William Barr’s Dangerous Endorsement of Todd Blanche
Donald Trump cares deeply about the Justice Department, and he appears to care about exactly one thing: an attorney general who will do whatever he says, specifically in the realm of trying to lock up as many of his political enemies as possible.William Barr, a former attorney general under Trump and an esteemed legal mind within the conservative movement, also cares deeply about the Justice Department, but for different reasons. Barr believes the department plays a key role in advancing conservative priorities in immigration, DEI, deregulation, the prosecution of criminals (real ones, not just people whom Trump hates), and other traditionally Republican policy goals.Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general has therefore put Barr in an awkward position. Barr has resolved the dilemma by writing a contorted endorsement of Blanche in The Wall Street Journal. Barr’s less-than-glowing assessment of Blanche’s qualifications reads like a grudging employee review that recommends the lowest possible raise. “Mr. Blanche has the necessary qualities for the job,” he writes. “Mr. Blanche has already demonstrated effective leadership.”In place of enthusiasm for Blanche’s qualifications, Barr shrugs that Trump would never allow anybody more qualified than Blanche to hold the job. Blanche “will run the department as effectively as anyone could under President Trump,” Barr writes.[Peter Wehner: Bill Barr embraces the darkness]The reason Barr has to include this qualification is that nobody can run the Justice Department effectively under Trump, if you define “effectively” to mean following the rule of law. Since the post-Watergate era revealed the dangers of a politicized DOJ, that has been the minimum threshold for the job.Barr agrees with this. Or at least, he used to. He wrote in his 2022 memoir: As head of the Department of Justice, I continued, the Attorney General is the top prosecutor, overseeing enforcement of the laws through the criminal justice process. It