What Sort of Attorney General Will William Barr Be?

FEATURING MARJORIE COHN –  William Barr, the nominee for Attorney General, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. He will replace acting AG Matt Whitaker who was put in place after President Donald Trump fired Jeff Sessions. Barr had served as AG in the George H. W. Bush administration.

A big part of the Tuesday hearings focused on what Barr thinks of the Special Counsel investigation as it is assumed Trump fired Sessions over his refusal to control that investigation.

Barr asserted that he was friends with Robert Mueller and would respect his work. But he was not quite forthcoming on wanting to release the results of the report to the public, and said he would not recuse himself from overseeing the Special Counsel probe. Democratic Senators are concerned about a 19-page memo that he wrote to the DOJ last year criticizing some aspects of the investigation.

Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and a writer for Truthout.