WEBVTT - And the Next Attorney General Is 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:05.360 This is Bloomberg Law with June Grassoe from Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:09.400 The Journey General William Barr is stepping down two weeks 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.400 after saying in an interview that there was no evidence 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.720 of significant voter fraud in the election. It's the culmination 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.720 of an increasingly sour relationship with President Donald Trump. The 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.120 Justice Department has been buffeted in recent years by Trump's 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.320 criticism of it and attempts to politicize it. So who 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.440 will Joe Biden pick as his attorney general? Joining me 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.680 as former federal prosecutor Robert Mints a partner in McCarter 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.960 In English? Bob, how much damage has been done to 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.199 the Joice Department during the last four years, damage to 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:45.159 its inner workings and the public's perception of its integrity 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:49.520 and credibility. Almost from the outset of the Trump administration, 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.600 there have been allegations that the President has attempted to 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:56.520 exert political influence over decisions made by the Department of 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.160 Justice and its Attorney General. Historically, the depart and of 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:05.240 Justice acts independently of the president. Because the Department of 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:10.040 Justice is often investigating individuals who may have some political 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.000 connections to the President or to the president's political party. 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.120 So it's important that those decisions are made by individuals 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.119 who have no connection directly to the president, and there 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.720 must be an appearance that the Department of Justice is 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.480 making decisions solely on the basis of the merits of 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:30.039 these cases and not for any other reasons. Many Attorney 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.800 general's offices have been accused of being politicized, and it's 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.040 certainly an element of politics and all this, but just 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:42.000 how politicized has the Trump Justice Department been. Attorney General 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.000 bar has been criticized for being overly political, and in 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.279 the past, all Attorney generals are certainly the most recent 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.880 ones have all been accused of at times making decisions 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.040 that were more political than legal. But in this case, 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.280 critics have said that Mr Trump made clear almost from 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.320 the outset he viewed the Department of Justice and the 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.360 FBI as organizations that should be acting in his best 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.360 interests and not necessarily in the interests of the country. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:14.120 He repeatedly pressured the Attorney general, for example, to investigate 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.960 Mr Biden, to investigate former President Barack Obama, to investigate 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.799 former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, only to be frustrated 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:27.280 when Attorney General Barr didn't comply, but there are instances 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.280 that Mr Bard did succumb to the pressure that was 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.400 being applied by Mr Trump. For example, Mr Bard did 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.800 move to reduce the sentencing recommendation for the President's longtime 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:41.560 friend and advisor, Roser Stone. He assisted the President, at 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.000 least according to his critics, in overturning the guilty pleas 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.600 of the President's former national security advisor at Michael T. Flynn. 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.480 This was done over the objections of career prosecutors, some 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.520 of whom even resigned in protest over this decision, and 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.639 then Mr Trump ultimately went even further by commuting the 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.519 sense of Mr Stone after he was convicted and sentenced 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:07.480 to jail. More recently, it's interesting that the President has 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.120 soured on Attorney General bar and Mr Trump had been 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.560 calling the election a fraud and saying that mail in 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.600 voting was not reliable, and yet there was nothing but 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:21.760 silence out of the Departmative Justice until recently when Mr 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.200 Barr came out and actually said that he saw no 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:28.320 evidence of voting fraud. What kind of qualities and background 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.639 should a new Attorney general have. The decision of who 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:34.920 to appoint as Attorney General is one of the most 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.520 consequential that any president makes in his or her cabinet. 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:41.840 It's important because the attorney General has so much power 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.040 over so many important decisions that affect the lives of Americans. Typically, 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.760 the president will pick somebody who they know, who they trust, 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.160 but it's also important that that person acts independently, and 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:57.120 so there's the balancing act. Somebody who the president believes in, 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.240 who the president believes has a good sound judge and 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:02.360 will act in the best interests of the country. But 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.640 also there has to be the perception that the attorney 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.560 general is not so close to the president, that the 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.160 attorney general is not acting in the best interests of 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.240 the country and maybe shading decisions in a way that 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.760 might be politically beneficial to the president. One of the 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:22.000 people discussed as a possible candidate for attorney General is 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.039 Sally Yates, the former Deputy Attorney General and the Obama administration. 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:29.320 One of the top contenders is Sally Yate, who was 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.840 fired by President Trump for refusing to defend his executive 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.960 order banning entry to the United States for those from 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.680 Muslim majority countries. She is one of the people who 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:44.160 a lot of career prosecutors uh currently in the office 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.479 and former federal prosecutors like because she knows the inner 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.360 workings of the office, she'll hit the ground running. She's 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.000 well versed in the big national security threats that are 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.120 currently facing the country, and she also the strong civil 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.880 rights record, which is something that is clearly going to 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.520 be a top priority for the Biden administration. The main 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.839 challenge in tackling these civil rights issues is going to 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.479 be to find somebody who has credibility both in the 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.080 civil rights community but also with police because ultimately, at 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:13.920 the end of the day, in order to achieve any 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.440 progress in this area, you have to work with both 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.640 civil rights advocates and also police officers who are on 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.880 the front line in dealing with crime. So she's somebody 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.000 who many people believe has those qualities and would make 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.400 a good attorney general. Since civil rights, as you mentioned, 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:34.720 and racial inequality is so much in the forefront these days, 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.599 is it important to have somewhat of color perhaps in 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.719 the role of attorney general. Well, there are some people 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.520 who believe that someone of color should be the attorney general. 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:48.720 Daval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts, is in the running, 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.240 but doesn't seem to be a top contender at this point. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.640 President Biden seems to be looking to people that he 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.880 knows and trust and has has some history with, and 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.719 that may be why daval Patrick is not on the 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:02.679 top of the list. At the end of the day, 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.839 you want somebody who has the trust of the people 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.679 who are going to be involved in these issues. Someone 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.719 of color would certainly be sending a message to the public, 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.640 to the country that the department is going to be 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:16.719 run by somebody who is going to be sensitive to 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.160 civil rights issues. But it's most important that the person 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.159 has the trust of both sets of parties here, both 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.960 the civil rights advocates and law enforcement, because that's the 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.480 way progress is going to be made. Senator Doug Jones 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.560 has been mentioned a great deal as a possibility. How 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:38.840 do you see his chances? Doug Jones, the Senator from Alabama, 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.680 is a former U S attorney. He won a special 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.559 election in seventeen but was recently defeated for the United 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.800 States Senate in Alabama, who is a deeply Republican state. 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:50.920 But he's at the top of the list because he's 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.000 known Joe Biden for forty years. He's also someone who 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.480 has some credibility within the civil rights community because as 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.120 the U. S. Attorney for the Northern District developed im 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:04.400 he prosecuted to Ku Klux Klans members involved the nineteen 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.080 sixty three church bombings in Birmingham. And he also has 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.760 the virtue of somebody who is most likely to receive 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.440 Senate confirmation, having spent one term in the United States Senate. 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.560 He reached across party lines and actually has some significant 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:24.280 report from Republicans. So if President elect Biden is looking 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.400 to pick somebody who is most easily going to be confirmed, 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.800 Doug Jones maybe at the top of that list. The U. S. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:36.120 Attorney in Delaware has disclosed that there's an investigation into 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:41.040 Hunter Biden for possible tax crimes. How much does that 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:47.200 complicate Biden's selection of an attorney general. This certainly ratchets 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.200 up the pressure on the appearance of somebody who was 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.360 going to be impartial, who's going to be independent, and 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.119 is going to have some distance from the White House. 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.960 The fact that there is a current investigation into a 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.120 member of the president his immediate family is not something 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.440 that the country has never faced. For example, Jimmy Carter's brother, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.040 Billy Carter, was investigated for lobbying for the government of 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:13.840 Libya while he Jimmy Carter was president. George Bush's son 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.640 Neil Bush, was faulted by regulators in connection with the 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.840 collapse of a savings and loan and President Bill Clinton 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:24.480 ultimately partnered his own brother, Roger Clinton, for drug charges. 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.000 So there is some history here for immediate family members 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:32.559 of presidents being investigated while their family member is president 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.400 of the United States. Mr. Trump's children have been caught 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:39.040 up in multiple legal matters during his presidency. For example, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.000 during the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, there was 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:46.480 an allegation that Donald Trump Jr. Held a meeting with 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:50.640 the Kremlin connected lawyer during the nineteen During the sixteen campaign, 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:54.079 there was also an allegation regarding Jared Kushner, his son 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.480 in law and senior advisor, who was stripped of his 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.680 top secret security clearance. So there is this history here. 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.440 At the end of the day, what matters most is 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.040 that there is a feeling that whoever is the Attorney general, 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.640 and ultimately, however this matter is handled by the Attorney 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.880 General's office, it is done fairly and partially and without 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.760 political influence. So on one level. President elect Biden has 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.080 already stated that one of his major missions with the 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.520 Department of Justice is to restore integrity, to restore the 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.400 morale of members of the Department of Justice, and to 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.760 restore the public space that the Department of Justice is 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.400 acting independently and is not simply an arm of the 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.160 White House. But certainly the announcement of this investigation into 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.599 his son's will put added pressure on anybody who is 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.080 nominated for this position that during the confirmation process, we 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.360 can expect that they will be asked questions about how 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:51.719 they will handle this investigation going forward. Some people are 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:56.559 suggesting that the new Attorney General appoint a special counsel 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:00.520 to handle the Hunter Biden matter in order to cabin 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:05.800 off this politically sensitive case. Are we appointing too many 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:09.440 special councils? Should the Justice Department just be able to 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.599 handle these kinds of cases. There's been a history of 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.800 appointing special counsel in any case in which there is 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.520 an allegation that there's a conflict of interests between the 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.719 Department of Justice and the investigation, So it happens all 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.240 the time. But there has been some concern that there 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.320 have been too many special councils appointed, and that the 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.240 Department of Justice ought to be able to handle politically 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.000 sensitive investigations on their own through a number of means. 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.360 For example, anybody who's involved in the case in some 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.200 way re chooses them felt from that case, you can 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.120 have career prosecutors who run these cases. There have been 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.040 past examples where the U. S. Attorney from the prior 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:52.120 administration is allowed to stay on into the next administration 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.800 to complete that investigation. That's exactly what happened. For example, 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.400 during the investigation into John Edwards. Eric Holder, who was 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:03.400 then the Attorney General for Barack Obama, allowed the current U. S. 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.880 Attorney in North Carolina who is investigating the John Edwards case, 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.720 to stay on even though he was a Republican appointee, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.560 until he completed that investigation. So many people believe that 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.560 there are many mechanisms in place that will allow the 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.319 Department of Justice to handle any kind of political politically 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:24.520 sensitive investigation without necessarily going so far as to appoint 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:28.000 a special counsel. I was looking at the most simplistic terms, 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.600 Is it basically Joe Biden just going back in time 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.959 four years with the Justice Department, or does he need 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.640 to do more to overcome what's happened in the last 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.680 four years. Yeah, that's a great question. I think the 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.959 answer is more has to be done because we're not 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.160 now today where we were four years ago. There has 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:53.360 been so much unprecedented criticism of both the career people 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.360 within the Department of Justice career people at the FBI, 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.360 that there's been a real erosion of confidence that the 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.440 public has in these institutions. And it's really important for 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.560 the Department of Justice to function well, for the FBI 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.720 to function properly, for federal prosecutors to be able to 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.920 take cases to trial, that people believe that they're acting 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.920 in good faith. They may not be perfect, and that's 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.640 not to say that prosecutors don't occasionally make mistakes. They do, 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.280 but there really needs to be the belief that they're 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.480 acting in the pursuit of justice and that they're not 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.920 acting for some ulterior political motive. And so in order 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.760 to restore that faith, I think the Department of Justice 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.600 and whoever the next Attorney General will will be, will 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:40.160 have to take extraordinary steps to try to bring people 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.600 back to a place where they believe that the Department 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.600 of Justice is fair, that those career people in the 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.240 office are doing what's right for the country and that 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.360 ultimately the goal here is to pursue justice and nothing 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:57.040 less and nothing more. There are questions about how the 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:03.160 new Department of Justice should handle investigating President Trump or 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.920 his inner circle, and some people have said that Biden 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:12.480 has no appetite for investigating Trump and bringing that into 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:17.000 his administration, but others say that the Department has to 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:21.000 pursue criminal cases without fear or favor. What's your take 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.520 on that question. One of the most interesting challenges for 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.200 the new Department of Justice will be the question of 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:32.720 whether or not they will pursue any investigations into President 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.040 Trump or his immediate family. There are those who say 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.240 that nobody is above the law and that those investigations 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:43.360 need to be impartially pursued. Whether there is anything ultimately 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.040 to them or not, we just don't know at this point. 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.760 But there are also others, including President LEC. Biden, who 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.840 wants to turn the page on this and move forward. 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.560 I think there are some who understand that any investigation 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.840 into the Trump administration at this point will be so 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.920 divisive and will further erode confidence that people have in 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.240 the Department of Justice, and so that will be the 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.640 ultimate question as they bounced decisions about whether to pursue 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.199 those cases or whether to simply move on and bring 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.640 the Department of Justice into the next phase where it's 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:20.720 forward looking, trying to restore confidence, that is, pursuing cases 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.520 for reasons of justice only. Thanks for being on the 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.760 Bloomberg Law Show, Bob. That's former federal prosecutor Robert Mints, 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:33.560 a partner McCarter and English Attorney General William Barr is 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.080 stepping down with a little more than a month left 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.960 and the Trump administration. Bar cross President Trump on two 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.840 issues in recent weeks, an investigation into Joe Biden's son 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.520 and Trump's unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the election. 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.880 My guess is Brad mass Apartment Mark Zaide bar was 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:57.360 one of Trump's greatest allies until he wasn't Do we 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.360 know the full story yet of what happened been to 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.360 cause him to resign or might we not know for 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.400 a while. I certainly think it could be some time 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.200 until we get the full details about I think it's 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:13.080 certainly possible that William Barr was frustrated for a while 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:17.160 about the President's public remarks that were sort of disrupting 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:22.200 and interfering in Justice Department investigations and operations. Saw that 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.880 when the roger Stone matter came out and when the 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.120 President was constantly tweeting about it and trying to publicly 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.760 pressure the justicepartments to go easy on his former friend 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.920 and ally roger Stone, and Bar went public about that 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.400 about the frustrations, and we've seen that again going into 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.080 the election and now in the aftermith with all the 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:44.000 voter fraud conspiracies. That while William Barr certainly was an 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.800 ideological ally the president, when it came to the power 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.280 of the executive branch and it's sort of ability to 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:53.120 inflate itself from outside scrutiny, there were limits to what 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:55.600 even he was willing to do, especially when it came 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.040 to the idea of trying to pursue some voter fraud 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.800 prosecution when the evidence complete isn't there, and that obviously 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.480 is what brought this to an end for him. What 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:08.520 do you make of the toty ing in his resignation letter. 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.520 I think that's certainly, you know, William Barr wanting to 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:17.720 keep things civil and on, you know, a cooperative public 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:19.720 faiths with the president. I mean, that's very much what 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.120 people in this administration tend to do when they still 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.320 have that is desire is to stay in Donald Trump's 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.640 good graces. You you talk him up, you flatter him, 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.400 you talk about how great he is, and how great 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.640 everything he did was, and how everyone who went after 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.760 him was the evil in facing it all off, you know, lies. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.520 So William Barr still wants to be able to give speeches, 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.760 will write books, or hold any kind of events to 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:46.040 you know, still have a career, and not that they 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.360 hasn't had already a lustrous one, but to still be 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:50.600 able to make money going forward the next few years. 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:52.560 That he needed to stay in Donald Trump's good graces. 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.440 And that's what that letter did. Besides of our statements 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.440 to a p about the validity of the election, another 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:04.680 thing at angered President Trump is that Barr didn't publicly 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:09.240 announce the ongoing two year investigation into Hunter Biden before 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:14.120 election day, and right now AP is reporting that Trump 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:18.080 has already consulted on the matter with White House Chief 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.880 of Staff Mark Meadows and White House counsel Pat Cipoloni 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.400 to see whether or not he can put a special 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.480 counsel in to investigate Hunter Biden. Yes, so, and again 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.600 this was one of those things where William Barr's whole 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:37.000 thing was about restoring the order and sort of the 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.920 integrity of the Just Department. He felt that politics had 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.879 become too imbued in it. The Bureau in particular with 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.280 James Comeey and Andrew McCabe, whether not too or not, 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.280 they felled. The Just Department under Lorella Lynch had gotten 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:50.639 a little too close to the political side, and so 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:52.520 that was sort of his view with how to bring 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:56.520 it back in line. Um, and so when the President 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.800 got was pushing whether it was I'm sure privately as 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.640 well else, but also you know, publicly to have details 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:07.600 about this Hunter Biden probe disclosed that would run against 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.000 everything William Barr had stood for. Especially this was what 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.080 had led to all the criticism of James Comey, who 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:18.160 actually served as part of the basis for uh, the 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.159 former Deputy Attorney General to to read that memo ordering 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.840 Comy fired over having gone public about the details the 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:30.080 Clinton investigation in twenty sixteen, making public overt moves on 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.760 that investigation in the final days of the election, which 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.080 a lot of political data analysts said helped to push 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.000 Trump over the top in those final days with independence 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:44.520 and sort of the persuadable moderate Republicans, and so to 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:49.080 have gone public with the Hunter Biden details, whether it 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.560 was in twenty nineteen, long before the election itself and 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.400 still be to disclose the existence of an investigation, which 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.760 is something d o J doesn't do, or to have 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.120 specifically done it in the final weeks of the election 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.600 in hihilation of those very rules that had cost James 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:06.640 Comey's job, would have just defied everything William Barrs took 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:08.240 for it, and so I'm sure that was part of 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.600 what pushed him again over the edge, saying this is 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:13.840 what I'm trying to restore. Whether or not there was 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.560 anything to restore or not, it's a separate discussion, but 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:18.199 this is what he was trying to stand for with 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.920 the Department, and the president's um public remarks were undermining that. 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:26.960 One also questions why there's been a two year investigation 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:32.679 into Hunter Biden over taxes. That seems pretty political. So 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.520 looking at the reporting, and obviously we only know about 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:37.800 what's come out with reporting, it sounds like the original 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.080 scope of the investigation was broader than the taxes. Sounds 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.000 like there was a money laundering aspect of potential foreign lobbying, 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.160 an all manner of issues tied to hunter Biden's somewhat 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.560 questionable private industry activities over the last few years, particularly 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:53.840 in Ukraine. And of course you know that also came 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.040 up in the context of the impeachment Daga and the 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.720 President trying to extore at the Ukrainian president to launch 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.960 a public investigation. So it's certainly not surprising that the 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.040 Just Department would have had an original, rap large, wide 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.959 ranging inquiry into this. But from the sounds of it, 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.600 all that's left, all that they think is worthy of 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.720 continued investigation is whether or not there is a tax 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.960 matter here, and certainly committing a criminal tax felony is 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.440 a serious issue, and if that is what hunter Biden did, 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.800 then he should face all manner of criminal liability and 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.879 scrutiny for that, and he'll have his Dame Court. But 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.399 the original concept and everything that the Trump team was 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:31.600 trying to push out on Hunter Biden, that this was 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:34.600 all tied to money for Joe Biden, in the end, 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:36.840 none of that seems to be playing out in this 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.800 do J Probs brad One of the greatest unrestrained powers 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.159 that Trump has left now is the pardon power and 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.479 their speculation that there's a January surprise being planned and 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.760 that that was a reason why bar might have wanted 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:56.040 to get out as well. But after pardoning former National 0:20:56.080 --> 0:21:00.399 Security advisor Michael Flynn and commuting the sand tins of 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:04.359 Roger Stone, aren't we sort of expecting Trump to pardon 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.440 anyone associated with the Muller investigation. I think it'll even 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.480 go further than that. But yeah, I think we can 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:13.760 expect as we get into the final days of the 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:17.000 Trump administration, when when you go past January six and 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.120 then he last stand that his allies and Congress will 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:23.600 make to try to stop um the certification of Joe 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:25.720 Biden as the president elect. When he knows that he's 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.560 on his final days, he'll use anything and everything he 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:31.800 wants from that power to just laugh out at What 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:33.840 he needs is the deep state and all the people 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:35.639 who oppose them. So not only is it going to 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.439 be you know, the Rudy Giuliani's and its family and 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.160 people like that, kind of preemptive pardons of any number 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:44.640 of federal probes that could be going on into them, 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:46.760 but I would look to see a pardon of Edward 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.560 Snowden that's been bandied about a lot, potentially Julian Assange, 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.520 who we know was involved in leaking all the kinds 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.280 of emails and documents in the election, and there's an 0:21:57.280 --> 0:21:59.720 ongoing to fight over that. I would look for a 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:03.880 ray change of highly controversial parts that Donald Trump can 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:07.640 put up as fighting back against the evil deep State 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.920 and just having fun trolling everyone who opposed him, because 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:14.920 that's Donald Trump at the end. Well, Bar has been 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.679 here before. He recommended pardons for Iran contra figures at 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.960 the end of George H. W. Bush's term that ended 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:26.480 the investigation and so sort of insulated Bush. So I'm 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:32.359 wondering whether the pardon that would really cause so much 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.080 controversy that bar might want to get out from under 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:40.040 it before it happens, is a self pardon that Trump 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:45.320 might pardon himself. That's certainly possible that there's paperwork ordy 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:47.680 been drafted and research, no doubt by the White House 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:50.040 Council's Office of whether or not a self pardon would 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:52.639 even work, whether it would hold up in court. I 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:56.119 would be shocked if the President doesn't do it. Anyways, 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:58.439 even if it ultimately doesn't hold up. Just to have 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:03.399 exercised the power anyway, just to try and shields himself 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:05.680