Bill Barr is spiraling out of control
William Barr has done little to hide the fact that he was appointed not to serve this country, but as “president” Donald Trump’s new personal fixer. He has certainly done very little in his alleged role as attorney general. Attorney Nick Akerman, assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal, sat down with Newsweek to discuss William Barr’s involvement in impeachment and his lack of doing his job.
Barr has made no secret of his loyalty to Trump instead of the Constitution. One can only assume he is being compensated handsomely for his betrayal, and not only in taxpayer dollars. Akerman calls Barr’s situation “strange” and states that Barr “has so many conflicts and is up to his eyeballs in all of the corruption surrounding Trump.” Akerman is joined in his opinion by Michael J. Stern, a former federal prosecutor, who believes that Barr’s undying loyalty to Trump is “a perversion” of the attorney general’s job. Stern further told Newsweek that “it is unfortunate that Bill Barr never misses an opportunity to place his thumb on the scales of justice in favor of Donald Trump.” It is obviously not just “never Trumpers” who call out Barr. Both Stern and Akerman are former federal prosecutors, and as such, both have myriad experience in criminal law and know criminals when they see them.
Akerman and Stern aren’t the only ones who see Barr’s influence in Trump’s crimes leading to his impeachment. The Daily Beast discusses how Barr’s DOJ has been thwarting Congress at every turn. Trump and Barr effectively tied the hands of Congress, and they now argue that Congress has no right to the information they seek because they’ve already filed articles of impeachment. What? This is some kind of crazy, circular law that could only come from Trump’s personal fixer, also known as the “attorney general.” What a farce our government has become under Trump’s “leadership.” As Daily Beast describes the process, Republicans argue that Congress “should have devoted more effort to litigation” in its impeachment efforts, and Barr’s DOJ then argued the subpoenas should not be enforced “regardless of their legal validity,” seeking to force Congress to begin arresting potential witnesses. Would someone please explain the logic in all of this?
As the Daily Beast explains, this argument is directly in line with Barr’s November speech before the Federalist Society, a right-wing group, that courts should not even hear any arguments between the president and Congress, and that is exactly what the DOJ now seeks to do. Such a decision would complete the free reign that Trump has been trying to establish by refusing to turn over documents and blocking subpoenas. In essence, Barr is trying to help Trump turn this country into an authoritarian state. Both Barr and Trump can go to hell. That is never going to happen in this country. Thank God we have Congress to fight with them for our freedom.
Barr is not doing the job of attorney general, which is to support and enforce the Constitution. Instead, he is trying to prop up Trump’s criminal activities with his own unethical behavior. As many others have recently written, he needs to resign.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years