Last updated on May 21st, 2021 at 05:38 pm
By the end of Donald Trump’s term, all of the people considered to be the “adults in the room” had quit. John Kelly, Rex Tillerson and James Mattis were all long gone.
William Barr became Attorney General because of his loyalty to Donald Trump. He had practically auditioned for the role by writing an pro-Trump op-ed in the Washington Post.
But amazingly enough, there were lines that even Barr wouldn’t cross. Politico is reporting that Barr stopped Trump from firing FBI Director Christopher Wray by threatening to quit.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Trump was particular incensed by Wray’s comments about Russia. Wray was always forthcoming about Russian meddling and how it benefited Trump and put the country in danger. Trump and his team wanted to replace Wray with Kash Patel, a Devin Nunes ally.
Daniel Lippman reports:
“Patel — in an earlier role as a top adviser to Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee — had led the California lawmaker’s efforts to rebut special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. He later joined the staff of the National Security Council, where he became the senior director for counterterrorism. At the time of the White House meeting in April, Patel had recently switched jobs to become a senior adviser at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.”
The firing of Wray was thwarted by Barr. This story may give more insight on Trump and his Attorney General were in such a feud towards the end. In December, the former president tweeted a message slamming Barr and wrote, “Why didn’t Bill Barr reveal the truth before the election?”
Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.
