Feb 15, 2020 · William Barr, 69 and a veteran of 40 years in Washington, was confirmed one year ago as attorney general, a position with broad influence over the administration of justice and broad sway over...
As head of the Department of Justice and chief legal counsel to the president, the duties of the attorney general are obviously important and wide reaching. The attorney general prosecutes cases that involve the government and gives advice to the president and heads of the executive departments when needed.
Attorney General is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule, thus earning a salary of US$221,400, as of January 2021.
Attorney General GarlandMeet the Attorney General As the nation's chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Garland leads the Justice Department's 115,000 employees, who work across the United States and in more than 50 countries worldwide.Apr 12, 2022
The PresidentThe President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, an Attorney General of the United States. The Attorney General is the head of the Department of Justice. (Added Pub. L.
William BarrOfficial portrait, 201977th and 85th United States Attorney GeneralIn office February 14, 2019 – December 23, 2020PresidentDonald Trump30 more rows
Christine BarrWilliam Barr / Spouse (m. 1973)
the U.S. Department of JusticeWithin the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI is responsible to the attorney general, and it reports its findings to U.S. Attorneys across the country. The FBI's intelligence activities are overseen by the Director of National Intelligence.
Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is a domestic security service, the CIA has no law enforcement function and is officially mainly focused on overseas intelligence gathering, with only limited domestic intelligence collection.
As part of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI reports the results of its investigations to the attorney general of the United States and his assistants in Washington, D.C., and to the United States attorneys' offices in the country's federal judicial districts.
Attorney General Powers and ResponsibilitiesIssuing formal opinions to state agencies.Acting as public advocates in areas such as child support enforcement, consumer protections, antitrust and utility regulation.Proposing legislation.Enforcing federal and state environmental laws.More items...
List of U.S. attorneys generalAttorney GeneralYears of serviceMerrick Garland2021-PresentLoretta Lynch2015-2017Eric Holder2009-2015Michael B. Mukasey2007-200982 more rows
The Attorney-General attends Cabinet, but the post is not the same as the Minister of Justice. By tradition, persons appointed to the position of Attorney-General have been lawyers.
In July, Barr traveled to London to ask intelligence officials there for help with the investigation. He made a similar trip to Italy in September. Recently, Barr announced the creation of an “intake process” for information gathered by Rudy Giuliani about investigations tied to Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s actions reflect his belief that he really has, as he said, an absolute right to intervene anywhere. Barr was once seen as a potential check on Trump’s overt desire to take command of the justice department, deploying its investigators and prosecutors at his whim and his will.
Those developments included Barr’s intervention in a case involving Trump’s friend Roger Stone, prompting the withdrawal of four career prosecutors; the resignation from government of a prominent former US attorney previously sidelined by Barr; and the issuance of a rare public warning by a federal judge about the independence of the courts.
Barr grew up in New York City, graduated from George Washington University law school, served in the Reagan administration and was attorney general under George HW Bush, establishing a record as a hardliner on gang violence and immigration and advocating for pardons in the Iran-Contra affair.
Barr’s long career in public life led some justice department veterans to welcome his nomination as attorney general in late 2018, given concerns about who else Trump might pick.
A cardboard cutout of William Barr is seen as protesters hold signs which read “Barr Coverup,” following the release of the Mueller report on 18 April 2019. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters.
Barr has not v indicated his supporters, Kinkopf said. “His theory is that the constitution allows for this, but good-faith service in the office of president and the office of attorney general maintains the credibility and the apolitical nature of law enforcement.
William Barr served as attorney general during the late President George H.W. Bush's administration. (AP Photo)
In a 2017 interview with The Washington Post, Barr had a critique for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is spearheading the Russia investigation.
During the confirmation hearings when he was first appointed attorney general, Barr said he did not agree with the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision and viewed abortion as an issue best left to the states, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time.
From Verizon Communications to GTE Corporation, Barr spent more than 14 years working in senior corporate positions following his career at the Justice Department, according to his biography.
William Barr worked for the CIA while going to law school at night. (Kirkland & Ellis)
In 2017, Barr signed on to work with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which has an unusual connection to the Trump administration. The firm pays an estimated $8.4 million in annual rent to lease part of a San Francisco skyscraper in which President Trump owns a 30% stake.
That deal was lucrative for Barr—he disclosed $1.7 million of income related to it on his financial disclosure report. But the merger was troubling to Trump, whose Justice Department tried to block it. During his confirmation hearing, Barr promised to recuse himself from the case as attorney general.
From 2001 to 2007, he raked in an average of $1.7 million in annual salary and bonuses, according to documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Barr also received valuable stock options, some of which he traded while at the company, collecting an estimated $3 million after taxes from 2003 to 2007.
Today Barr, who did not comment for this story, has an estimated net worth of $40 million, after accounting for taxes, personal spending and modest investment returns.
The biggest benefit, however, came upon retirement. Barr stepped down from the company at the end of 2008, receiving a $17.1 million distribution from Verizon’s income deferral plan, according to an SEC filing. On top of that, company documents also detail an additional $10.4 million separation payment for Barr.
Retiring did not mean Barr was done working. The year after he left Verizon, he joined the boards of two publicly traded companies, Dominion Resources and Time Warner. From 2009 to 2018, Dominion paid Barr $1.2 million in cash and granted him another $1.1 million in stock awards, according to SEC filings.
The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United Stateson all legal matters. The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States.
Presidential transition[edit] It is the practice for the attorney general, along with the other Cabinet secretaries and high-level political appointees of the President, to tender a resignation with effect on the Inauguration Day(January 20) of a new president.
Gerson was fourth in the line of succession at the Justice Department, but other senior DOJ officials had already resigned.[14] Janet Reno, President Clinton's nominee for attorney general, was confirmed on March 12,[15]and he resigned the same day.
The title "attorney general" is an example of a noun (attorney) followed by a postpositive adjective(general).[8]". General" is a description of the type of attorney, not a title or rank in itself (as it would be in the military).[8]
Barr’s ouster deepens an ongoing leadership crisis at the Justice Department. The attorney general had faced intense criticism, including from current and former DOJ officials, that he had politicized the department.
Attorney General William Barr, the head of the Department of Justice, will leave office before Christmas, President Donald Trump said Monday. The widely anticipated announcement of Barr’s departure came just moments after President-elect Joe Biden ’s victory over Trump was formalized by the Electoral College.
William Barr takes a seat after a break in his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to be attorney general of the United States on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2019. Yuri Gripas | Reuters.
Attorney General William Barr, the head of the Department of Justice, will depart the Trump administration before Christmas, President Donald Trump said. The widely anticipated announcement of Barr’s departure came just moments after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump was formalized by the Electoral College.
Barr also faced scrutiny over his handling of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as the termination of Geoffrey Berman, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. At times, however, Barr publicly pushed back on Trump.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Barr had worked to conceal the probes involving Hunter Biden’s business dealings and finances during the election season, despite pressure from Trump and Republicans seeking information on the Democratic nominee’s son.
Richard Donoghue , former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, will take over Rosen’s role as the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Trump wrote.
The president can issue pardons without the attorney general or the Department of Justice. The Constitution gives the pardon power to the chief executive alone. But there is a pardon office in Justice, and a president who entirely ignores or sidesteps its recommendations could taint his attorney general.
Barr knows all about late-term pardons. He made his own reputation at the end of George H.W. Bush’s administration by recommending pardons for Iran-Contra figures. Those pardons effectively ended the investigation into the scandal -- and insulated Bush, who might have been implicated had the investigation continued.
Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and host of the podcast “Deep Background.”. He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. His books include “The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President.”.
Attorney General William Barr has resigned with a little more than a month left in President Donald Trump’s administration. This seems to suggest that Barr thinks what happens in the next five weeks could irretrievably tarnish his legacy. If so, that’s pretty stunning, considering how much Barr has already diminished his reputation and that of the Justice Department with his pro-Trump shenanigans.
CEO Pay Is the Last Temptation of Shale. The most likely possibility, however, involves presidential pardons, and perhaps legally questionable executive orders designed to make more permanent some of Trump’s policies. The president can issue pardons without the attorney general or the Department of Justice.
In one case he redefined the definition of torture to make that definition more narrow and make is less likely to be a reason to grant entry to an asylum seeker.
Mitchell Palmer, attorney general from 1919 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson. Palmer warmed up for this gig during the war years by holding the position of Alien Property Custodian. In that position he was responsible for seizing and selling the assets of “enemies,” most of whom were German Americans, including a number of German brewers who Palmer determined were “unpatriotic.”
The People’s Lawyer is a biweekly podcast from NAAG that explores the role of state and territory attorneys general as chief legal officers and their work protecting the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution.
As chief legal officers of the states, commonwealths, District of Columbia, and territories of the United States, the role of an attorney general is to serve as counselor to state government agencies and legislatures, and as a representative of the public interest.
Issuing formal opinions to state agencies. Acting as public advocates in areas such as child support enforcement, consumer protections, antitrust and utility regulation. Proposing legislation. Enforcing federal and state environmental laws. Representing the state and state agencies before the state and federal courts.
The United States attorney general (AG) leads the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief lawyer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all legal matters. The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States.
Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 which, among other things, established the Office of the Attorney General. The original duties of this officer were "to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the president of the United States, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments". Some of these duties have since been transferred to the U…
It is the practice for the attorney general, along with the other Cabinet secretaries and high-level political appointees of the President, to tender a resignation with effect on the Inauguration Day (January 20) of a new president. The deputy attorney general is also expected to tender a resignation, but is commonly requested to stay on and act as the attorney general pending the confirmation by the Senate of the new attorney general.
U.S.C. Title 28, §508 establishes the first two positions in the line of succession, while allowing the attorney general to designate other high-ranking officers of the Department of Justice as subsequent successors. Furthermore, an Executive Order defines subsequent positions, the most recent from March 31, 2017, signed by President Donald Trump. The current line of succession is:
1. United States Deputy Attorney General
• Executive Order 13787 for "Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice"