Eric Holder argues in op-ed that William Barr is 'unfit' to be attorney general

Former Attorney General Eric Holder is "reluctant to publicly criticize my successors," he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Wednesday night, but the current attorney general, William Barr, "has made a series of public statements and taken actions that are so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan, and so deeply inappropriate for America’s chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office."

Among Barr's troubling statement, Holder writes, were his "ode to essentially unbridled executive power" in a Federalist Society speech, his evidence-free attacks on the FBI and Justice Department inspector general, and his "stunning declaration not merely of ideology but of loyalty: to the president and his interests." In fact, Holder said, "to me, his attempts to vilify the president's critics sounded more like the tactics of an unscrupulous criminal defense lawyer than a U.S. attorney general."

"Virtually since the moment he took office," Holder writes, "Barr’s words and actions have been fundamentally inconsistent with his duty to the Constitution. Which is why I now fear that his conduct — running political interference for an increasingly lawless president — will wreak lasting damage." He concluded:

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Holder wasn't the only former official giving successors advice in the Post on Wednesday — 17 former Watergate special prosecutors also advised their latter-day congressional counterparts that Trump has committed impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors and counseled putting country over party. Read Holder's entire op-ed in The Washington Post.