Beg pardon, but Bill Barr quitting does not trump the damage he has done
The US attorney-general’s resignation may mean there’s a Donald Trump January surprise that even Barr wants no part of
US attorney-general William Barr has resigned with a little more than a month left in President Donald Trump’s administration. This seems to suggest that Barr thinks what happens in the next five weeks could irretrievably tarnish his legacy. If so, that’s pretty stunning, considering how much Barr has already diminished his reputation and that of the US justice department with his pro-Trump shenanigans.
What’s the January surprise Barr wants no part of? One possibility is that Barr wants to create bureaucratic distance between himself and the president so that he can say he resigned rather than serving out his term. But this seems implausible, even for a canny bureaucratic operator such as Barr, given how close he has been to the presidency. And it certainly seems at odds with the fawning tone of his resignation letter...
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