Attorney General William Barr got it absolutely right on Thursday when he pushed back against President Trump’s tweets.
“I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody,” Barr told ABC News, asserting that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we’re doing our work with integrity.”
It’s an important and necessary statement.
Likely to the detriment of the objectives he seeks, Trump has spent the past few days trying to influence the Justice Department and the judiciary. First, Trump launched an attack on the judge presiding over Roger Stone’s trial. Trump then misguidedly congratulated Barr for resubmitting a sentencing brief related to Stone. Finally, on Thursday, the president questioned the Justice Department’s integrity.
Now it looks like the fore person in the jury, in the Roger Stone case, had significant bias. Add that to everything else, and this is not looking good for the “Justice” Department. @foxandfriends @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2020
That tweet required Barr’s response as delivered.
After all, Barr is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. It is up to him to supervise the appropriate conduct of the FBI, other federal agencies, and federal prosecutors. Cognizant that the fundamental underpinning of constitutional law is the independence of the judiciary from political interference, Barr could not sit idle as Trump jeopardized him. A similar example applies to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
As much as he’ll be reluctant to do so, Trump should take Barr’s advice.
In his cabinet officer, the president has someone who is generally doing what he wants, but where Trump takes deliberate and overt action to inject his own political interests into the Justice Department, he forces Barr into its defense. Barr simply could not continue in his office if he was willing to sit and accept these attacks. To do so would be to lose the support of those under him and to endanger a sacred tradition of the law.
Trump should focus his tweets on the 2020 election race.
