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Washington Post, Feb. 19, 2020
Trump is making Barr look like his stooge. And he’s apparently not going
to stop.
by Aaron Blake
The Washington Post broke the news Tuesday night that Attorney General
William P. Barr is telling people that he might resign if President
Trumps keeps tweeting about Justice Department matters. And this has
understandably been met with skepticism.
But do note this important sentence in the second paragraph of The
Post’s story: “The administration officials said Barr seemed to be
sharing his position with advisers in hopes the president would get the
message that he should stop weighing in publicly on the Justice
Department’s ongoing criminal investigations.”
In other words, this appears to be as much about a calculation as Barr’s
own exasperation. It perhaps shouldn’t be taken completely at face value.
But it’s also worth noting the position Barr has put himself in: If
Trump keeps doing what he’s doing, Barr could either make good on his
threat or look like Trump is walking all over him.
And to be clear, Trump is a man who doesn’t really heed such advice.
Indeed, he has already disregarded Barr’s requests repeatedly — and
continues to do so.
The Post has reported that, in the time before Barr went public last
week with his request that Trump stop tweeting, he had been asking the
same thing privately, directly to Trump. That clearly didn’t work.
Then Barr gave his ABC News interview Thursday afternoon, apparently
hoping that might be more effective. By Friday morning, Trump was at it
again, saying he had the “legal right” to weigh in on the cases.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
“The President has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.”
A.G. Barr This doesn’t mean that I do not have, as President, the legal
right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!
107K
8:33 AM - Feb 14, 2020
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That same day, it was revealed that the Justice Department had opted not
to charge former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe and had closed its
investigation into him. Trump, who has long pushed for action against
McCabe, apparently resisted the urge to tweet Friday, but by Saturday,
he was lashing out again.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
IG report on Andrew McCabe: Misled Investigators over roll in news media
disclosure...Lacked Candor (Lied) on four separate
occasions...Authotized Media Leaks to advance personal interests...IG
RECOMMENDED MCCABE’S FIRING. @FoxNews @IngrahamAngle
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9:39 AM - Feb 15, 2020
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Then came Tuesday, when Trump approvingly tweeted comments from Andrew
Napolitano on Fox News, in which Napolitano argued that Roger Stone
should be given a new trial.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
“Judge Jackson now has a request for a new trial based on the
unambiguous & self outed bias of the foreperson of the jury, whose also
a lawyer, by the way. ‘Madam foreperson, your a lawyer, you have a duty,
an affirmative obligation, to reveal to us when we selected you the.....
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7:58 AM - Feb 18, 2020
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Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
· Feb 18, 2020
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
.....existence of these tweets in which you were so harshly negative
about the President & the people who support him. Don’t you think we
wanted to know that before we put you on this jury.’ Pretty obvious he
should (get a new trial). I think almost any judge in the Country.....
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
.....would order a new trial, I’m not so sure about Judge Jackson, I
don’t know.” @Judgenap (Andrew Napolitano) @foxandfriends
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Trump’s comments about the Stone matter were precisely the ones that
preceded Barr publicly urging Trump to knock it off Thursday, and here
Trump was doing it again.
Trump on Thursday had tweeted against the seven-to-nine-year sentencing
recommendation prosecutors had filed in the Stone case just hours before
the Justice Department said it would reduce the recommendation. That
announcement prompted all four prosecutors on the case to withdraw. Barr
said he had made the decision before Trump’s tweets, but he acknowledged
that they made the whole thing look bad.
And then Trump did it yet again Wednesday, retweeting the tweet by Rep.
Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) about the investigation into the origins of the
Russia probe.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
There must be JUSTICE. This can never happen to a President, or our
Country, again!
https://twitter.com/repleezeldin/status/1229982311330066433 …
Lee Zeldin
✔
@RepLeeZeldin
There are high expectations that the Justice Dept will very soon deliver
transparency & ACCOUNTABILITY regarding DOJ/FBI officials who weaponized
the awesome powers at their disposal in order to target the Trump
campaign. Frustrated Americans demand justice! ⚖️ It’s LONG overdue!
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Barr is clearly trying to balance tensions between a president he has so
steadfastly stood behind and a Justice Department that is unnerved by
what Trump is doing. Arguably no Cabinet secretary has bent over
backward for Trump as much as Barr, with the possible exception of
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
But Trump has shown little willingness to give in — on this or anything
else, really — and at some point, that puts Barr in the position of
putting his money where his mouth is. Barr said Thursday that Trump’s
tweets about Justice Department matters “make it impossible for me to do
my job.” Now he is floating the possibility of resigning. So if Trump
keeps on doing it, how can Barr just press on? He’s on record saying he
can’t do the job in that scenario, so there’s really only one option, it
would seem.
Whether he’d every actually make good on the threat is worth a healthy
dose of skepticism. Barr has put up with a lot from Trump, and he has
put his own reputation on the line repeatedly with his pro-Trump
decisions. He has also launched unorthodox internal Justice Department
actions that just so happened to meet with Trump’s very public requests
for action. The combination has led more than 1,100 former Justice
Department officials to call for his resignation.
Barr surely won’t be swayed by that, but at some point, personal pride
has to be a factor. It’s one thing to do Trump’s bidding; it’s another
to look like his stooge, for you to acknowledge that, and then for Trump
to keep making you look like his stooge.
How many mulligans is Barr willing to give Trump, anyway?
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