THE DECIDER
IT WAS A SOMBER DAY IN THE WASHINGTON National Cathedral Dec. 5 as thousands gathered to mourn the death of former President George H.W. Bush. Beneath the glittering stained-glass windows, the crowd of political luminaries wistfully recalled the gentler era of bipartisanship the late leader represented.
Vermont’s Patrick Leahy, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, took the moment to reconnect with Bush’s Attorney General, William Barr. Leahy had known the Republican power lawyer for decades. Speculation was swirling about whom President Donald Trump would ask to fill Barr’s old job after Jeff Sessions’ departure. Pulling him aside, Leahy urged Barr to take the post again. “Bill, we need you back,” Leahy said, according to a Justice Department official with knowledge of the conversation. (Leahy’s staff said the Senator does not recall the discussion.)
Barr demurred, but he had a secret that very few of the mourners knew: he had already accepted the job. It hadn’t been an easy choice—Barr had turned Trump down once already. And Barr knew the comity on display at the Bush funeral wouldn’t last. At his youngest daughter’s wedding three days later, shortly after Trump announced his nomination, Barr quipped that at least she was changing her name before it was dragged through the mud at his confirmation hearings. And in fact, when Barr’s nomination came up for a vote two months later, Leahy voted against him, along with nearly every other Democrat.
The partisanship has already intensified now that Barr has become the keeper of the conclusions from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. After nearly two years of work, Mueller submitted his final report to Barr on Friday, March 22. Two days later, Barr sent Congress a four-page letter summarizing Mueller’s findings. The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign or its associates conspired or coordinated with Russia, Barr said, and it was inconclusive on whether Trump obstructed justice. On that question, Mueller laid out the facts on both
