It’s very simple why Bill Barr was a mistake. One of President Donald Trump’s attributes, maybe the most important attribute, is that he WAS NOT a product of, nor ever part of, “the swamp”. Even though William Barr had a “sterling” reputation in all quarters, he was born and spent his formative years in elements of “the swamp”.
Whether or not it was called “the swamp” during the fifties, sixties and seventies, the “elite” academic world that was dominant in his life was, in reality, part of “the swamp”. William Barr’s entire life has been spent somewhere in “the swamp”. University years. Employed in the CIA. 1990 appointed Deputy Attorney General. 1991 Acting Attorney General. 1991-1993 Attorney General. 1992 launched a telephone surveillance program of United States citizens’ foreign calls which the Inspector General concluded may be illegal. Curious influences in the President Reagan Iran-Contra mess. 1994 to 2008 became a multi-millionaire Executive Vice-President and General Counsel of GTE Corporation that merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon Communications. 2009-2018 on the board of Time-Warner. 2009 a short stint with the world’s largest law firm.
This brief, very incomplete review of the Bill Barr trek through the years, clearly indicates he was always somewhere in “the Swamp”. He may not have ever been an active member. But, his entire life and career has been in “the swamp”. He managed to navigate a life-long path in and through “the swamp” without being inflicted with any fatal scars.
Along the way, there were a few “questions” which he was able to, or lucky enough to, dispose of without any damage to his career(s). If and when historians pay attention to, and honestly comment on, the period of time Bill was Attorney general in the Trump Administration, he most likely will be revealed to have been a BAD choice for President Trump.
During his almost two years as United States Attorney General, he did nothing…..NOTHING…….to protect America, and the American People, from numerous, obvious, deliberate, criminal acts by quite a number of individuals who were holding , or had held, government positions. Some right in his own backyard. The Department of Justice and the FBI. Mountains of evidence proving a multitude of illegal actions, activities, was right under his nose. Yet he did nothing to seek JUSTICE.
If William Pehlam Barr had taken the actions the Attorney General has authority to take, most of the bad actors would have been brought to justice and the monumental problems with the 2020 election frauds would have been addressed. He, Mister William Pelham Barr, FAILED to do his job. He may not be a creature of “the swamp”. But he certainly was guilty of perpetuating “the swamp”.
BYE, BYE, MISTER BARR.