Look at what Lindsey did now!

[kentuck]

He goes on the Sunday morning news show and announces that he talked with AG Barr that very morning. He said that the Atty-General was accepting information from Rudy Giuliani about Ukraine. He said the AG was not putting a lot of credibility on the information received.

Obviously, Lindsey was taking direction from someone. It was not something he would have done on his own.

That meant that AG Barr had to go public and either confirm or deny the story. He appeared visibly pained in having to clarify the comments of Lindsey Graham. It meant that he was taking this information and withholding it from the Senate trial and the House impeachment inquiry, when it could perhaps have been of some value in the trial.

Barr could not have been pleased with the way that information was transmitted to the public. It made him look complicit.

Then today, Trump calls into question the sentencing guidelines of the Justice Dept and tweets about what he would like them to do to make it more "fair". He puts the onus squarely on AG Barr, even as four prosecutors were resigning in protest.

Barr goes on ABC News to comment that the "tweets were making it impossible for him to do his job". What?! Criticizing his boss? A line he refused to cross?

I would not be surprised to see Mr Barr submit his resignation before the weekend. Mr Trump is probably already on the phone to Matt Whitaker?

[CanonRay]

1. Barr won't resign.

He's in it up to his eyeballs

[RockRaven]

2. I think you are vastly overestimating Barr's sense of honor or morality. He's not resigning.

He's doing exactly what he wants to be doing, and Trump's actions don't bother him in substance -- just in the annoying media queries that result from them.

[kentuck]

6. It's not about honor or morality.

It's about saving his own ass and not being put on the spot. He doesn't mind doing the dirty work. He just doesn't want to be blamed for it.

[RockRaven]

12. I don't think he feels the slightest bit endangered. He thinks the POTUS and AG are fully

empowered to behave this way -- he's got a 40 year track record of saying/doing similar things. And everything in the historical record to date says there won't be any meaningful personal consequences for him even if everyone else in the US thinks he is out of line.

He may indeed be annoyed by the media attention/questions. But he has claimed -- possibly false bravado of course -- that he doesn't care what happens to his reputation. I just don't see this statement of his being a sign of any change in behavior on his part.

[kentuck]

14. Why do you think he went to ABC to make his statement about "tweets"...

....and how they make it impossible for him to do his job?

[bluecollar2]

16. Because I think he's a sorry excuse for a human being.

He cleared his supposed indignation with Trump before he expressed it.

Need to make it look like he has a sense of moral and ethical righteousness when he has none.

[kentuck]

19. Possible...

But I think it is deeper than that this time.

[coti]

3. This is giving Barr way too much credit.

He's only upset because Trump's idiotic tweets make the corruption too obvious. Otherwise he's fine with what's expected of him.

[bluecollar2]

17. Agreed ... n/t

[Mad cow]

4. I am skeptical

Of Barr's recent comments. He knows this isn't a good look, and he's trying to talk his way out of it. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is in on it. It's all about the optics.

[mainstreetonce]

5. Dear Mr Barr

Quit now!!!

[panader0]

7. I'm sure Barr called his boss and said "look, I have to say this stuff today.

I don't really mean it."

[Girard442]

21. Yeah, when you see Kabuki Theater...

...you don’t need a script in your hand to know it’s Kabuki Theater.

[Leghorn21]

8. If your delightful prediction comes true, k, meet me at the Hi-Hat Lounge at a time that suits you

and I’M BUYIN’!!!!!

[kentuck]

9. Set 'em up Joe.

[gratuitous]

10. I'd be really shocked if Barr resigns

William Barr has fashioned his career in subservience to powerful authoritarians, and Trump has found his man. Barr doesn’t have that niggling ethical streak that Jeff Sessions (of all people!) had. Sessions’ recusal of himself as AG in the Russia investigation stuck in Trump’s craw from the get-go.

According to DOJ guidelines, Sessions had to recuse himself because some of the activity being investigated touched on matters that Sessions was involved in. It’s an open question whether Sessions followed the rules too quickly, and that he could have remained in control of the Russia investigation. But it wasn’t apparent in the first few weeks of the Trump administration just how lawless it was going to be. If Sessions had suspected the depths of Trump’s corruption and his willingness to break the law, he might not have recused himself.

Barr, on the other hand, knows quite well how corrupt Trump is. That’s why he sent that unsolicited 19 page memorandum to Trump in the first place. It was Barr’s plain-as-day signal that he had no scruples about serving as Trump’s personal attorney as the head of the Department of Justice. I don’t think William Barr has suddenly grown a conscience, and unless there’s something major (and I mean really major, orders of magnitude beyond the live boy/dead woman cliché) in the near offing, Barr has to feel pretty secure that he isn’t going to be held answerable for anything.

[kentuck]

11. He hasn't suddenly grown a conscience...

But, it is possible he did not know the extent of what he was getting into when he begged for the job. He was willing to say that the president had all the powers that he had always written and spoke about. But, he expected the president to treat him as an "equal". His ego would not permit him to be depicted as subservient. He wanted to be seen as "independent". In the last few days, they have taken away his "independence" and he now sees that he is no better than anyone else that Trump needs to use at the moment. It's probably been a shock to him in some way. He has been compromised in his mind. I would not be surprised to see him leave.

[gratuitous]

13. Barr may have had an epiphany about how deep he's in

But like MacBeth, Barr finds himself "in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er." And if he leaves the Department, Barr will lose the protections that being Attorney General affords him.

[kentuck]

15. Also....

Trump wants no independent people around him from now until election day. He feels fairly secure in the fact that he can do whatever he wants and get away with it.

Trump is bringing in the old crowd to take him over the finish line and cheer his every move. Barr has served a useful role but Trump may feel that his usefulness is up?

[bluecollar2]

18. And pigs might fly...

Sorry Kentuck but I dont buy the theory that he has any altruistic fibres in his soul.

[kentuck]

20. Self-deception has little to do with altruism.

He has a self-image that has been bruised. Trump understood that about him and had given him room to do his job....up to now.