Barr may quit if Trump continues to interfere in his job by posting inflammatory comments on Twitter, according to anonymous sources described as “familiar with Barr’s thinking,” quoted by The Washington Post in a Tuesday report. The attorney general is also said to have asked the president to stop publicly commenting on Justice Department investigations weeks ago.
Barr’s spokesperson Kerri Kupec took to Twitter to deny that the attorney general has any intention of quitting.
“Addressing Beltway rumors: The Attorney General has no plans to resign,” tweeted Kupec Tuesday night.
The Justice Department and Barr came under particularly heavy fire last week, after intervening in the case of former Trump adviser Roger Stone, who was found guilty in November 2019 on seven felony counts related to the investigation of meddling by Russia into the 2016 presidential election.
Shortly after prosecutors in the Stone case released sentencing guidelines recommending seven to nine out of a possible 50 years in prison, Trump tweeted his displeasure at the “miscarriage of justice.” Within hours, the department led by Barr issued a memo directing the court to prescribe a sentence “far less” than that recommended by the prosecutors, all four of whom quickly withdrew from the case in reaction.
The decision was blasted by a wide range of critics, many of whom felt that the president had improperly used his influence to force the reversal. Barr was also highly criticized for his role, with more than 2,400 former Justice Department officials signing a statement urging him to resign over the weekend.
Barr insisted that the decision had been made before Trump tweeted about the case, but publicly indicated his discomfort with the president’s social media comments on Justice Department matters, saying the posts make it “impossible” to do his job during an ABC interview on Thursday.
Those close to the president have indicated that any current tension between Trump and Barr is unlikely to lead to the attorney general being fired, according to The Washington Post report.
Trump said he had “total confidence” in Barr while speaking to reporters Tuesday, calling him “a man of great integrity” and conceded that he does make his job “harder” by tweeting.
However, the president also downplayed Barr’s role in the government, declaring himself “the chief law enforcement officer in the country” instead of the attorney general and suggesting that he has authority to intervene in any legal matter he wishes.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
