Tag: Bill Barr

Barr told Trump to his face ‘you’re going to lose’ because he was humiliating himself at COVID briefings: book

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Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker’s new book I Alone Can Fix It contains some stories about former Attorney General Bill Barr using surprisingly blunt language to convince former President Donald Trump to stop doing daily coronavirus briefings.

“I feel you are going to lose the election,” Barr told Trump in April 2020 as the virus was killing more Americans, according to the reporters. “I feel you are actually losing touch with your own base.”

Some of the Trump fans that Barr had talked to when traveling had confided in him that they were bothered by Trump’s petty squabbles with his perceived enemies when they needed him. They, like most Americans, wanted steady leaders that could steer the country through the pandemic and bring back the economy. Continue reading.

Barr shoots down former prosecutor’s election-fraud claims

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In an interview, the former attorney general rejected a pro-Trump former U.S. attorney’s allegation that the Justice Department stifled vote-tampering investigations.

Former Attorney General William Barr pushed back Tuesday against suggestions from former President Donald Trump and a former federal prosecutor in Pennsylvania that federal authorities were ordered not to aggressively investigate claims of fraud during the 2020 presidential election.

Trump declared in a statement sent to reporters Monday evening that the former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, William McSwain, was blocked from pursuing assertions of election tampering.

“U.S. Attorney from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania was precluded from investigating election fraud allegations. Outrageous!” Trump said in the statement, which was accompanied by a two-page letter from McSwain seeking Trump’s endorsement in the Keystone State governor’s race. Continue reading.

Trump ripped William Barr as a ‘phony’ who would have ‘licked the floor’ if he’d won: new book

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Donald Trump ripped into Attorney General Bill Barr as a “phony” who “would have licked the floor if I won,” after the former president unsuccessfully tried to get U.S. attorneys in swing states to open investigations into his false claims of election fraud, according to Landslide, a new book from journalist Michael Wolff.

The Daily Beast reports that it obtained a copy of Landslide in advance of its publication next week. 

“‘Trump had been personally calling around to various U.S. attorneys in swing state districts, among them his appointee William McSwain in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,’ to try and convince them to open their own probes,” the Daily Beast reports. “When they did not, Trump blamed his A.G., saying that ‘if I had won, Barr would have licked the floor if I asked him to. What a phony!'” Continue reading.

The Memo: Trump’s newfound critics invite skepticism

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Former Vice President Mike Pence says he was “proud” to certify the 2020 election results.

Former Attorney General William Barr says he knew former President Trump’s claims of election fraud were “bullshit.”

And former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) will come out with a new book later this year arguing that the Republican Party needs to push back against conspiracy theories and grievance politics — a clear shot at Trump and his most hardcore MAGA fans. Continue reading.

Barr sparks new political firestorm

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Former Attorney General William Barr has created a political firestorm with interviews for a new book that call former President Trump’s claims about fraud in last year’s election “bullshit” and detail how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pressed him to publicly dispute Trump’s assertions.

Barr has enraged Democrats and liberal commentators who say he is seeking to rehabilitate an image badly damaged by the Trump years, when he was a forceful advocate for the president, particularly during the release of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

They say that Barr contributed to Trump’s narrative undermining confidence in the voting system with his own comments about mail-in ballots in the lead-up to the election.  Continue reading.

Bill Barr’s ‘clean-up exercise’ to save his reputation actually reveals he was far more corrupt than anyone realized: columnist

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Former Attorney General William Barr is attempting to resuscitate his image after two years of using the Justice Department as a partisan defense agency for former President Donald Trump. In a new interview with reporter Jonathan Karl, Barr claimed he always knew Trump’s election conspiracy theories were “bullsh*t” and that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) begged him to help push back on them.

But on Monday, writing for The Washington Post‘s “The Plum Line,” columnist Greg Sargent argued that far from exonerating him, Barr’s new revelations show the depths of his corruption.

“Having gone to extraordinary lengths to help Donald Trump corrupt the presidency, William P. Barr is working overtime to launder his post-Trump reputation,” wrote Sargent. “But the former attorney general’s latest clean-up exercise may end up showing that the stain of his corruption is even darker than we thought — in a way that soils other Republicans as well.” Continue reading.

Bombshell Barr interview reveals Trump had ‘criminal intent’ in election lies: ex-prosecutor

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On his YouTube channel, where he generally explains legal things for the layperson, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner walked through the recently posted interview with former Attorney General Bill Barr in The Atlantic. 

The report revealed one thing that could ultimately work against Trump in the investigation over whether he committed voter fraud in Georgia. After the state was called for Joe Biden, Trump called the governor and secretary of state to urge them to “find” him votes to overthrow the election. 

According to Kirschner, the interview with Barr proved that Trump was well aware that there was no voter fraud, no election problems and that he lost the 2020 election. Barr told him and Trump acknowledged it, speaking about himself in the third person saying, “you must hate Trump.” Continue reading.

Bill Barr on Trump’s election fraud claims: “It was all bullsh*t”

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Former Attorney General Bill Barr said the Justice Department always knew Trump’s claims of election fraud were “bullsh*t,” according to an excerpt from journalist Jonathan Karl’s upcoming book published in the The Atlantic.

Why it matters: Barr’s new comments come as Trump continues to propagate the lie that the 2020 election was “rigged.” Republicans in swing states now are conducting“audits” of election ballots based on false conspiracies about the election. 

Flashback: Last December, Barr told the AP: “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” Continue reading.

Federal judge tosses most claims against Trump, Barr and U.S. officials in clearing of Lafayette Square

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A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed most claims filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C., Black Lives Matter and others in lawsuits that accused the Trump administration of authorizing an unprovoked attack on demonstrators in Lafayette Square last year.

The plaintiffs asserted the government used unnecessary force to enable a photo op of President Donald Trump holding a Bible outside of the historical St. John’s Church. But U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of Washington called allegations that federal officials conspired to make way for the photo too speculative.

The judge’s decision came in a 51-page opinion after the Justice Department requested she toss four overlapping lawsuits naming dozens of federal individual and agency defendants, as well as D.C. and Arlington police, in the June 2020 incident. Continue reading.

Sessions joins Barr in pleading ignorance about Trump DOJ spying – is Rosenstein the guy or are they setting him up?

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Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday afternoon announced that he too, just like former Attorney General Bill Barr, had no idea the Dept. of Justice was spying on at least two top House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. The scandal has shaken both the DOJ and the general public so broadly the Inspector General – less than 24 hours after The New York Times bombshell dropped – announced a wide-ranging internal investigation.

The track records of both Barr and Sessions when it comes to telling the truth – even under oath – are questionable at best and subject to interpretation.

Are they setting former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein up to take the fall? Or was it Rosenstein all along? Or both – were they all in on spying on Democrats? Continue reading.