US Attorney General William Barr Resigns

Attorney General William Barr, the head of the Department of Justice, will step down before Christmas, President Donald Trump said on Monday.

The much-anticipated announcement of Barr’s departure came shortly after President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump was officially announced by the Electoral College. The quake, during Trump’s evening at the White House, also followed weeks of civil unrest between Barr and the president.

Barr’s Letter Of Resignation

But Barr’s letter of resignation, shared on Twitter by Trump at the time of the announcement, praised the president and said he felt “proud to be a part of the great success and unprecedented achievements that you have delivered to the American people.”

“Your record is highly historical because it was accomplished in the face of endless, irresistible opposition,” reads Barr’s letter. “Few would have survived such an attack, let alone continued with the good plan of the country.”

Trump, in a tweet, also revealed that he had no ill intentions for Barr, despite recent criticism.

“I had a very good meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House,” Trump said in two tweets. “Our relationship has been very good, you have done an excellent job!”

Trump-Barr Friction

Deputy Attorney-General Jeff Rosen will act as acting attorney general following Barr’s departure, Trump said in a tweet. Richard Donoghue, former U.S. Attorney For the Eastern Province of New York, he will replace Rosen as the No. 2 official in the Department of Justice, writes Trump.

Barr in early December was directly opposed to Trump when he pointed out that the Department of Justice had found no evidence that a major voter fraud or electoral fraud would alter Biden’s expected victory.

That was accepted during an interview with the Associated Press reducing the president, who refused to allow Biden and wrongly claimed victory in the election, citing a number of unconfirmed fraud schemes and asserting that the race was “fraudulent” to him.

Statements by Barr also severely hampered legal efforts by lawyers in Trump’s campaign to reverse Biden’s victory in key swing countries.

The legal team, led by Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has filed a series of lawsuits seeking to oust hundreds of thousands of votes, with a particular focus on Democratic-backed constituencies in the presidential election. Many of those long-standing allegations have already been denied, and no one has so far persuaded swing-state judges to block or invalidate Biden’s winning certificate.

Following the Electoral College vote earlier in Monday, any remaining attempts to postpone Biden’s victory were less likely to win.

Voter Fraud Investigations

Giuliani and another Trump campaign advocate, Jenna Ellis, had retracted Barr’s remarks after they were made public.

“With all due respect to the Attorney General, there has never been a similar investigation into the Department of Justice,” Giuliani and Ellis said in a joint statement issued by Trump’s campaign at the time.

“And, with the utmost respect for the attorney general, his view appears to have been unaware of or serious investigation into the seriousness and evidence of official fraud,” the statement said.

Later in December, Trump expressed his frustration with the Department of Justice for refusing to make public its investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, during the run-up to the election.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Barr had been working to cover up investigations involving Hunter Biden’s business dealings during the election, despite pressure from Trump and the Republicans to seek information on the son of the Democratic nominee.

Trump on December 11 tweeted, “Why didn’t Fake News Media, the FBI and the DOJ report the Biden story BEFORE the election.”

He added: “Well, well, we won the election anyway – 75,000,000 VOTES !!!”

On Saturday, Trump rewrote the message that Barr “should be fired at the end of business today” if the attorney general worked to keep Hunter Biden’s criminal investigation secret during the election, as The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

“Disappointment!” Trump wrote a comment commenting on this post.

Barr’s release deepens the ongoing leadership crisis in the Department of Justice. The attorney general has faced serious criticism, including current and former DOJ officials, for including the political department.

Barr has raised hackles for his intervention in several state cases involving Trump’s allies.

After state prosecutors proposed a harsher sentence for the GOP prison for Roger Stone, a friend of Trump who had been convicted of seven counts of lying in Congress, Barr intervened to reduce the proposed sentence. Four state attorneys in Stone’s case stopped prosecution shortly thereafter. Trump in July commuted Stone’s sentence, saving him from jail.

What Does William Barr Say?

Barr is under scrutiny for his handling of former lawyer Robert Mueller’s special report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections, and the dismissal of Geoffrey Berman, a former U.S. diplomat. Of the Southern District of New York.

At times, however, Barr went public with Trump. In another interview, Barr complained that some of the president’s tweets about ongoing cases made it “impossible” for him to do his job.

The recent controversy involves an embarrassing mix-up with the replacement of Manhattan’s American lawyer.

In June, Barr announced Berman’s resignation, and will be replaced by Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton.

Berman, who is said to be investigating Trump’s lawyer Giuliani, fired hours after saying he did not resign and would not resign until Trump officially nominated a successor and that person received Senate confirmation.

Berman finally left after Barr said he would be replaced by Berman’s acting deputy, Audrey Strauss.

The end of Barr’s administration is a final step in the collapse of Trump’s relationship with his attorney general, a coalition that was once considered to be between Trump’s most powerful and one of his Cabinet members.

Barr’s role in the Trump administration, which he took over in 2019, marked his second position as the country’s top lawmaker. Barr also served as attorney general under President George HW Bush in the 1990s.

Synopsis

Attorney General William Barr, head of the Department of Justice, will leave Trump’s administration before Christmas, President Donald Trump said.

The much-anticipated announcement of Barr’s departure came shortly after President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump was officially announced by the Electoral College.

Deputy Attorney-General Jeff Rosen will act as acting attorney general following Barr’s departure, Trump said.