ACLU Comment on Attorney General William Barr’s Resignation

December 14, 2020 6:30 pm

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WASHINGTON — In response to President Trump’s announcement today that Attorney General William Barr will step down next week, ACLU National Legal Director David Cole said:

“Bill Barr was one of the worst attorneys general in U.S. history. He deployed the Justice Department not to promote justice, but to serve Donald Trump. He blatantly mischaracterized the Mueller report to whitewash its findings before the public could see it, questioned the motives of a legitimate investigation into Russian influence on the Trump campaign, revived the federal death penalty in ways that limited defendants’ rights to fair hearings, and interfered in federal prosecutions to aid Trump cronies Michael Flynn and Roger Stone. He forfeited the Justice Department’s independence and integrity in obeisance to the president. Yet when he was unwilling to repeat Trump’s wholly false claims about voter fraud, Trump essentially dumped him. That even Barr was unwilling to go as far as Donald Trump says more about the president than it does about the attorney general.”

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