What happens if Bill Barr is fired or resigns?

Barr is competent and about as bad as public officials get, from a sense of morality, decency, and honor, but he only seems so bad because the rest of the Trump team are so incompetent. Barr is an average professional cabinet-level public servant lawyer with what appears to be an ugly combination of neocon and paleocon views. Most of the rest of Trump’s cabinet and advisers are incompetent clowns, so someone with the skills and experience of an average cabinet official seems like an evil genius.

IMO, anyway. I suspect he’s trying to subtly signal to Trump that Trump’s tweets are making it harder for Barr to use the DOJ to protect him, but I’m not sure if Trump is capable of detecting this kind of subtlety. We’ll see in the next couple of days if Trump responds with a Barr-bashing tweet.

That’s pretty much it, IMO. Barr is begging Loser Donald to please stop saying the quiet part loud, to which he will invariably respond “I have an Article 2 that gives me the absolute right to do anything I want”.

Yeppers. Here’s Laura Ingraham getting it:

I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to Barr in this instance. I’ve been in a position where someone asked my help to manage a delicate situation. I knew it would be tricky, but I thought I could make it work - right up until the person who asked for my help blew it all up because they couldn’t keep their stupid mouth shut.

There’s no worse feeling than having someone like that joggle your elbow after they asked for your help.

Of course, Barr should have known this would happen, so it’s not a lot of sympathy.

But why go so public with this? Why not convey the message in a phone-call or a face-to-face? This is a show for the Great Unwashed, not the president.

Nope. Trump gets his ideas from the TeeVee. So, Barr goes out in public and makes statements. The statements get amplified by the talking heads and skirts on Fox. Trump watches and absorbs.

Same as it ever was.

From the Votemaster (actually from Zenger):

My only argument against this interpretation is that it is hard to see the orange menace allowing public criticism from one of his pee-ons, no matter how mild.

I agree with others who’ve guessed that Barr cleared this in advance with Trump’s handlers, who are now working to reassure Trump that Barr HAD to utter some fairly-strong criticisms or the scam wouldn’t work.

HANDLER: Don’t worry, Daddy, Barr knows you must be President-for-Life. But we’re not there yet. If we aren’t careful, the people will catch on and protest in the streets.

TRUMP: I’ll just send in my troops to mow them down if they try that!

HANDLER: Daddy, you can’t do that. Not until we have full control of all communications media and have full buy-in from all armed forces. You can’t declare yourself President-for-Life until then. Barr is working on it. You have to let him do his job.

TRUMP: I don’t want to wait! What is wrong with you people, asking me to wait!

HANDLER: (In low tones, to attendant) Bring in Hope Hicks with the bag of cheeseburgers now.

It means Trump lost the election and it’s the day after the new president has been sworn in. No way in Hell Barr is going, he’s doing just as he’s told. Including a nice little dog and pony show to distract folks.

With a chorus of “tut-tut” from other Republican Senators.

So Barr might join the list of former Tramp minions.* I have no idea who Tramp might choose as a replacement minion or how long they’ll last, no matter how repulsive they are - I avoid the gossip. But we can be sure Barr will take a break, dictate a memoir, hit the gabfest circuit, and take a partnership at some white-shoe powerhouse. But if he’s out as AG involuntarily, he likely won’t join the list of Tramp’s pardons.** Will a future DoJ or a state AG find charges to bring against him?

  • This looks current.
    ** Needs updating.

This is all over the news right now: Over 1,100 ex-Justice Dept officials call on Barr to resign for doing Trump’s ‘bidding’.

The entire letter can be found here: DOJ Alumni Statement on the Events Surrounding the Sentencing of Roger Stone.

So there is some public pressure, at least.

Prediction: it’ll be totally ignored by Barr and of course, Trump.

That’s way too many words for Tramp to read or have read to him, and Barr likely has a good supply of toilet tissue anyway, so we know where that letter will go.

They’ll all be portrayed as ANGRY RADICAL SOCIALIST DEMOCRATS looking to undo an election by going on a WITCH HUNT! And the Trump base will believe them.

Yes, that attempt will be made. But it’s now over 2,000 ex-Justice Dept. officials who have called on Barr to resign. The number doubled from Sunday (when the letter was released) to Monday:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/16/politics/prosecutors-doj-officials-barr-resign/index.html

Of course it’s true that the Trump base will believe anything they’re told—but that doesn’t really help Bill Barr conduct business at a DOJ that is increasingly appalled by his Trump-handmaiden shenanigans.

[slight hijack]

I’ve been meaning to ask about this quote:

How successful might a motion for mistrial in federal court be right now, given that the defense team has a public statement that it is impossible to assure the courts that work is being done with integrity by the prosecution?

With a judge appointed by Tramp and ramrodded by Moscow Mitch, not much chance.

This will bring some additional pressure to bear. (USA Today)

No one is asserting that any taint attached to the trial process, so there is no basis for a motion for mistrial. Barr is trying to subvert the sentencing proceeding, not the trial.

Also, why would the defendant bring such a motion? Barr’s pique arises from not being able to go easy enough on the defendant. That’s as topsy-turvy as it gets in the legal world. Barr is not Stone’s defense attorney.

Barr’s corruption is already creating problems that will reverberate throughout our criminal justice system. I heard a noted criminal defense attorney say today that he had tucked Barr’s 4-page memorandum to the sentencing judge advocating for a lighter sentence into his briefcase in order to use it as a basis to argue for lighter sentences for his own clients in the future. I’m sure he’s not the only one who will use this tactic. And why should they not? Sauce for the goose…