The Attorney General Is The Chief Executive Officer of the federal or a state government. The U.S. Attorney General represents the interests of the United States and the American people in litigation. He also oversees federal prosecutors and advises federal departments on legal issues. Mr. Barr has transformed the position attorney for the Republic into the personal attorney and fixer for the President. He has long been known to believe that the U.S. President should have absolute power, weakening the concept of checks and balances built into the Constitution.
The Founding Fathers devised our government with checks and balances to defend the Republic against a president who might govern in a way contrary to the Constitution and the national security of the United States. Barr’s position on absolute presidential power would indicate he believes any person elected President should be totally trusted on all counts to possess the competence and the character to protect the country and preserve democracy. Is that a naive, partisan position or an autocrat with the goal of deconstructing the democracy created by the Founders? Barr has transparently inserted himself into cases involving Trump’s friends who happen to be convicted of criminal behaviors contrary to the rule of law.
The first significant action Barr took as attorney general was to insert himself into the prosecution case against Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen had already pleaded guilty to the pay off to Stormy Daniels, and yet Barr argued in opposition of Cohen being charged with campaign finance violation to protect Trump who was named as “co-conspirator #1” in the hush money crime that sent Cohen to jail for three years. Next, Barr has interfered in the case against General Michael Flynn, who admitted to lying to the FBI and a meeting that he had with Russian Ambassador Kysliak.
In an attempt to defend Trump’s claim that the Russia investigation was a hoax, Barr ordered an investigation to discredit the FBI’s and intelligence community’s findings that Russia interfered in the 2015 campaign for president. Additionally, he inserted himself into the case of another Trump crony, Roger Stone, who was found guilty of 7 counts of lying and witness intimidation connected to the Russian investigation led by Robert Mueller. Trump’s viewpoint has been that Stone and Flynn were unfairly treated, and the charges against them have been influenced by Democrats who have not gotten over losing their bid for the presidency. Barr has tried to get DOJ prosecutors to delay Stone’s incarceration date and to reduce the charges against him. By involving himself in cases that involved the President’s friends, Barr has exposed his view of his role as being to do Trump’s bidding and thus has redefined the role of Attorney General as serving the President, not the people.
Thousands of legal scholars have gone on record to call for Barr to be investigated, impeached, disbarred, or to resign. Like Trump, Barr is becoming so brazen in the abuse of his power, that the walls of justice are beginning to close in on him. Without an Attorney General protecting the rule of law as laid out in the Constitution, America is vulnerable to a level of corruption that will transform democracy into a chaotic banana republic. Journalist and political strategist Rick Wilson says in his book, “Everything Trump Touches Dies” that countless careers and lives have been destroyed in the service of Trump and his corrupt agenda for America. Barr is just another pawn that has been caught in Trump’s career death trap, along with the loss of character and respect personally and professionally.
Groups like the Lincoln Project, made up of current and former Republican politicians, attorneys, and journalists are investigating the corruption of Trump, along with the anti-rule-of-law AG Barr to end this presidency and the careers of anyone who has supported it. Those who have been complicit to the damage America by Trump should be held accountable legally and ethically when our national nightmare ends. America’s reputation has been tarnished, but our great history and resistance to Trumpism predict change and recovery are only months away. For Trump supporters who don’t care about corruption, you better get prepared for what life will look like when your rights become limited to carrying a gun. Trump’s agenda is to replace journalism with propaganda and laws with executive orders, which make the America you thought he was protecting an unrecognizable perversion of what it once was.
