On Wednesday morning, Attorney General William Barr gave Republicans their biggest gift since his instant-ruling that Donald Trump hadn’t committed obstruction. In testimony before the Senate appropriations committee, Barr accused the FBI of “spying” on the Trump campaign. He followed up twice more to say that he thought “spying did occur” … though he had no evidence for this belief.
Responding to Barr’s statements, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told the Associated Press that Barr’s comments had undermined his role as attorney general, and that he is “not the attorney general of Donald Trump. He is the attorney general of the United States.”
This certainly isn’t how Barr has described his role. In testimony both before the Senate and before the House on Tuesday, Barr made it absolutely clear that he doesn’t feel he has to honor existing law, or Supreme Court decisions, or department policy, or his own legal judgement if it comes into conflict with what Trump wants him to do. So when Trump tells Barr to flip the DOJ around and attack the Affordable Care Act … Trump gets his wish, no matter if that decision threatens tens of millions of Americans.
If Barr was clear in announcing his willingness to set aside justice, law, and tradition for Trump, Pelosi was equally clear in her description of Barr. The speaker said that she did not trust Barr, did not trust his handling of the Mueller report, and felt that had harmed his ability to act as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.