2020 presidential hopeful and California Rep. Eric Swalwell (D) is resolutely calling for the resignation of U.S. Attorney General William “Bill” Barr.
“I’m demanding AG Barr resign,” Swalwell tweeted on Sunday. “And you should you too!”
I’m demanding AG Barr resign. And you should you too!https://t.co/xaKGopHNaE
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) April 21, 2019
Swalwell targets Bill Barr
Appended to Swalwell’s weekend tweet was a recent article, published by Salon, that outlines how the congressman went after Barr for his handling of the release of Robert Mueller’s final report over the last several weeks.
“[Barr] has proved that he’s an embedded Trump ally who puts this president’s political future above of the rule of law,” Swalwell said in a statement, according to Salon. “That makes him unfit to serve. He must resign.”
To Swalwell, Barr is nothing more than a Trump ally brought in by the president to get rid of the thorn that has been in his side over the past few years: the special counsel’s investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign team and Russia.
“You can be the president’s defense attorney or America’s attorney general, but you can’t be both,” Swalwell said of Barr. “William Barr was tainted from the moment he sent an unsolicited memo to the Justice Department panning Robert Mueller’s obstruction investigation, way back in June 2018.”
That nearly-20-page memo from Barr, dated June 8, 2018, was sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Steve Engel. In it, Barr called Mueller’s theory that Trump committed obstruction of justice “fatally misconceived,” among other things.
Democrats like Swalwell have claimed that Barr won over Trump with the memo, which they say disqualifies him from being viewed as an objective overseer of the law.
Swalwell’s image
While he hasn’t been as belligerent in his attacks on Barr as his California colleague Adam Schiff (D) — the House Intelligence Committee chairman who has spent the last two years trying to use the Trump-Russia collusion investigation as a means for impeachment — Swalwell has long been a proponent of an independent investigation of Trump from his seat on the House Judiciary Committee. But he’s received pushback from many in the GOP, who Swalwell has accused of being complacent in wrongdoing by the president.
“A lot of [Republicans] look at it and say, ‘What do I get out of it?'” Swalwell alleged in August. “Now to me, what you get out of it is the satisfaction of doing the right thing. If this job only means looking the other way and not doing what you believe is right, then what is this job worth?”
This, despite the fact that Mueller found no evidence of collusion and failed to prove obstruction, according to his 448-page report. But that doesn’t matter to Swalwell, who confirmed to Fox News last week that the president’s trouble with impeachment-crazed Democrats isn’t over yet.
“There was certainly evidence of collusion, not evidence that met the beyond a reasonable doubt standard,” Swalwell said on Outnumbered. “This president is in no way cleared.”
Of course, the commander-in-chief has a different opinion:
Only high crimes and misdemeanors can lead to impeachment. There were no crimes by me (No Collusion, No Obstruction), so you can’t impeach. It was the Democrats that committed the crimes, not your Republican President! Tables are finally turning on the Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2019
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