In a June 4, 2020 post, we called for the impeachment of U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr because of his role in the government’s criminal assault on June 1, 2020, of peaceful George Floyd protesters in Lafayette Park outside the White House. Barr participated in the decision to launch the military-style assault on the peaceful protesters just so President Trump could stage a political photo-op in front of the St. John’s Episcopal Church located across the street from the White House. We pointed out then that the actions taken by Barr that day exceeded his “principal duties” spelled out in the Justice Department’s Organization, Mission & Functions Manual, and constituted an impeachable offense under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
Others have made the same impeachment call.
Writing in a September 23, 2020 edition of Business Insider, opinion columnist Michael Gordon urged the House of Representatives to begin immediate impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Barr should President Trump win reelection. Gordon offered these reasons for Barr’s impeachment:
- Barr’s September 9, 2020 decision to have the Justice Department intervene in a personal defamation lawsuit against President Trump based on conduct taken by the president in a personal, non-executive manner necessitating that taxpayers pick up the legal tab for the president’s individual wrongdoing.
- Barr asked foreign governments to discredit the Mueller report.
- Barr has fought to block the release of Trump’s tax returns.
- Barr has tried to dismiss charges against Trump’s corrupt foreign national security advisor Michael Flynn.
- Barr has unethically defended Trump’s criminal ally Roger Stone, seeking to have the corrupt political fixer’s sentence reduced.
- Barr punishes or fires DOJ officials who do not tow the Trump political line.
- Barr ordered the use of force against peaceful protesters in Portland, Oregon, and had some of the protesters snatched off the streets in unmarked vehicles.
- Barr manipulated the Mueller report over the objection of special counsel Robert Mueller after Barr’s public interpretation of the report left out key points of Trump’s special relationship with Russia confirmed by a Republican-led Senate Report.
- Barr has broken the law to create social disorder under the guise of “law and order.”
- Barr’s abuse of the Justice Department is a danger to the nation’s democracy by being the “fixer” of a president who openly flaunts the law and, in so doing, violates the rights of the people he swore to protect as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
List of Impeachable Acts Grows Long
We would add to Michael Gordon’s list of reasons for impeachment with the following list of unhinged actions and statements made by the Attorney General that would contribute to an impeachment finding. The Attorney General:
- Compared the coronavirus lockdown to slavery, calling the lockdown and mask-wearing mandates a “great intrusion on civil liberties;”
- Called for the investigation and indictment of the mayors of Seattle and Portland (along with other Democratic officials) for “sedition” because of their handling of Black Lives Matter protests in those cities;
- Called for the indictment of arrested Black Lives Matter protesters across the country to be prosecuted for sedition;
- Deliberately lied to the American public by telling CNN that a Texas man cast 1,700 fraudulent mail-in ballots several years ago, forcing the Texas prosecutor that handled the case to correct the public record;
- Continues to push the false narrative, without an iota of evidence, that the use of mail-in ballots by Democrats in the upcoming presidential election will lead to massive voter fraud;
- Compared career prosecutors—those who prosecuted Trump allies—to “pre-schoolers” and said they have no business making decisions about who to and who not to prosecute;
- Leveled the unfounded accusation that Black Lives Matter protesters were not “interested in black lives” and use the less than a “dozen” fatal police shootings of African-American men each year as political “props” when, in fact, 250 African American men were killed by the police last year in this country;
- Suggested that the handling of the Covid pandemic crisis should be done by politicians and elected officials, not scientists;
- Expressed support for President Trump’s insane “Deep State” conspiracy theory; and
- Forced the resignation of a career prosecutor from a Barr-ordered investigation by pressuring the investigators to deliver a political outcome desired by President Trump. That investigation, led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, reviewed the handling of the FBI’s counterintelligence probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election to help then-candidate Trump.
The evidence in the public record is now undeniably clear that William Barr will say or do anything in support of President Trump’s reelection. When we say “do anything,” we mean that quite literally—and that includes the Attorney General sacrificing his solemn duty to uphold the rule of law in favor of “promoting the personal and political interests” of the president.
US Attorney General Has Weaponized U.S. Department of Justice
It is tragic that on the international stage, Attorney General Barr is now viewed as a “force” that has “weaponized” the U.S. Justice Department in a highly partisan effort to secure Trump’s reelection. There is no doubt that the president has diminished America’s “standing and influence” globally, and this has been accomplished with the Attorney General’s active, behind-the-scenes support and encouragement.
We conclude, as Michael Gordon did, that impeachment of the Attorney General is the only viable way to protect our rule of law within the U.S. Justice Department. Jerry Nadler, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has openly stated that Barr “deserves” to be impeached.
We agree.