William Barr could make exit as A-G before Trump's term ends

WASHINGTON • US Attorney-General William Barr is considering stepping down before President Donald Trump's term ends next month, according to three people familiar with his thinking. One said Mr Barr could announce his departure before the end of the year.

It was not clear whether the Attorney-General's deliberations were influenced by Mr Trump's refusal to concede his election loss or his fury over Mr Barr's acknowledgement last week that the Justice Department uncovered no widespread voting fraud. In the ensuing days, the President refused to say whether he still had confidence in his Attorney-General.

One of the people insisted that Mr Barr had been weighing his departure since before last week and that Mr Trump had not affected his thinking.

Another said Mr Barr had concluded that he had completed the work that he set out to accomplish at the Justice Department.

But the President's public complaints about the election, including a baseless allegation earlier last week that federal law enforcement had rigged the election against him, are certain to cast a cloud over any early departure by Mr Barr.

By leaving early, Mr Barr could avoid a confrontation with Mr Trump over his refusal to advance the President's efforts to rewrite the election results. Mr Barr's departure would also deprive Mr Trump of a Cabinet officer who has wielded the power of the Justice Department more deeply in service of a president's political agenda than any attorney-general in half a century.

Conversely, it would please some Trump allies, who have called for Mr Barr to step down over his refusal to wade further into Mr Trump's efforts to overturn the election outcome.

Mr Barr has not made a final decision and the prospect of him staying on until Jan 20 remains a possibility, the people familiar with his thinking cautioned.

Should Mr Barr step down before the end of the Trump administration, the deputy attorney-general, Mr Jeffrey Rosen, would be expected to lead the Justice Department until President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

Mr Barr, 70, is the strongest proponent of presidential power to hold the office of Attorney-General since Watergate. Soon after he was confirmed in February last year, he gained Mr Trump's trust and his ear.

He managed to heal fissures between the White House and the Justice Department that broke open when the President learnt that his campaign was under investigation related to Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Mr Barr was among the loudest voices warning that mail-in ballots would result in mass election fraud.

NYTIMES