The real reason Bill Barr is leaking that he’s going to resign

| 9:00 pm EST December 6, 2020
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The New York Times is reporting tonight that Attorney General Bill Barr is looking at resigning later this month, according to sources “familiar with this thinking.” This is a phrase we often see in relation to leaks about Barr, and it always ends up being a dead giveaway that Barr himself strategically leaked the story. So what’s he up to?

Once Bill Barr saw that Trump was definitely going to lose the election – which was clear back in October to anyone who was paying close attention – it left Barr with two possible exit strategies. One was to remain loyal to Trump’s post-election antics to the very last, and hope to snare a pardon for obstruction of justice on his way out the door. The other was for Barr to distance himself from Trump, lie low, and hope that by the time the smoke cleared, the DOJ would simply move on from the notion of criminally charging him.

It’s been clear for awhile now that Barr was going with the latter strategy. He spent the final month of the election out of public view. He said nothing during the five day long vote counting marathon. Then he emerged earlier this week to confirm that he’d found no evidence that the election was rigged. It’s clear that Barr is hoping history (and prosecutors) will forget that he helped Trump commit a number of serious crimes.

So it makes sense that Bill Barr is now leaking that he’s looking at resigning. If he’s not angling for a preemptive pardon, then why stick around until the bitter end? Instead he can resign a few weeks early and try to give the impression that he doesn’t approve of Trump’s antics. And if Barr does expect that Trump might fire him, then Barr is able to get it on the record that he was going to quit anyway.

If Bill Barr wants to check out early, that’s great. It’ll leave Donald Trump with one less henchman in the building. And no, Trump won’t be able to magically start doing whatever he wants just because he ends up with some inept loyalist as Acting Attorney General; that scenario has never worked out for him. But even if Barr resigns, he still has to be criminally charged with obstruction of justice. Barr must go to prison, to send a message to any future would-be Attorney General who wants to abuse the office for criminal means.