On Monday, President Trump announced yet another resignation from his administration by tweet, revealing the Attorney General William Barr — formerly his most effective ally in pursuing executive power — would leave the administration on December 23:
The attorney general and the president had a close working relationship from the time Barr joined the administration on Valentine’s Day in 2019 until this November, when he did not sign onto Trump’s baseless allegations of election fraud. The decision — a rare example of Department of Justice independence under Barr’s tenure — created some tension between the president and the cabinet figure who most effectively enabled his authoritarian impulses. On December 3, after Barr stated that his department had found no evidence of fraud that would overturn the election, the president would not say if he still had confidence in his attorney general: “Ask me that in a number of weeks from now,” he told reporters.
Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen will becoming the acting attorney general for the waning days of the administration.
