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We've discussed Trump's nomination of William Barr in other threads, but he is likely to be more in the news as we get closer to a vote on his candidacy so I thought I would start a new thread.
First, as many others have noted, Barr pretty much nominated himself for the job-- that is he got Trump's attention by writing a letter critical of the Robert Mueller investigation. As per the WSJ:
"Mr. Barr’s memo is peppered with strongly worded phrases about the peril he sees in Mr. Mueller’s reading of the law, as he understood it. He described Mr. Mueller’s approach as “grossly irresponsible” with “potentially disastrous implications” for the executive branch. He also wrote: “Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the President submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction.”
Many have said Barr should recuse himself from the Mueller investigation because of this memo. It's not likely to happen.
Secondly, Rachel Maddow exposed how George H.W. Bush pardoned all potential convicts in the Iran-Contra affair thus essentially squashing that investigation. The attorney general pushing Bush on the pardons at the time was none other than William Barr. From Rachel Maddow's program (Politicus: Rachel Maddow Exposes Trump’s Potential Russia Mass Pardon Plan).
William Barr is something very, very specific in the history of presidents and presidential scandals and the bad ways they can end. Because on Christmas eve 1992 when George H.W. Bush shocked the country by pardoning everyone still in trouble in Iran Contra and effectively ending the prosecution of that scandal, while he himself was edging into the crosshairs, he took that action specifically on advice of William Barr in the George H.W. Bush administration at the time, the same trump nominee to the attorney general.
Here is the “New York Times” write up from the Christmas Day edition, throughout the deliberations, Mr. Bush consulted with attorney general William Barr. William Barr was asked about the pardons. In a 2001 oral history at the University of Virginia. William Barr said quote I certainly did not oppose any of them. I favored the broadest. There were some people arguing just for a pardon for Weinberger.
William Barr could be brought in not only to obstruct the final phases of the Mueller investigation but also oversee the large numbers of pardons that Trump will have to issue to neutralize the likely convictions that will arise.