[William] Barr’s path into the apparatus of the state is one on which he followed his father’s footsteps. Donald had worked at the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency. While William was still a student at Columbia, where his father had also enjoyed a distinguished career as a teacher and administrator, he worked as a summer intern at the CIA and in 1973, took up his first full-time job there as an analyst.
That same year Donald Barr published an atrocious science fiction novel called Space Relations and dedicated it to his wife as a token of “thirty years’ love.” It is a probe launched from conservative, white, male America into the strange inner worlds of its own psyche in the Nixon years. As literature, it is excruciating. But it deals in a usefully unguarded way with themes that bear heavily on William Barr’s present position as Trump’s most formidable enabler: the legacy of slavery, Catholic sexual dogma, the proper response to revolt from below…
…Space Relations is really a thinly disguised plantation novel in which (Planet} Kossar serves as the Old South. Readers are being pointed in the direction of some allegory of American history…”
“The literary sins of the father—especially ones as grave as Space Relations—should not be visited on the son. There is, however, a very strong connection between Donald Barr’s hard-line Catholicism and William Barr’s present position as the main (perhaps the sole) intellectual buttress of Trump’s presidency. That connection lies in the idea of authority.”
And so it goes…
“President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr had a “contentious,” lengthy meeting inside the West Wing this week after Barr told The Associated Press in an interview that the Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of fraud that would change the election outcome, one person familiar with the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity told CNN.
The interview had caused his boss to erupt, multiple people familiar with his reaction said.
On Thursday, Trump wouldn’t say whether he had confidence in Barr.
“Ask me that in a number of weeks from now. They should be looking at all of this fraud,” Trump said after pausing a moment to answer the question posed by reporters in the Oval Office for a Medal of Freedom ceremony.” https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/03/politics/trump-william-barr-attorney-general/index.html
“President Trump remained livid at Attorney General William P. Barr on Wednesday, with one senior administration official indicating there was a chance Barr could be fired — not just for his public comments undercutting Trump’s unfounded claims of election-shifting fraud, but also for steps he did not take on a probe of the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Trump’s campaign.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-barr-election-fraud/2020/12/02/5717626c-34e2-11eb-a997-1f4c53d2a747_story.html
Warms the cockles of my heart it does, eh?
“I don’t care if you don’t want me…I’m yours!”
“Trump raised firing Barr in White House meeting on Friday” https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/12/politics/william-barr-donald-trump-white-house-meeting/index.html
“Bill Barr says Trump is a ‘deposed king ranting’ after president ‘raised prospect of firing him’” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/bill-barr-trump-election-biden-b1772174.html
Mr Barr has angered Trump supporters, and the president himself, for failing to overturn the election. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/bill-barr-attorney-general-us-election-fraud-b1767032.html
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 3:39 PM · Dec 14, 2020
“Just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job! As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family…
[continues] ……Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, an outstanding person, will become Acting Attorney General. Highly respected Richard Donoghue will be taking over the duties of Deputy Attorney General. Thank you to all!”
Barr’s letter of resignation (click to enlarge) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EpO2zCBXYAIp9u1?format=jpg and https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EpO2zCHW4AYrwj7?format=jpg
“William Barr’s exit is bad news for Trump’s hopes of an 11th-hour pardoning spree” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/15/william-barr-exit-bad-news-donald-trump-post-presidency-pardons
“Attorney General Barr says special counsel not needed for Hunter Biden investigation, undercutting Trump” https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/21/attorney-general-barr-wont-name-special-counsel-for-hunter-biden-probe.html
“It’s likely upcoming Trump pardons, executive orders drove AG Barr to quit” https://bangordailynews.com/2020/12/20/opinion/contributors/its-likely-upcoming-trump-pardons-executive-orders-drove-ag-barr-to-quit/?
“Bill Barr Quit. What Finally Spooked Him? The attorney general’s sudden departure raises alarms about what Trump might do next.” https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-12-15/william-barr-has-resigned-what-finally-spooked-him