William Pelham Barr is a traitor.
William Pelham Barr is a traitor.
William Pelham Barr is a treasonous American attorney who is a former United States Attorney General. Barr previously served in this position from 1991 to 1993 under the George H. W. Bush administration, and returned to the post in 2019 to December 2020 under the Trump administration.
This following article was originally published on December 12, 2018. The serious questions raised in the piece remain completely unanswered.
Why was Barr chosen, given his shocking and deeply criminal cover-up kingpin background?
For a presidential administration whose mandate was the eradication of corruption, the “draining of the swamp”, and the restoration of law?
With the nomination of William Barr for attorney general, that is what President Donald Trump wants American citizens and the world to accept.
Fawning mainstream media coverage, and streams of puff pieces laud Barr as a “respected” establishment “legal scholar”, as do Donald Trump’s Twitter posts about Barr.
The fact is, there is nothing to “respect” and everything to condemn about Barr’s work as a key inner circle operative throughout George Herbert Walker Bush’s rise to power, from CIA Director to Vice President to President. These aspects of Barr’s resume remain whitewashed by mainstream coverage. They have been amply documented by whistleblowers and those who worked directly with Barr.
The issue at hand is not Barr’s “legal mind”, but the ruthless mind that he wielded with frightening authority and expertise as George H. W. Bush’s treasonous hatchet man in the Justice Department. William Barr distorted and corrupted the law, as grossly as anyone in modern history.
Barr: CIA operative
It is a sobering fact that American presidents (many of whom have been corrupt) have gone out of their way to hire fixers to be their attorney generals.
Consider recent history: Loretta Lynch (2015-2017), Eric Holder (2009-2015), Michael Mukasey (2007-2009), Alberto Gonzales (2005-2007), John Ashcroft (2001-2005),Janet Reno (1993-2001), Dick Thornburgh (1988-1991), Ed Meese (1985-1988), etc.
Barr, however, is a particularly spectacular and sordid case. As George H.W. Bush’s most notorious insider, and as the AG from 1991 to 1993, Barr wreaked havoc, flaunted the rule of law, and proved himself to be one of the CIA/Deep State’s greatest and most ruthless champions and protectors:
Barr was a full-time CIA operative, recruited by Langley out of high school, starting in 1971. Barr’s youth career goal was to head the CIA.
CIA operative assigned to the China directorate, where he became close to powerful CIA operative George H.W. Bush, whose accomplishments already included the CIA/Cuba Bay of Pigs, Asia CIA operations (Vietnam War, Golden Triangle narcotics), Nixon foreign policy (Henry Kissinger), and the Watergate operation.
When George H.W. Bush became CIA Director in 1976, Barr joined the CIA’s “legal office” and Bush’s inner circle, and worked alongside Bush’s longtime CIA enforcers Theodore “Ted” Shackley, Felix Rodriguez, Thomas Clines, and others, several of whom were likely involved with the Bay of Pigs/John F. Kennedy assassination, and numerous southeast Asian operations, from the Phoenix Program to Golden Triangle narco-trafficking.
Barr stonewalled and destroyed the Church Committee investigations into CIA abuses.
Barr stonewalled and stopped inquiries in the CIA bombing assassination of Chilean opposition leader Orlando Letelier.
Barr joined George H.W. Bush’s legal/intelligence team during Bush’s vice presidency (under President Ronald Reagan) Rose from assistant attorney general to Chief Legal Counsel to attorney general (1991) during the Bush 41 presidency.
Barr was a key player in the Iran-Contra operation, if not the most important member of the apparatus, simultaneously managing the operation while also “fixing” the legal end, ensuring that all of the operatives could do their jobs without fear of exposure or arrest.
In his attorney general confirmation, Barr vowed to “attack criminal organizations”, drug smugglers and money launderers. It was all hot air: as AG, Barr would preserve, protect, cover up, and nurture the apparatus that he helped create, and use Justice Department power to escape punishment.
Barr stonewalled and stopped investigations into all Bush/Clinton and CIA crimes, including BCCI and BNL CIA drug banking, the theft of Inslaw/PROMIS software, and all crimes of state committed by Bush.
Barr provided legal cover for Bush’s illegal foreign policy and war crimes.
Barr left Washington, and went through the “rotating door” to the corporate world, where he took on numerous directorships and counsel positions for major companies. In 2007 and again from 2017, Barr was counsel for politically-connected international law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Among its other notable attorneys and alumni are Kenneth Starr, John Bolton, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and numerous Trump administration attorneys. K&E’s clients include sex trafficker/pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital.
A strong case can be made that William Barr was as powerful and important a figure in the Bush apparatus as any other, besides Poppy Bush himself.
Iran-Contra
To understand the scope, scale, and gravity of William Barr’s central role working for George H.W. Bush, one must grasp the significance of Iran-Contra, the massive criminal operation that was the cornerstone of the Bush era, headed by the Bushes, with the Clintons as partners.
As previously written:
Originally coined “Iran-Contra” (in reference to illegal arms sales to Iran in exchange for American hostages in Lebanon and arms to the Contra “freedom fighters” in Nicaragua), the moniker hides the fact that it became a massive and permanent criminal business and political machine that went far beyond then-current political concerns.
In The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider, Al Martin describes the Iran-Contra Enterprise that a vast operation that included (and was not limited to) drugs, weapons, terrorism, war, money laundering, criminal banking and securities fraud, currency fraud, real estate fraud, insurance fraud, blackmail, extortion, and political corruption that involved countless Washington politicians of both Republican and Democratic parties.
Martin:
“Iran-Contra itself is a euphemism for the outrageous fraud perpetrated by government criminals for profit and control. Offhandedly, this inaccurate term entered history as shorthand for the public scandals of illicit arms sales to Iran coupled with illicit weapons deals for Nicaragua. The real story, however, is much more complex…When George Bush, [CIA Director] Bill Casey and Oliver North initiated their plan of government-sanctioned fraud and drug smuggling, they envisioned using 500 men to raise $35 billion….they ended up using about 5,000 operatives and making over $35 billion.” In addition, the operation became “a government within a government, comprising some thirty to forty thousand people the American government turns to, when it wishes certain illegal covert operations to be extant pursuant to a political objective” with George [H.W.] Bush “at the top of the pyramid”.
The operation’s insiders and whistleblowers place George H.W.Bush as one of its top architects, and its commander. It was carried out by CIA operatives close to Bush since his CIA directorship and even stretching back to the Bay of Pigs. These included Oliver North, Ted Shackley, Edwin Wilson, Felix Rodriguez, and others. Iran-Contra was a replication of the CIA’s Golden Triangle drug trafficking in Southeast Asia (operations also connected to Bush) but on a larger scale and sophistication, greater complexity, and far-reaching impact that remains palpable to this day.
In George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Webster Tarpley wrote that, “many once-classified documents have come to light, which suggest that Bush organized and supervised many, or most, of the criminal aspects of the Iran-Contra adventures.”
Tarpley further points out that George H.W. Bush created new structures (“special situation group”, “terror incident working group” etc.) within the Reagan administration—and that
“all of these structures revolved around [creating] the secret command role of the then-Vice President, George Bush…The Bush apparatus, within and behind the government, was formed to carry out covert policies: to make war when the constitutional government had decided not to make war; to support enemies of the nation (terrorists and drug runners) who are the friends and agents of the secret government.”
This suggests that George H.W.Bush not only ran Iran-Contra, but much of the Reagan presidency. Then-White House press secretary James Baker said in 1981,
“Bush is functioning much like a co-president. George is involved in all the national security stuff because of his special background as CIA director. All the budget working groups, he was there, the economic working groups, the Cabinet meetings. He is included in almost all the meetings.”
Hundreds of insiders, witnesses and investigators have blown the lid off of the Iran-Contra Enterprise in exhaustive fashion. These include the investigations of Mike Ruppert (From The Wilderness, Crossing the Rubicon), Al Martin (The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider), Gary Webb (Dark Alliance), Rodney Stich (Defrauding America, Drugging America), Terry Reed (Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA), Stew Webb (and here), Dois “Chip” Tatum (The Tatum Chronicles) (summarized here), Pete Brewton (The Mafia, the CIA and George Bush), among others. The accounts of Barry Seal, Edward Cutolo, Albert Carone, Bradley Ayers, Tosh Plumley, Bill Tyree, Gunther Russbacher, Celerino Castillo, Michael Levine, Trenton Parker, Russell Bowen, Richard Brenneke, Larry Nichols, William Duncan, Russell Welch and dozens more implicate the Bushes, the Clintons and the CIA.
As described by Mike Ruppert (image left):
“It stood, and still stands today, isolated and immune from the operating principles of democracy. It is autonomous and it operates through self-funding via narcotics and weapons trafficking. To quote [former CIA director] William Casey it is ‘a completely self-funding, off-the-shelf operation.’ It, in fact, dictates a substantial portion of this country’s foreign, economic and military policy from a place not accessible to the will of a free people properly armed with facts.”
CIA deep cover agent pilot Chip Tatum, a key Iran-Contra player who flew drugs into Mena and Little Rock in Arkansas, worked alongside CIA pilot and drug smuggler Barry Seal. It is believed that Seal was subsequently murdered by the Medellin Cartel, on order of Oliver North and the Bushes, to prevent him from testifying about his activities. Before he was killed, Seal provided Tatum a list of Iran-Contra “Boss Hogs” who allegedly controlled the drug trade. The Pegasus File summaries Tatum’s activities, and features the “Boss Hog” list.
The Iran-Contra apparatus was byzantine, comprised of a network of connected government agencies, subsidiaries, and shell companies and corporations can be seen in the diagram provided by whistleblower Stew Webb:
Bush Crime Family Flow Chart
Progressive Review (1998)
Why is Iran-Contra still relevant today?
The Iran-Contra Enterprise’s overseers, criminal associates and beneficiaries, to this day, remain at large [including Barr], with most enjoying massive illegally-obtained wealth, privilege, and highest political and corporate positions. The imperial positions of the Bush and Clinton clans exemplify this.
The operation, in essence, evolved and metastasized into ever-more modern and sophisticated incarnation with even more global reach. New names, new banks, new drugs, new wars, same blueprint. It is not a “deep state” or a “shadow state” but a Criminal State that operates “in broad daylight”. It is the playbook of the New World Order. It is globalization at its finest.
All attempts to prosecute were largely unsuccessful—blocked, stalled, or given a “limited hangout” treatment. As written by Ruppert, one of many Iran-Contra whistleblowers, in Crossing the Rubicon:
“[In Congress] Iran-Contra was effectively ‘managed’ by Lee Hamilton in the House [of Representatives] and John Kerry (among others) in the Senate throughout the late 1980s to conceal the greatest crimes of the era, crimes committed by a litany of well-known government operatives.”
Which brings us to this:
Iran-Contra was also managed on both the operational and all-important judicial “legal” end by none other than William Barr.
Barr: Iran-Contra insider alias “Robert Johnson”
In his books Drugging America: A Trojan Horse and Defrauding America: Dirty Secrets of the CIA and other Government Operations, whistleblower Rodney Stich exposed in exhaustive detail the firsthand accounts of whistleblowers and insiders, who participated in the many criminal operations that stretched across the Bush and Clinton presidencies.
Some of the shocking evidence exposes Barr acting simultaneously as a hands-on covert operative, and as Bush’s judicial/political fixer:
In Drugging America, Stich wrote:
[CIA operative] Terry Reed had been in frequent telephone contact with the man he knew as Robert Johnson. Johnson directed the drug trafficking and drug money laundering, the training in Arkansas of Contra pilots and fighters, and authorized Reed to set up the CIA proprietary in Mexico. At a later date, Reed learned that Robert Johnson was really William Barr, appointed by President George Bush to be Attorney General of the United States.
Reed’s CIA contact, William Barr, known at that time by his alias Robert Johnson, told Reed that Attorney General Edwin Meese had appointed Michael Fitzhugh to be US Attorney in Western Arkansas, and that he would stonewall any investigation into the Mena, Arkansas drug-related activities. This obstruction of justice by Justice Department officials did occur.
William Barr, who Bush appointed to be the top law enforcement officer in the United States—US Attorney General—played a key role in the smuggling of drugs into the United States. [CIA pilot Chip] Tatum’s statements about reaching Barr at Southern Air Transport in Miami through the name of Robert Johnson confirmed what [CIA operative] Terry Reed, author of the book Compromised, had told me and had written. Nothing like having members of felony drug operations hold the position of US Attorney General—in control of the United States Department of Justice—and a vice president of the United States [Bush]. With this type of influence, no one needs fear being arrested. And don’t forget the Mafia groups working with the CIA who also receive Justice Department protection that is not available to US citizens.
According to Stich, Tatum also detailed to him meetings that took place in which he was present for meetings and telephone conversations between Bush, [NSC Colonel] Oliver North and Barr, discussing not only operations but the skimming of drug money by the Clintons.
The purpose of the meeting was to determine who was responsible for stealing over $100 million in drug money on the three routes from Panama to Colorado, Ohio, and Arkansas. This theft was draining the operation known as the “Enterprise”…The first call was made by [CIA agent Joseph] Fernandez to Oliver North, informing North that the theft was occurring on the Panama to Arkansas route, and “that means either [CIA pilot Barry] Seal, Clinton, or [Panamanian General Manuel] Noriega”…Fifteen minutes later, the portable phone rang, and Vice President George Bush was on the line, talking to William Barr. Barr said at one point, referring to the missing funds, “I would propose that no one source would be bold enough to siphon out that much money, but it is more plausible that each are siphoning a portion, causing a drastic loss.”..Barr told Bush that he and Fernandez were staying in Costa Rica until the following day after first visiting [CIA operative] John Hull’s ranch. Barr then handed the phone to Tatum, who was instructed by Bush to be sure that Noriega and [Mossad operative Michael] Harari boarded Seal’s plane and departed, and for Tatum to get the tail number of Seal’s plane….Tatum said that Barr dialed another number, immediately reaching then-governor Bill Clinton. Barr explained the missing money problem to Clinton…Barr suggested that Clinton investigate at the Arkansas end of the Panama to Arkansas route, and that he and North would continue investigating the Panama end of the connection, warning that the matter must be resolved or it could lead to “big problems”…(This description of missing drug money provided support to a subsequent meeting in Little Rock, described by Terry Reed, during which William Barr accused Clinton of siphoning drug money and that this had to stop.)
Tatum also described to Stich a March 15, 1985 flight, during which “Tatum met with Barr, Harari, and Buddy Young (head of Governor Bill Clinton’s security detail). Barr represented himself as an emissary of Vice President George Bush, who would be arriving soon. Tatum would note on his flight book “Bush visit/meet with Barr and had dinner at German restaurant”.
The fact is, William Barr was heavily involved in the Iran-Contra.
Cover-up of BCCI and BNL scandals
As attorney general, obviously still working for CIA/Bush purposes, Barr and Richard Thornburgh (George H.W. Bush’s previous attorney general) killed off investigations into BCCI, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the notorious CIA drug bank. Barr also stonewalled investigations in the Banca Nationale del Lavoro (BNL), another CIA drug bank.
BCCI was a leading CIA bank used by the Bush/Clinton machine for a vast array of operations, including Iran-Contra drug money laundering.
Barr himself had a personal relationship with BCCI going back to the early 1980s.
William Barr is heading the drive in Virginia to turn prisons into slave labor camps. Here he is shown during a hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee, Nov. 12, 1991, on his nomination as Attorney General in the Bush administration. Left to right: Sen. Strom Thurmond, Sen. Joseph Biden, Barr, Sen. Patrick Leahy. (Source: EIR)
According to Rodney Stich,
“before William Barr came to the Justice Department, he was an attorney with the Washington law firm of Shaw Pittman Potts & Trowbridge. This law firm represented BCCI for several years…Barr’s former law firm also represented B. Francis Saul II, a director and powerful shareholder in Financial General Bankshares, Inc. Financial later became First American Bankshares, a covert BCCI operation…Further, Barr had been legal counsel for the CIA, the same agency that was heavily involved with BCCI corrupt activities. He was CIA counsel during the time that George Bush was Director of the CIA.”
When both the CIA and the Justice Department connections and cover-up of BCCI were exposed by the dogged investigations of Congressman Henry Gonzalez, then-FBI Director William Sessions [note: not related to recent Trump attorney general Jeff Sessions] promised an investigation. This prompted Attorney General Barr, who himself was engaged in the cover-up and the obstruction of justice, to remove Sessions on trumped-up ethics charges, replacing him with someone more malleable.
Also, as part of the BCCI “negotiation” as well as to maintain control over the Iran-Contra drug operations, Barr allegedly also crafted a legal justification for then-President Bush to invade Panama and kidnap their associate General Manuel Noriega, in order to imprison and silence him before he could expose the operation.
Cover-up of Inslaw and PROMIS software theft.
Barr stonewalled investigations and assisted the cover-up of the theft of Inslaw, and PROMIS software by the Department of Justice and the CIA. The otherworldly power of PROMIS software was and still is so coveted that extreme criminal measures have been get it.
PROMIS (Mike Ruppert, From the Wilderness publications)
PROMIS part 2 (Mike Ruppert, From The Wilderness publications)
The Undying Octopus: the FBI and the PROMIS affair
NSA surveillance: PROMIS
According to Rodney Stich in Defrauding America,
“by misusing the power of their office…three US attorney generals in the Reagan-Bush administrations, Edwin Meese, Richard Thornburgh, and William Barr misappropriated, or aided and abetted, the theft of the software called PROMIS.”
When the scandal became too noisy, Barr
“appointed a former Justice Department crony to conduct an “investigation” of the Inslaw matter, and then report back to him. The special counsel would be selected by Barr; would be subservient to him; and would report to him. Barr could then ignore the recommendations if, in the remote possibility the special counsel did not cooperate in the expected cover-up.”
The Iran-Contra pardons
In the most brazen insult to the American people and the entire world, Barr facilitated George H.W. Bush’s infamous 1992 Christmas Eve pardons of six Iran-Contra co-conspirators Caspar Weinberger, Elliott Abrams, Robert McFarlane, Dewey Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George,
With the stroke of a pen, Bush gleefully set free six of his Iran-Contra criminal flunkies, and effectively decapitating Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh’s six-year long Iran-Contra probe.
It was Barr who closed the lid on Iran-Contra, freeing virtually the entire Bush/Clinton network, including himself, from punishment.
It was Barr who, with this move, “saved their asses”.
The New World Order could not have asked for a better henchman, fixer, and spook than William Barr.
Trump’s nomination of Barr: insanity or “part of the plan”?
Trump won the presidency in 2016 on the power of the single mandate to “drain the swamp”, and Destroy the Deep State. A vicious global struggle continues to be waged on every front between populist reformers led by Trump and the Deep State New World Order. This war is taking place in every nation and on every continent. The stakes are deadly. Time is running short.
The Justice Department has been ground zero in this war. Jeff Sessions’ tenure as attorney general was opaque and riddled with uncertainties. His interim replacement, Matthew Whittaker, is true Trump loyalist who has the unenviable task of taking immediate action on FISAgate and other investigations into Obama/Clinton administration spying/treason, ending the Robert Mueller’s manufactured anti-Trump “Russian Collusion” witch hunt hoax, and do it all before January 2019, when a new Congress full of emboldened Democrats (who will come into office via rampant mid-term election fraud) pursue new avenues to further attack Trump. Numerous critical and potentially explosive congressional testimonies, including investigations into the Clinton Foundation, are all scheduled to take place before January, which could well decide the course of Trump’s presidency, and the movement behind him.
Why is William Barr—the antithesis of a “patriot” and the swampiest of swamp monsters— now being inserted into the middle of what is supposed to be a “white hat” anti-corruption operation? The move is baffling.
Why did Trump make the pick—the sole pick—so immediately, seemingly without thorough vetting?
Who recommended Barr for the job? The “white hats”, or the “black hats” that have never stopped planting assassins into Trump’s inner circle?
Is it significant or coincidental that the Barr pick came shortly after the death of George H.W. Bush?
Does Trump, who made the pick but claims that he “does not know” Barr (do we believe this?) realize that Barr—“Robert Johnson”—is the Deep State swamp’s most loyal operators and protectors? And that Barr is deeply connected and loyal to everyone and everything that Trump opposes?
What role could Trump possibly envision for Barr? Will Barr go after Bill and Hillary Clinton? Jeb and George W. Bush, with whom Barr managed numerous Iran-Contra operations? Will he go after Robert Mueller and James Comey, and dozens of members of Congress, who were also deeply connected to the “Enterprise”?
Why would Barr go against everything he helped create and everything he stood for? Why would he undo his own criminal handiwork by prosecuting his own lifelong criminal colleagues and friends? Barr’s career has been about saving the Deep State and the New World Order that he helped make invincible. Why would he do any differently now?
For reasons known only to him, Trump has surrounded himself with bad actors, too many to count. Mike Pence (longtime Bush loyalist), John Bolton, H.R. McMaster, etc. etc. Trump’s cabinet has been in constant flux, with many shakeups underway. But William Barr is an entirely different level of criminal. What next? Will Trump invite Dick Cheney to his administration? Bring back Henry Kissinger?
Is Trump being a genius, or is he a dupe and/or a sell-out?
Have Trump and his forces “turned” or leveraged Barr? Is it even possible to control someone like him? “Once CIA, always CIA.”
Imagine the spectacle of the pending “confirmation hearings”. Will any member of this corrupt Congress grill Barr about Iran-Contra or BCCI? Will anyone stand up and ask “Robert Johnson” to tell the truth? Or will Barr look across at a room full of frightened politicians (many of whom he knows too well) and chortle, knowing that no one in the chamber will dare.
Is this the “draining of the swamp”, or is Barr the swamp’s ultimate victory, and the end of Trump?
Of limited hangouts and deceptions
In recent interviews, Barr issued noises that seemed supportive of Trump. Barr obviously caught the Trump team’s attention based on these comments. (Humorously, the CIA-managed corporate mainstream media has labeled Barr, an actual CIA criminal conspirator, a “conspiracy theorist”for his statements.)
While the mainstream media has latched on to quotes in which Barr said that he supports “some” investigations into the Clintons, he also insists that “throwing Hillary Clinton in jail is inappropriate”.
In other words, Barr does not want the swamp to be drained. In other words, Barr only supports limited investigations and limited hangouts.
Barr should be disqualified for the job simply based on this.
Or does the nomination of Barr suggest that President Trump also does not want to fully “drain the swamp”? Is his goal to merely co-opt the New World Order and co-opt the Bush Republican apparatus, in order to take down the Clinton/Obama side of it, while leaving the Bush side intact?
Given that Bush-Clinton/Obama are two sides of the same coin, it is ridiculous and impossible to “go after” one side without “going after” the other, and then claim that any real swamp draining is taking place.
It is also possible that Barr and/or his Bush/CIA colleagues have baited the Trump team with his statements, in order to place him in Trump’s administration as a Trojan Horse.
Muted reaction
It is too much to expect the masses, remain uninformed and controlled by propaganda, to understand the significance and danger posed by the reappearance of Barr.
The few who seem aware of Barr’s background are alarmedfor good reason. But even the more informed observers aren’t getting it. Most of those who “trust Trump” and “trust the plan” have not aggressively questioned the move. Even the research-intensive Internet Anoncommunity has been quiet about Barr.
Some Trump optimists are stretching, trying to convince themselves that Trump is using the Barr nomination to “troll”, and to point attention back to the Bush history, thus forcing the public to research, recoil and awaken to the truth.
They would like to believe that Trump is continuing to play a game of deception. The “4-D chess player”, is merely “keeping enemies close”; manipulating, co-opting, and leveraging compromised figures to his personal bidding; and turn one of the Deep State’s own into a weapon against the Deep State. Perhaps they believe that Trump is purposely elevating Barr, in order to fire him later, as he has already done with numerous others in his administration.
Some argue that Barr is useful because he “knows where the bodies are buried”. Barr himself helped bury them—literally in many cases.
If Trump thinks that he can control or leverage someone as dangerous as Barr, then Trump is taking the biggest risk of his presidency, and of his life.
He is also placing the country and the world at risk.
All in the crime family
The atrocities and crimes of the Bushes and Clintons are unspeakable and unimaginable in depravity and scale.
These atrocities were facilitated by William Barr.
Barr, a hands-on participant, is guilty. Furthermore, he poisoned and manipulated the judicial system—“law enforcement”— to get himself and his friends off the hook.
Barr must be exposed and condemned, along with the entire Bush/Clinton/Obama network, and all must be denied and removed from all positions of influence and power.
In an unguarded moment in 1992, George H.W. Bush said to reporter Sarah McClendon:
“If people ever knew what we had done, we would be chased down the street and lynched.”
Additional Information – January 18, 2019
Read about how: William Barr Defends Blanket Immunity For FBI Agents Who Kill American Citizens.
Additional Information – March 14, 2019
Latest reports show dishonesty and corruption are endemic at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Barr has done nothing to stop it since he took office as our nation’s Attorney General. Furthermore, he refuses to review their actions and present the evidence of wrongdoing to federal prosecutors, and/or a grand jury.
Read about how: Latest Reports Offer More Proof The FBI Is Corrupt And Dishonest.
News Update – March 21, 2020
Justice Department Reportedly Asks Congress for Indefinite Detention Powers To Fight Coronavirus is extremely troubling and would raise a whole host of constitutional concerns,” says Scott Bullock, president and general counsel for the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm. “History demonstrates again and again that governments use a crisis to expand power and violate vital constitutional principles. And when the supposed emergency is over, the expanded powers often become permanent.”
Congress should loudly and unanimously reject this treasonous act of insanity.
Additional Information – Updated November 30, 2020
Injustice: Tracking Bill Barr’s Misconduct as Attorney General
The Department of Justice, led by the attorney general, has a unique role in our government. The attorney general, as the nation’s top law enforcement official, is entrusted with ensuring that the department acts with impartiality and independence to uphold the rule of law. And although the attorney general is presidentially appointed and works within the executive branch, the Justice Department’s mandate is to treat the people of the United States, not the president, as its client. Inherent in the department’s and the attorney general’s responsibilities is also to act in accordance with reasonable checks and balances.
Under Attorney General William Barr, the Justice Department has repeatedly strayed from its commitment to independence and the rule of law. Barr has demonstrated a disregard for these values, putting personal and political priorities first and undermining the constitutional separation of powers—in short, he has acted in a manner unbefitting the powerful position of attorney general.
Looking at Barr’s tenure since his February 2019 confirmation, we’ve identified a long string of actions that constitute serious misconduct, and may inflict lasting damage to the Justice Department. These actions generally fall into four key categories of misconduct that are antithetical to the department’s responsibilities to the public and to the Constitution. Namely, Barr has on numerous occasions interfered with impartial prosecutions, prioritized politics over justice, undermined the independent special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and hindered congressional oversight. Below, subject matter experts explain the significance of each theme in greater detail.
POGO has produced a timeline to provide a thorough look at the improper actions Barr has taken, their impact, and how they form an escalating pattern of undermining the Justice Department’s proper role in the executive branch. As Barr continues to oversee activities such as pending investigations that he has politicized, it is critical to examine the breadth of his misconduct thus far, and view any potentially improper actions he may take in the context of this pattern of wrongdoing.
A few notes on format and content: The timeline does not exclusively track Barr’s misconduct. In order to provide a more complete picture, it begins with a small set of relevant events prior to Barr’s appointment, and also tracks related developments, such as other officials’ responses to Barr’s actions; the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report and other high-profile investigations; indictments, convictions, and sentences; and more. The timeline also includes a number of isolated acts of misconduct that may not be part of a series of actions, but are nonetheless necessary to highlight given their implications for critical issues such as civil rights and civil liberties.
Focused primarily on the four categories of misconduct discussed above, the timeline also tracks activities centered on five key areas and contexts in which many important interconnected events took place:
Types of Misconduct
Undermining the Special Counsel
It is a fundamental tenet of the law, as Edward Coke put it almost 400 years ago, that “no man can be a judge in his own case.” All the more so when the man is president of the United States. And that is why having some independent investigative authority to stand as a bulwark against presidential criminality is important. The special counsel provisions that authorized Robert Mueller’s investigation of Donald Trump are a response to the age-old question: Who will watch the watchmen? How do we make sure that those who are responsible for leading us are not a threat to the citizens of the very union they are bound to protect? In an independent special counsel, our nation hoped it had found the answer.
—Paul Rosenzweig, Senior Fellow, R St. Institute, and former Senior Counsel, Whitewater Investigation
Prioritizing Politics over Justice
A fundamental premise of a fair justice system is that all Americans are treated equally. The Justice Department, which is charged with investigating and prosecuting federal crimes, can only be effective if it not only is perceived as conducting its work free of political influence, but actually conducts its work in a nonpartisan and independent manner. Although policy priorities may shift from administration to administration, a fundamental commitment to enforcing the law and protecting national security without regard to inappropriate political influence has traditionally been baked into the culture of the department. When public confidence begins to erode in the department’s independent exercise of its substantial powers, public safety and national security are weakened, and our collective societal fabric begins to fray.
—Carrie Cordero, Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security, and former Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security
Interfering with Impartial Prosecutions
Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson was also the chief prosecutor of the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunals. Before these positions, he served as attorney general and spoke to a group of United States Attorneys about the discretion a prosecutor has over a person’s “life, liberty and reputation.” He deemed the power as good if used properly but if driven by improper motives, the prosecutor becomes “one of the worst”. Having been a state, military, and federal prosecutor, I attest to the non-negotiable requirement that prosecutions must be based solely on the evidence and the law. Given the enormous power prosecutors wield, politics cannot play a part in charging decisions. Any deviation from this historical practice is anathema to the rule of law
—David Iglesias, Former United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico.
Hindering Congressional Oversight
Checks and balances are the immune system of our democracy, vital to its functioning and survival. Our Constitution designed Congress to be a rigorous check on the executive – in creating laws that set the bounds of executive power, in passing a budget to fund what it can (and cannot) do, and in providing direct oversight over the executive and its officers. Ability to question officials, to obtain relevant documents, and to investigate without obstruction and delay are critical to Congress’ role. Efforts to undermine Congressional oversight are incompatible with a democratic society in which the executive is subject to checks, limits, and judgment by both the people and its coequal branches of government.
—Danielle Brian, Executive Director of the Project On Government Oversight.
News Update – December 14,, 2020
US Attorney General William Barr will be stepping down just before Christmas and Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen will become acting attorney general, President Donald Trump has announced.
Barr, in a letter to Trump posted by the Republican president on Twitter, said he would leave his post on December 23.
