Dec 3, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Why Trump may still fire Barr

Mike Allen

Trump and Bill Barr — Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Attorney General Barr may be fired or resign, as President Trump seethes about Barr's statement this week that no widespread voter fraud has been found.

Behind the scenes: A source familiar with the president's thinking tells Axios that Trump remains frustrated with what he sees as the lack of a vigorous investigation into his election conspiracy theories.

That combines with what he perceives as the slow-walking of a report by special counsel John Durham into the 2016 investigation of the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia under the Obama administration.

Those two factors have resulted in the very real possibility that Barr is either fired or quits, with just 48 days left in Trump's term.

Reality check ... One reason Trump might not follow through: It's not obvious which government employee would be willing to go further than Barr in satisfying what even some in Trump's inner orbit consider to be unreasonable demands.

It’s not like he can pull in Rudy Giuliani to run the Justice Department for six weeks.

Go deeper: Sidney Powell's conspiracy theories blow back on Trump's White House

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Why Trump may still fire Barr

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