Rachel Maddow Says Pre-Inauguration Resignation Won’t Save Bill Barr’s Trump-Stained Legacy

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:24 pm

There has been some reporting that Attorney General William Barr – one of Donald Trump’s most loyal soldiers since he took over at the Department of Justice – may leave his post before Trump leaves office.

If Barr believes an early departure will help him restore what’s left of his tarnished legacy, Rachel Maddow told the attorney general to think again.

“He will drag this, the intervention in the Flynn case and his intervention in the Stone case and so much more behind him as a ten-ton weight,” the MSNBC host said. “That will be his legacy.”

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Maddow said:

As I said, there are multiple reports now that Bill Barr may quit as attorney general before inauguration day. If so, he will drag this, the intervention in the Flynn case and his intervention in the Stone case and so much more behind him as a ten-ton weight. That will be his legacy. And whoever Joe Biden picks as the next attorney general really is going to have to go in that first night with like a broom and a flashlight to start cleaning up just the ongoing rotting mess that Bill Barr has left there in his wake.

The next attorney general will have their work cut out for them

Regardless of who Joe Biden chooses as his next attorney general, they will have the enormously important task of restoring the Justice Department’s credibility and cleaning up the mess that William Barr is leaving behind.

One sign that the DOJ will be in better hands is that Biden seems to understand that it must operate independently and not serve as the president’s personal law firm as it has for the past four years.

“It’s not my Justice Department,” Biden recently said. “It’s the people’s Justice Department.”

It’s too late for William Barr to redeem himself after selling his soul to the most dangerous president in history. But it’s not too late to save the Department of Justice.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.