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Attorney General William Barr was a no-show on Thursday, skipping a second congressional hearing into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Barr writes his obituary — and it's not flattering

By Brian Dickerson

Attorney General William Barr snookered me.

Back in January, testifying before senators considering whether to confirm him as the nation's top law enforcement officer, Barr was at pains to dispel suspicions that he would use his office to undercut the work of special counsel Robert Mueller, then nearing the conclusion of his investigation.

Senators who opposed Barr's confirmation had ample reason to question his bona fides as an honest broker. Half a year before his nomination as attorney general, in a 19-page memo mailed to Department of Justice leaders, Barr had asserted that Mueller's inquiry into the allegations that the president had broken the law by obstructing DOJ investigators was "fatally misconceived" because the president's authority over the department was absolute.

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But at his confirmation hearing, Barr insisted the memo was merely a summary of his disinterested legal judgment, not a veiled pledge of unquestioning loyalty to the president who had nominated him. He had already served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, he reminded senators; he wanted to restore confidence in the DOJ, not use it as a shield for presidential misconduct.

The prospect that Barr had misled senators about his independence emerged on March 24, when he released a four-page summary of Mueller's report that eerily echoed the language of the White House propaganda machine. Barr confirmed his critics' worst suspicions on April 18, when he preempted the release of the redacted report with a news conference in which he portrayed White House efforts to derail the investigation as the reasonable reaction of a president "frustrated and angered" about the allegations against him.

Along with his assertion that the FBI had spied after obtaining a warrant to monitor the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian agents, Barr made it clear that contrary to his promise to defend Mueller's investigation, he was now fully invested in portraying Trump as its innocent victim.

Mueller made plain his dismay at Barr's metamorphosis from attorney general to chief defense counsel in a March 27 letter, made public just before the attorney general's testimony Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which the special counsel protested that Barr had distorted "the context, substance and nature" of his investigators' work and threatened to undermine public confidence in their findings.

In his Senate testimony, Barr dismissed Mueller's circumspect letter as "snitty," brushed off previous sworn testimony in which the AG denied any inkling of the special counsel's displeasure, and insisted, with the Trump White House's characteristic disdain for candor, that he had meant to telegraph "no negative connotations" with his insinuations about FBI "spying."

Yet it is impossible to imagine that Mueller, his investigators, or the FBI agents and DOJ lawyers working on the 14 criminal investigations Mueller's team referred to other U.S. attorneys came away from Wednesday's hearing with the confidence that Barr has their backs.

Contrast that with the almost reverent appreciation Justice Department officials expressed for Barr's predecessors, the late Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus, when they resigned rather than enlist in President Richard Nixon's campaign to co-opt the Justice Department.

Barr won't lose any sleep over my own disappointment, and he won't be around to see how historians remember the cause for which he sacrificed, in a few short months, his reputation for integrity.

But he is quickly rewriting the obituary that might have appeared if he had demurred when Trump enlisted him as the White House's principal propagandist. The updated version is unlikely to be one he or his children will take much pride in.

Brian Dickerson is the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, where the full version of this column first appeared. You can follow him on Twitter: @BRIANDDICKERSON.

What others are saying

James Comey, The New York Times: "Amoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them. ... More often, proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we've seen with Attorney General William Barr and former acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive President Donald Trump, and that adds up to something they will never recover from."

The Wall Street Journal, editorial: "This trashing of Bill Barr shows how frustrated and angry Democrats continue to be that the special counsel came up empty in his Russia collusion probe. He was supposed to be their fast track to impeachment. Now they're left trying to gin up an obstruction tale, but the probe wasn’t obstructed and there was no underlying crime. So they’re shouting and pounding the table against Bill Barr for acting like a real attorney general."

Dana Milbank, The Washington Post: "Barr continued undermining Mueller on Wednesday, calling Mueller’s letter to him 'a bit snitty' and saying Mueller should have ended the investigation if he didn't think it in his purview to say whether Trump committed a crime. And Barr eagerly played Trump’s defense lawyer. ... Repeatedly, Barr said it didn’t matter that Trump had deceived the public. 'I'm not in the business of determining when lies are told to the American people,' he said. But now Barr, by misrepresenting his dealings with Mueller, has gotten himself into the business of lying to the American people."

What our readers are saying

Attorney General William Barr is not America's lawyer, he's President Donald Trump's private counsel hired to lie to Congress and Americans. Barr lied to Congress on Wednesday regarding former special counsel Robert Mueller's letter and said it was probably written by a subordinate. He has no shame and will do anything to protect our "dictator."

— Russell E. Glass

I'm glad Barr told them to stick it on a second congressional hearing. Barr was ready to testify until the House Judiciary Committee agreed to add an hour of questions by staff lawyers — a nonsensical demand. Democrats just wanted another day of theatrics.

— Gerd Eysser

So many people don't understand the true danger in this administration and their lawlessness. It sets the dangerous precedent that money and power mean you are above the law, and their total disregard for the Constitution and our laws is deplorable and putting us all at risk.

— Eileen Carlson Sierra

The Mueller report is done. There was no collusion! Liberals need to get over themselves and quit spending all this money.

— Pamela Hyder Lewis

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