William Barr

William P. Barr worked at the Central Intelligence Agency from 1973 to 1977 while attending law school at night. "During my tenure at CIA, 1973 to '77, the investigations of the agency started, and I moved to the legislative counsel's office," he recalled; as assistant legislative counsel under Director George H.W. Bush in 1976 he worked against legislation of Representatives Michael Harrington and Bella Abzug that would have required notice to people whose mail the agency had opened under HTLINGUAL. He then clerked for Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the D.C. Circuit, a former head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, who telephoned Bush for a reference. After private practice and the Reagan transition he joined the White House domestic policy staff, where he worked with C. Boyden Gray, counsel to Vice President Bush. In 1988 he helped screen vice-presidential candidates through Robert Kimmitt.¹

Justice Department, 1989-1993

Gray, who wanted in the Office of Legal Counsel "someone in that position who believed in executive authority," asked Barr to take it in 1989; Barr was "the White House's choice," acceptable to Attorney General Richard Thornburgh. At the Office of Legal Counsel he took part in the planning of the legal basis for the invasion of Panama and the arrest of Manuel Noriega in December 1989. He became deputy attorney general in 1990 and acting attorney general in August 1991, during the seizure of the Talladega federal prison by Cuban detainees, and served as attorney general until January 1993.¹

INSLAW

According to the report of Nicholas J. Bua, Barr appointed him special counsel on the INSLAW matter on November 7, 1991, requesting "a complete and thorough investigation."² The House Committee on the Judiciary gave the date as November 13, 1991, and noted that "at that time the Attorney General had not empowered Judge Bua to subpoena witnesses, convene a grand jury or compel the Department to produce key documents."³ Barr recalled that he announced the appointment at his confirmation hearing, in answer to Senator Paul Simon: "I've promised him carte blanche. Let the chips fall where they may." Simon, he said, called it "great news," and "Once Simon gave his imprimatur, that issue was off the table."¹

BNL

On the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro loans to Iraq, Barr declined to seek an independent counsel. "Even though an independent counsel was not required, in my opinion, because they didn't meet the statutory test, I just used my inherent authority," he recalled. He first asked former Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, who declined, and on October 16, 1992, appointed the retired judge Frederick Lacey. Barr said the position became untenable after an allegation that the CIA had withheld cables and after a White House aide's call to the Atlanta prosecutor Gale McKenzie about the case, and that Bush telephoned him from Air Force One only to ask what to say about it. Lacey reported on December 8, 1992, that there were no grounds for an independent counsel and that he had "seen nothing" to suggest that Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger knew of the loans; Representative Henry Gonzalez called the report a whitewash.¹⁴

House Bank

Barr appointed his former judge, Wilkey, as special counsel for the investigation of the House bank. He recalled that two members of Congress "took me back in my office" and "threatened that life could be very difficult for me if this thing was really investigated," and that he answered, "That's tough. It's going to be investigated."¹

Iran-Contra Pardons

At the end of the administration Barr advised Bush to pardon Caspar Weinberger, "but while he was at it, he should pardon about five others." "The big ones obviously were the Iran Contra ones. I certainly did not oppose any of them. I favored the broadest. There were some people arguing just for Weinberger, and I said, 'No, in for a penny, in for a pound.'" He described Elliott Abrams as "very unjustly treated" and did not remember going through the pardon office. Of the independent counsel Lawrence Walsh he said: "He was certainly a headhunter and had completely lost perspective." He disputed Bob Woodward's account that Bush "bellowed" at him over Weinberger's indictment on the Friday before the 1992 election: "He didn't even raise his voice. He just said that he felt it cost him the election."¹

Attorney General, 2019

Barr resigned from the board of Dominion Energy effective February 12, 2019, before his confirmation as attorney general.⁵ His department oversaw the federal prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein that year. His father, Donald Barr, was headmaster of the Dalton School in New York during the period in which Epstein, a college dropout, was hired there to teach; accounts differ on whether Donald Barr personally hired him.⁶