The Matt Whitaker era has served its purpose. As a transition from Confederate Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Whitaker’s illegal appointment, dull wits, and open contempt for the rule of law served to set the bar exceedingly low for his permanent replacement.

That replacement will be William Barr, who was just confirmed by the Senate. Barr will be better than Whitaker simply by dint of his ability to distinguish “a Congressional hearing” from “an episode of NYPD Blue half-watched while waiting in concussion protocol.”

But just because Barr is performatively normal when plotted against Matt Whitaker’s Kingpin cosplay, doesn’t mean Barr is a “good” guy. His job, the only job he seems committed to executing, will be to protect Trump from the Mueller investigation, without committing abuses of power so obvious that the mainstream media notices the corruption.

Barr will sound “normal,” but his actions are already keeping in with Trump’s mafia-style approach to staffing government. From CNN:

Mary Daly, Barr’s oldest daughter and the director of Opioid Enforcement and Prevention Efforts in the deputy attorney general’s office, is leaving for a position at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit, a Justice official said. Tyler McGaughey, the husband of Barr’s youngest daughter, has been detailed from the powerful US attorney’s office in Alexandria, Virginia, to the White House counsel’s office, two officials said.

Placing your family members in key positions to protect the president is not what a “normal” attorney general does, I don’t care how “regular” Barr sounds on T.V.

The president already thinks the White House counsel’s office are his personal lawyers, not the office’s lawyers. Trump already thinks the attorney general is his personal lawyer, not the country’s. Placing his son-in-law in the White House Counsel’s office suggests that there will be a coordinated strategy between the Justice Department and the WHC to protect the president. And they can discuss it over dinner without any incriminating emails flying back and forth.

And don’t even get me started on the FinCEN appointment. If there is one thing that the Trump organization and the cronies that keep Trump in power care about, it’s lax financial crimes enforcement. Here again, Barr is positioning himself to know everything he needs to know to do Trump a solid, by placing his own family spies in key positions.

Even if all of this wasn’t so obviously nepotistic and corrupt, the mere appearance of nepotism and corruption would make a more serious attorney general blanch.

But not Barr. Why would he? The expectations are so incredibly low for him. He managed to get through an entire confirmation process without supporting the Klan or lying about who he’s been meeting with. He managed to give Congressional testimony without sounding like an imbecile who hasn’t passed the MPRE.

At this point in America, nepotism and corruption is a step UP from what we’re used to getting out of our AGs.

Daughter and son-in-law of AG nominee leaving the Justice Department [CNN]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.