William Barr
| William Barr | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| 77th & 85th Attorney General of the United States From: February 14, 2019 - present | |||
| President | Donald Trump | ||
| Predecessor | Jeff Sessions | ||
| Successor | Present | ||
| Information | |||
| Party | Republican | ||
William P. Barr is the Attorney General under President Donald Trump. He previously served in the same position under George H.W. Bush.
Establishment/liberal ties
Barr donated $55,000 to establishment candidate Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential election,[1] but after Trump became the nominee, Barr donated only $2,700.[2] He was on the board of Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, between 2009 and 2018,[3] and he thus supported its merger with AT&T when conservatives and the Trump Administration opposed it.[4]
When President Trump nominated Barr to be his attorney general, some liberals praised Barr, calling him "mainstream conservative" and "less ideologically extreme" than the conservative Jeff Sessions.[5] Sen. Patrick Leahy, who was forced to resign from the Senate Intelligence Committee for leaking information related to the Mena/Contra operation in 1987, was an enthusiastic supporter. Bush DOJ official Stuart Gerson called Barr and Bob Mueller "folks of the establishment."[6] Barr is personal friends with Mueller, leading to questions of whether he would do anything to stop overreach by Mueller.[7]
Barr has a record of supporting certain gun control measures including gun confiscation laws.[8]
Conservative actions
When he was Attorney General in the Bush Administration, Barr took actions to crack down on illegal immigration.[9][10][11] However, it should be noted that the Administration was trying to fend off Pat Buchanan's primary challenge at the time, and his actions happened at a time when even liberal Democrats claimed to support tough border security. However, Barr opposed building border barriers across the entire border with Mexico.[12]
Iran Contra
Ths total lack of security at the Mena airport and intelligence professionalism was why the CIA wanted out of Arkansas. The final loose end that needed to be tied up was the investigation of Gov. Bill Clinton's half-brother, Roger and his friends. Barr told Bill Clinton:
We are all in this together and let's not forget that the vice-president [George H.W. Bush] and Mr. Casey want this operation to be a success. Mr. Seal carried with him a falsely created, high-level profile of a drug runner. All of the cops in the country were investigating a drug operation. They put the police into a position where we could control them. We fed them what we wanted to feed them, when we wanted to feed them. Seal was a diversion. It was perfect until your brother started free enterprising and now we have to shut it down.
It was the arrests of Roger Clinton and Dan Lasater - not the Hasenfus shoot-down months later - that threatened to expose the operation and prompted the CIA to end it. Barr said of the money investigation,
Mr. Meese is intervening right now and there will be no money investigation. The United States Attorney's Office in Little Rock is 'getting religion' as we speak.
Gov. Clinton's reputation as a cad did not go unnoticed by the CIA. Barr ended the meeting with words of encouragement.
Bill, you are Mr. Casey's fair-haired boy ... You and your state have been our greatest asset. Mr. Casey wanted me to pass on to you that unless you ****up and do something stupid, you're No. 1 on the short list for a shot at the job that you've always wanted. You and guys like you are the fathers of the new government. We are the new covenant.[13]
George H.W. Bush administration
Prior to his appointment as Attorney General, Barr served as Chief Counsel for the CIA airline Southern Air Transport during Iran Contra.[14] Robert Mueller served as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division during Barr's tenure.
In December 1991, Attorney General Barr announced that the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) had entered a guilty plea to certain racketeering charges, in return for which the U.S. Justice Department agreed to drop all other federal and state charges that might be brought against BCCI entities in the future. In the plea-bargain arrangement, BCCI forfeited all of its estimated $550 million assets in the United States, and there were some minor jail sentences.
References
- ↑ Farivar, Masood (December 7, 2018). Trump's Justice Department Pick Has Criticized Special Counsel Probes. Voice of America. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-has-blasted-muellers-team-for-political-donations-but-attorney-general-nominee-william-barr-has-given-more-than-500000/2018/12/11/dce5974a-fcb0-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html
- ↑ Vazquez, Maegan; Collins, Kaitlan (December 7, 2018). Trump nominates William Barr to be his next attorney general. CNN. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- ↑ Kim, Ellis (December 7, 2018). 4 Things to Know About William Barr, Trump's Pick to Replace Jeff Sessions. The National Law Journal. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/arimelber/status/1071058049769660417
- ↑ Ballhaus, Rebecca; Gurman, Sadie; Viswanatha, Aruna (December 7, 2018). Trump Taps William Barr to Be Next Attorney General. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
- ↑ Manning, Richard (January 15, 2019). Trump Attorney General nominee Bill Barr – Swamp master or destroyer? Fox News. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
- ↑ Multiple references:
- Baumann, Beth (January 16, 2019). Gun Rights Groups: We Object to William Barr Being Confirmed as AG. Townhall. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- Did Trump Just Nominate a Gun-Grapper for Attorney General? Gun Owners of America. January 15, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- Jones, Susan (January 16, 2019). William Barr Explains 'The Single Most Important Thing We Can Do in the Gun Control Area'. CNS News. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- Weingarten, Dean (January 17, 2019). AG Nominee William Barr on Second Amendment During Confirmation Hearings ~ VIDEO. Ammoland. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- New Attorney General Nominee William Barr’s Record on Guns Revealed. The Truth About Guns. December 8, 2018. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ↑ Binder, John (December 7, 2018). William Barr Prioritized Illegal Immigration Crackdown in 1990s–Similar to Sessions. Breitbart News. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
- ↑ Arthur, Andrew R. (December 11, 2018). The Once (and Future?) AG William Barr on Immigration. Center for Immigration Studies. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
- ↑ Donachie, Robert (December 12, 2018). William Barr, Trump's pick as attorney general, is an immigration hardliner. Washington Examiner. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
- ↑ Trump’s pick for AG once questioned value of border wall. Politico (from the Associated Press). December 31, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
- ↑ Terry Reed & John Cummings, Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA, Shapolsky Publishers, 1994
- ↑ Terry Reed & John Cummings, Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA, Shapolsky Publishers, 1994
External links
- William P. Barr Oral History, GEORGE H. W. BUSH PRESIDENCY, Miller Center.