“When William Barr was nominated to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general, significant segments of the Washington legal establishment supported the move.

“The fact that Trump was changing his attorney general was not auspicious; Sessions had lost Trump’s support by recusing himself from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which the president complained was unfair to him.

“But Barr had served as attorney general under the George H.W. Bush administration and, as Benjamin Wittes put it, Barr would be an attorney general “steeped in the traditions and culture of the Justice Department,” “who has run the department before and served with distinction in other senior roles,” and “with a long-standing professional reputation as a lawyer to protect.””

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