38 newyork| december9–22, 2019
nowexacerbatedbypartisanconflict.
“ImmediatelyafterPresidentTrumpwon
election,opponentsinauguratedwhat they
calledtheresistance,”Barrsaid.“Theyral-
liedaroundanexplicitstrategyofusing
every toolandmaneuvertosabotage the
functioningoftheexecutivebranchandhis
administration.Now,‘resistance’is thelan-
guage usedtodescribeinsurgencyagainst
ruleimposedbyanoccupyingmilitary
power.It obviouslyconnotesthat thegov-
ernmentis notlegitimate.Thisis a very dan-
gerousandindeedincendiary notionto
importintothepoliticsofa democratic
republic.” Withoutmentioningtheimpeach-
menthearings,BarraccusedDemocratsin
Congressofusing“constantharassment”to
“incapacitatetheexecutivebranch”andthe
administration’sagenda.Thosewhoaccused
Trumpofactinglike ananti-democratic
menace,Barrsaid,haditbackward.“In
waginga scorched-earth,no-holds-barred
warofresistanceagainst thisadministra-
tion,”hesaid,“itis theleft that is engagedin
a systematicshreddingof normsandunder-
miningtheruleoflaw.”
Barr’smessage wasmet withapplause
intheroomanda savagereactionoutside
it.Onsocialmedia,liberalcommentators
howledinprotest,whilehismost important
audience,@realDonaldTrump,retweeted
a videoclipofhisat tackontheresistance.
Afewdaysafterward,ChecksandBal-
ances,a groupofconservativelawyersand
scholarswhoopposeTrump,issueda
statementcallinghis“autocraticvision”
ahistoricalandcontrarytotheConstitu-
tion.Barrwasuntroubled.
“Generally,noonereallycareswhat they
think,”Barrsaidof theChecksandBalances
crowdwhenwemettheweekof Thanksgiv-
ingamidthewood-paneledgrandeurofhis
officesuiteonthefifthflooroftheJusticeDepartment headquarters. In person, on a
darkening fall afternoon, the 69-year-old
was subdued, his voice softened almost to a
mumble. Barr claims to ignore the newspa-
pers and social media, and whether that is
entirely true, he certainly occupies his posi-
tion with a comfort that eluded his immedi-
ate predecessor, Jeff Sessions. Barr knew the
office well, having served as attorney general
once before during the presidency of George
H.W. Bush. He said he returned to govern-
ment, after nearly 30 years, with the objec-
tive of restoring order.
“People who had a lot of antipathy toward
Trump seemed to be willing to go to any
lengths to injure his administration,” Barr
said. “I felt that was unfair and harmful to
the system and important institutions,
including the presidency, and I felt there
should be people in the Department of Jus-
ticetohelpnavigate throughthesetimes.”
Asattorneygeneral,Barris at oncethe
nation’s chief prosecutorandthepresident’s
highest-rankinglegalcounselor, aninher-
entlyconflictedrolewhenthepresidentis
accusedofwrongdoing.Butoverthepast
year,withbureaucraticdexterityandbluff
self-assurance,Barrhaseffectivelyturned
theJusticeDepartment toface down
Trump’sadversaries.In the spring,he
broughta muffledconclusiontospecial
prosecutorRobertMueller’sinvestigationof
Russianinterferenceinthe 2016 election,
managingthereleaseofhisreportina way
thatlimiteditsimpact anddeclaringtheevi-
dencedidnotshowTrumpcommitted
obstructionofjustice.Barrtheninitiateda
secretiveinternalprobeoftheoriginsofthe
Russiainvestigation,headedbyveteran
prosecutorJohnDurham,whois scrutiniz-
ingtheFBIandCIA.Barr, whoclaimsthere
was“spying” onTrump’scampaign,has
playeda hands-onroleinDurham’s work,
travelingtheworldto convinceforeignintel-
ligenceservicesto cooperateinhisinvestiga-
tionoftheinvestigation.
Hisperformanceappearstohaveearned
Trump’s confidencetoa raredegree.In the
phonecallwithUkraine’s presidentthat set
offimpeachment,thepresidentmentioned
Barrinthesamebreathashisattorney
RudyGiuliani.Barrwasreportedlyangry
whenheheardaboutthecall,though,and
infairness,heisnobody’s personalfixer.
Rather, Barris anintimidatinglycompetent
governmental operator—a man who
“knowsthelevers,”asoneformerTrump-
administrationJusticeofficialputit.A bet-
tercomparison,oftenmadebyBarr’s peers,
is toDickCheney. Barrappreciatespower,
andheknowshowtowieldit.
As theDurhamprobe,theongoing
impeachmentdrama,andthepresidential
campaignplayoutinthecomingmonths,
Barrwilloccupya crucialposition.Whilehortly before 5 p.m. on November 15, Attor-
ney General William P. Barr arrived at the May-
flower Hotel in Washington, D.C., his owlish face
wearing a heavy expression. He and his entourage
rushed by the lobby bar, where a television was
tuned to CNN’s coverage of another day of damn-
ing impeachment hearings and raging presidential
tweets. Inside a gilded ballroom, hundreds of con-
servative lawyers—many of them, like Barr, veter-
ans of previous Republican administrations—were
gathered to hear him deliver an addressto the
annual conference of the Federalist Society.“It willcomeaslittlesurprise to this group,” Barr began, “that I’ve chosen to speak
abouttheConstitution’s approach to executive power.” Even by the stan-
dardsofthisbrazen era in Washington, in which all subtext is banished,
thethemeofthe evening was a little on-the-nose—a startlingly explicit
caseforstrengtheningDonaldTrump’sholdonAmericangovernment.
“The grammar-school-civics-class ver-
sion of our Revolution is that it was a rebel-
lion against monarchical tyranny, and that
in framing our Constitution, one of the
preoccupations, the main preoccupation
of the Founders, was to keep the executive
weak,” Barr told the audience. “This is mis-
guided.” Instead, Barr advocates for what
is known as the “unitary executive theory,”
which challenges the long-established
doctrine that the president’s control over
his branch of government is shared, to
some degree, with Congress and the
courts. “Whenever I see a court opinion
that uses the word share,” Barr said, “I
want to run in the other direction.” Critics
say that in its maximalist form, the theory
is a license for authoritarianism—a con-
cern that Barr dismissed with ridicule.
“One of the more amusing aspects of
modern progressive polemic is their
breathless attacks on the unitary executive
theory,” Barr said. He paused for effect,
waved his arms, and shouted ghoulishly:
“Bwaaaaaaaaaa!” He recounted his own
confirmation hearing, at which Democratic
senators pressed him to explain his muscu-
lar philosophy. “This is not ‘new,’ and it’s not
a ‘theory,’” Barr said. If anything, he argued,
the president’s rightful power had been sto-
len, a view shaped by his personal history.
Barr started his career as a CIA analyst in
1973 in the midst of Watergate. At the time,
the Agency was besieged by revelations of its
misdeeds, congressional investigations, and
political battles over regulation of intelli-
gence activities. But where others saw the
post-Watergate reforms as a triumph of
accountability, Barr viewed them as the
beginning of a constitutional wrong turn. At
the Mayflower, he spoke of the “steady
grinding down of the executive branch’s
authority that accelerated after Watergate,”