Barr bids farewell to Justice Department staff on final day as attorney general

(Image credit: Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

published 23 December 2020

Attorney General William Barr announced his resignation earlier this month, but Wednesday officially marks his final day on the job. In a farewell message, Barr thanked the Justice Department staff and said "it has been a great honor" to serve in the role for a second time (he was previously President George H.W. Bush's attorney general).

Since then, per The New York Times, Barr has reportedly told associates he's been alarmed by Trump's behavior in recent weeks, and the Times also reports the president's most recent slate of controversial pardons appear to have bypassed the traditional Justice Department review process, which would likely have found that more than half of the cases did not meet its standards. Read more at The New York Times.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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