William Barr steps down as Trump attorney general | William Barr

US Attorney General, William BarrOne of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies has resigned just weeks after he contradicted the president by saying the Justice Department had not revealed any evidence of widespread voter fraud that could alter the outcome of the 2020 election.

Barr’s departure ends a period marked by shameless displays of loyalty to a president who has willingly developed his political program. Critics said Barr turned the Justice Department into an obedient servant of the White House, eroding its commitment to independence and the rule of law.

Trump sought to ease tensions when he announced Barr’s resignation in a tweet On Monday, moments later the Electoral College members Joe Biden officially pushed past the 270 vote limit to win the White House on Monday. The procedural move effectively ends Trump’s unprecedented attempt to nullify the 2020 presidential election results based on false allegations of widespread voter fraud that Barr concluded was unworthy.

The President said, “It was just a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House.” “Our relationship was very good, he did a great job! According to the message, Bill will leave shortly before Christmas for the holidays with his family …”

In his resignation speech, which Trump posted on Twitter, Bar was extravagant for the president. He praised Trump’s resilience in the face of what the attorney general described as a “partisan attack” aimed at undermining a duly elected president.

Barr wrote, “There was no tactic, no matter how ill-treated and deceitful, off limits.”

And he continued: “Your record is more historical because you achieved it in the face of relentless resistance,” adding: “Few could have withstood these attacks, let alone to move forward with a positive program for the country.”

Jeff Rosen, the deputy attorney general, whom Trump has called “the most outstanding person,” will take over as acting attorney general and Richard Donoggio, the official in Rosen’s office, who will become deputy attorney general.

Barr surprised many observers by telling the Associated Press in an interview published on December 1 that he opposed the idea. Issued by the President of the Republic And his campaign for re-election, that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 elections.

Trump tried to undermine Biden win over By citing routine small-scale issues in the elections – questions about signatures, envelopes, and postmarks – as evidence of widespread nationwide fraud that cost the election.

Trump and some of his allies have also supported more bizarre sources of supposed fraud, such as linking Biden’s victory to an election program created in Venezuela “under the guidance of Hugo Chávez” – the former Venezuelan president who died in 2013.

“One assertion that would have been systematic fraud was the claim that the machines were basically programmed to distort election results. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have researched this, and so far, we haven’t seen anything that proves this,” Barr said in an interview with the agency. Associated Press.

Barr said some people are confusing the role of the federal criminal justice system and asking it to intervene on what allegations should be brought in civil litigation and review by state or local officials, not the Department of Justice.

Barr added, “There is a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as a kind of hypothetical reform, and people don’t like something – they want the Department of Justice to come and” investigate. “

These comments angered Trump and his supporters as they tried – and failed – to find any meaningful way, through the courts, and requested a recount, or pressure on officials, to reverse his defeat at Biden.

Speculation about Barr’s future was rife from the moment his AP interview, as the administration’s most famous member, was published categorically to contradict the president’s persistent arguments that he was the legitimate winner.

Trump announced in December 2018 that he was nominating Barr to become the next attorney general, replacing Jeff Sessions, the loyal who angered the president when he stepped down and allowed his deputy to appoint a special attorney general to investigate Russia’s election interference.

Barr, 70, formerly attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, was initially seen by longtime politicians in Washington as a much-needed stabilization force that would insulate the department from political attacks. However, the position assumption is the job Russia investigation In allegations of collusion between the 2016 Trump election campaign and Russian activists nearing an end in early 2019, Barr quickly upended expectations by aggressively attacking the investigation of the special advisor who examined relations between Russia and the Trump campaign.

In his resignation letter, the attorney general said that this was the “bottom line” of what he believed to be a partisan crusade against the president “that was an attempt to paralyze, if not overthrow, your administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia.”

Critics have often accused Barr of showing more loyalty to the president than to the nation. In one such case, Barr called to a press conference last April and exhibited Misleading preview of the Mueller report. I omit the detailed report description for Possible blockage Of justice by Trump and falsely claiming that the White House has cooperated fully.

This set Trump’s inaccurate cheers when the report itself came out, in a restricted form, that he and his team had enjoyed a “complete acquittal” by Mueller – a blatant misinterpretation.

And the partisan, protocol-breaking path continued from there, as it intervened in criminal cases against prominent figures in Trump’s circle, such as Roger Stone And the Michael Flynn.

As a file Asset investigation The Russian investigation itself, seen as fundamentally undermining the work of Mueller and his team, A. Effort that continues.