AG Barr Abused His Office To Provide Unsubstantiated Ammunition For President Trump

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Attorney General Barr Abused His Office To Provide Unsubstantiated Ammunition For President Trump

Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer

Yesterday, Attorney General William Barr recklessly abused his powerful position by claiming that the government had spied on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.  In making this assertion, Barr parroted Republican talking points, not to mention the President’s repeated claims.

Yet Barr also stated he had no specific evidence to back up his incendiary allegation.

There could not have been a more irresponsible action by the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

And while Barr later made a feeble attempt to clarify his claim, he pointedly did not take back his statement that “spying” had occurred.

Barr knew exactly what he was doing when he said the Trump campaign had been spied on without offering a scintilla of evidence to back up that provocative claim. In doing so, Barr provided unsubstantiated ammunition for President Trump to use to back up his longstanding unsubstantiated claim that the Mueller investigation had been tainted from the beginning because it was the product of spying on his campaign.

It is not the job of the Attorney General of the United States to assert beliefs about whether crimes have occurred. That may be the job of politicians or pundits, but it is certainly not the way our law enforcement system is supposed to work or how the Attorney General is supposed to act.

Furthermore, this came on top of Barr “exonerating” Trump from obstruction of justice after Special Counsel Mueller had explicitly refused to do so. Barr gave Trump precisely the talking point he was looking for at the expense of Special Counsel Mueller and his two-year investigation.

Attorney General Barr has abdicated his responsibility to serve justice and is instead serving the partisan political interests of President Trump.

Barr has done great damage to the credibility of the Justice Department and has destroyed any personal credibility he may once have had before assuming office and the role of Trump protector.

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