WASHINGTON President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that Attorney General Bill Barr will step down with just a month remaining in his administration, two weeks after Barr publicly threw cold water on the presidents insistence that his election loss was illegitimate because of widespread voter fraud.
Trump announced that Barr will leave the Justice Department before Christmas and will be replaced by Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen as acting attorney general. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job, Trump insisted in his Monday tweet, but the announcement comes after recent friction between the president and Barr.
Barr has rarely broken with Trump in his two years in office, but in an interview with the Associated Press published Dec. 1, Barr said that the Justice Department hadnt uncovered evidence of fraud that could change the results of the election. He didnt totally disavow Trumps fraud claims or directly criticize the president, but his comments contradicted the campaigns post-election rhetoric and conspiracy theories of pervasive, nationwide fraud that tilted the race to President-elect Joe Biden.
[T]o date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election, Barr told the AP.
In response to Barrs interview, the campaign released a statement from Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, who have led Trumps post-election legal fight, that was critical of the Justice Department.
With all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasnt been any semblance of a Department of Justice investigation, Giuliani and Ellis wrote. Again, with the greatest respect to the Attorney General, his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud.
Before and after the election, Barr had fueled Trumps narrative that expanded mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic would undermine the integrity of the election by authorizing prosecutors to pursue certain voter fraud investigations. As the New York Times reported, Barrs guidance went against previous DOJ policies meant to limit law enforcement activity that could affect an election.
Barr is the second attorney general ousted by Trump. Trumps first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was forced to submit his resignation in November 2018; Trump had repeatedly, and publicly, criticized Sessions over the course of his two years in office for recusing from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Barr, who was confirmed in February 2019, enjoyed a far less fraught tenure in office. He earned praise from Trump for tapping Justice Department officials to probe the Mueller investigation and for directing the US attorneys office in Washington to recommend a lesser sentence for longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and obstruction; Trump later commuted Stones prison sentence.
Barr revealed on Dec. 1 that he had appointed US Attorney John Durham in October as a special counsel to continue his counter-investigation into the origins of the 2016 Russia inquiry, meaning it will likely continue into the Biden administration.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates and followBuzzFeed News on Twitter.