Bill Barr Wants Everybody to Leave Him Alone

Barr says Trump’s tweets make it “impossible for me to do my job.” Yeah, right. So is he resigning by sunrise?

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) February 13, 2020

Barr doesn't regret the withdrawal of four career DOJ lawyers from the Stone trial just as the sentencing hearing is pending.  He doesn't regret the resignation of one of those lawyers from the DOJ.  He's not speaking to calm or reassure any of the U.S. Attorneys and Asst. U.S. attorneys in the DOJ.

He's just making noises he knows will be heard for what they definitely are not.  Trump is going to keep tweeting.  Barr is going to keep dancing like a puppet on a string.  Hell, you can practically see him winking:

When asked if he expects the president to react to his criticism of the tweets, Barr said: “I hope he will react.”

“And respect it?” ABC’s Thomas asked.

“Yes,” Barr said.https://t.co/1gbgZUEKtW

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 13, 2020

Here's the reality, and why those four lawyers withdrew from the Stone case:

“I worked on some very high profile cases. I was part of the team that prosecuted John Gotti, and we never heard from main Justice about our sentencing recommendation or any other part of that case except when we submitted the case and said we wanted to prosecute. That’s when DOJ has a voice, and they should, but the line — attorneys are the ones that know the case, and sentencing recommendations are determined by the sentencing guidelines and the facts of the case. The attorney general should and traditionally has no role in that process whatsoever.”

....

“Bill Barr doesn’t have to read the Donald Trump mind, Donald Trump tweets exactly what he wants,” Cotter explained. “And within hours William Barr does it. I wish Mr. Barr, who I worked for, and who personally gave me an award. I used to have his picture on my wall. I wish that he was… living and exercising his authority the way he testified in Congress. But he is not. It is clear. You would have to be blind not to see that the president is exercising power and influence on the Department of Justice.”

Think of it this way:  you take a case, you prepare it for trial, you prosecute the case at trial, you file a sentencing recommendation with the court, the President tweets errant nonsense, and suddenly you're being told to ignore your professional judgment and your own expertise and do what someone with no idea what the case you just tried involved (and believe me, nobody knows but the lawyers involved).  And then the AG who directed this says he's not going to be bullied; but you?  You're a U.S. Attorney, or an assistant U.S. Attorney.  You're also chopped liver.  Jump; your boss just said "Frog!"  And the next case?  Well, we may or may not leave you alone then, either.

You'd have to be a fool to think the Barr interview represents a sea change in the way William Barr is going to run the Department of Justice.  The point of Barr's interview is to say that the appearance of impropriety does not indicate there is any impropriety, so leave him alone and let him do his job.

“And you know…I cannot do my job here at the [DOJ] with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” he argued.

Poor baby, no one trusts him, no one thinks his argument that appearance of impropriety is not the same thing as impropriety, no one thinks he should get credit for what he says he means rather than what he does.  In sum, his complaint is that you should listen to what he says, and ignore what he does, because when they conflict, the latter is what you should believe, and not your lying eyes.

He's not even very good at it.  I've known trial lawyers who were much better at justifying their self-serving actions than this.  Didn't think much of them, either, but at least they weren't such whiners.