Former Attorney General Eric Holder sharply criticized current Attorney General William P. Barr Tuesday, saying removing him from power is a key reason why people should vote against President Trump in the upcoming election.
“To weaponize the Justice Department in the way that Barr has is inconsistent with his oath,” Mr. Holder said. “It’s another reason why we have to make sure Donald Trump is defeated in November and we have a new attorney general come January.”
Mr. Holder, a Democrat who served as President Obama’s attorney general from 2009 to 2015, made the remarks at the Texas Tribune Festival, an event organized by a nonprofit media organization based in Austin.
The former attorney general ticked off reasons to support Democrat Presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden, who served as vice president while Mr. Holder helmed the Justice Department. He said getting a new attorney general was at the top of that list.
“The department has to be restored,” he said. “There is an obvious morale problem that has to be dealt with and the department has to be righted.”
“I would hope that the new attorney general would in a very loud voice make it very clear that the department is going to get back to first principles. That the enforcement of the law is going to be done in a neutral, nonpartisan way and anyone who wants to do things in a political way should find a new job.”
Mr. Holder, who once bragged that he was Mr. Obama’s “wingman,” called out Mr. Barr for his loyalty to the president. He addressed the “wingman” comment, saying his actions as attorney general were independent, and slammed Mr. Barr as “the lawyer for the president.”
“I dare anyone to point to anything that I did that was inconsistent with my oath as opposed to what this attorney general has done with this president,” he said.
Mr. Holder pointed to the probe by U.S. Attorney John Durham into the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation as one example where he is “worried” about the Justice Department.
While describing Mr. Durham as “a person of integrity,” Mr. Holder said he’s concerned that his involvement with the current attorney general could tarnish that reputation.
“I worry that others who have had good reputations and people of integrity somehow when they got close to these folks in the Trump administration lost their merits and did inappropriate things,” he said. “I’m not saying that’s going to happen here.”
He also slammed the idea of a preliminary report by Mr. Durham, which Republicans have touted as a possible “October surprise.”
“All of the things the Justice Department says about a case are at the end of it, not the middle of it,” he said. “I worry a great deal about the pressure he is undoubtedly having to deal with.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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