William Barr is Trump's real personal attorney

Who needs Rudy when you've got the attorney general to do your dirty work?

President Trump and Bill Barr.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump may not need Rudy Giuliani after all. Attorney General William Barr has made it clear that he's acting not as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, but as Trump's personal attorney. Who needs Giuliani when you can get the A.G. to do your dirty work?

On NBC this week, Barr dismissed any allegations of the Trump 2016 campaign's connections to Russia as "a completely bogus narrative." This sort of hyperbolic language has come to be expected of Trump, but it's also become far too common from those near him. While Trump is carrying out a clear existential threat to the presidency and American system, Barr's indefensible defense of him may be doing much more lasting damage to the nation and the rule of law. As the former Attorney General Eric Holder argues in The Washington Post, Barr's "attempts to vilify the president's critics [sound] more like the tactics of an unscrupulous criminal defense lawyer than a U.S. attorney general."

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Neil J. Young

Neil J. Young is a historian and the author of We Gather Together: The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics. He writes frequently on American politics, culture, and religion for publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, HuffPost, Vox, and Politico. He co-hosts the history podcast Past Present.