Barr, on his way out, breaks with Trump on Hunter Biden and election fraud

Attorney General William Barr seems at peace — if a bit downcast — over the prospect of leaving office while publicly at odds with President Donald Trump on several fronts.

During a final news conference at Justice Department headquarters Monday, Barr did little if anything to hide his disagreements with the president on topics such as election fraud and the handling of the ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, son of President-elect Joe Biden.

Barr, who is set to step down on Wednesday after his second stint as attorney general, said he sees no need to appoint a special counsel to oversee investigations related to Hunter Biden.

Trump has criticized Barr for keeping the probe relatively quiet prior to last month’s election, and some Republican lawmakers have been calling for the attorney general to convert the investigation to a special counsel probe.

However, Barr said the probes into the younger Biden are already being capably handled by attorneys within the Department of Justice.

“I think to the extent there’s an investigation, I think that it’s being handled responsibly and professionally currently within the department,” Barr said. “To this point I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel, and I have no plan to do so before I leave.”

Hunter Biden revealed early this month that the U.S. attorney for Delaware was investigating him for possible tax-related issues. POLITICO later reported the securities fraud unit for the Southern District of New York, which investigates major white-collar crimes, was looking into his financial dealings as well and that the scope of the investigations goes beyond just taxes.

And with Trump mulling extreme actions to investigate claims of widespread voter fraud, including the use of an executive order to seize voting machines the president’s lawyers say are likely to contain evidence of manipulation, Barr made clear he isn’t on board.

“I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government — wholesale seizures of machines by the federal government,” he told reporters, appearing to leave open the possibility that investigators might be able to seize some evidence in a specific case.

Barr also scoffed at another idea Trump has been considering at a series of White House meetings: appointing one his most confrontational and controversial attorneys, Sidney Powell, as a special counsel to investigate election fraud.

“If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven't and I'm not going to,” the attorney general said.

Barr offered a bit of an olive branch to the president on that subject, saying there was fraud in last month’s election, but he did not waver from his previous comments that any electoral mischief didn’t reach levels that would affect the outcome of the presidential race.

“There is fraud, unfortunately, in most elections. I think we are too tolerant of this and I'm sure there was fraud in this election,” the attorney general said, while reaffirming that it did not reach “systemic” levels.

Barr announced last week that he planned to step down this week, about a month before Trump’s term ends. The announcement came amid reports Trump might fire Barr out of dissatisfaction over Barr’s approach to issues like the election and the Hunter Biden probe. But after the two men met last week, Trump offered praise for Barr and refrained from the kind of public criticism the president offered on several occasions before the election.

Barr, who tends to be stoic in public appearances, seemed a bit wistful Monday — although some of that somber tone may have stemmed from the primary subject of his appearance: an announcement of criminal charges against a new defendant in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. That terrorist attack killed all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. The sister of one man killed on the flight stood on the podium with Barr at Monday’s news conference.

Looking back over his second stint as attorney general, Barr appeared to concede it was tumultuous, but said that he came into it aware of at least some of the challenges he would face.

“I knew I was signing up for a difficult assignment at this department,” Barr said. “There were rough times, and I came in because I felt that I could help lead the DOJ during this particular period. And I don’t regret that at I all. I don’t regret coming in.”

While Barr often seems eager to joust with his critics or to tangle with the administration’s political opponents, on Monday he passed up an opportunity to reprise his role excoriating liberals for various social ills.

Asked whether in light of Trump’s various statements challenging the election results Barr stands by a speech he delivered last year blaming the left for a “systematic shredding of norms,” the attorney general demurred.

“I’m just not going to get into my remarks at the Federalist Society or into recent developments,” Barr said.

Conservatives have used Hunter Biden’s legal cloud as a cudgel against the former vice president and have raised concerns that Joe Biden or his yet-to-be-named attorney general could shut down probes into his son shortly after taking office in January. They have pushed the Trump administration to insulate that investigation by appointing a special counsel.

Jen Psaki, who Biden tapped to be his White House press secretary, said Sunday that the president-elect is refraining from talking about his son’s potential legal issues with any candidates to be attorney general in his administration.

“He will not be discussing an investigation of his son with any attorney general candidates. He will not be discussing it with anyone he is considering for the role. And he will not be discussing it with a future attorney general,” she said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Barr said he hopes that Biden would refrain from meddling into any investigation related to his son and would allow such probes to proceed freely.

“I’m hoping that the next administration handles that matter responsibly,” he said.

The attorney general also sided with the assessment of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others that Russia was behind a recent cyberattack that targeted several parts of the federal government. The Kremlin has denied involvement, and Trump over the weekend downplayed both the severity of the breach and the likelihood that it came from Russia.

The attorney general’s comments came after announcing criminal charges against a former Libyan intelligence officer allegedly tied to the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

Barr has long been personally invested in the case. It dates back to his first stint as attorney general, and he said the new charges help bring the tragedy “full circle” for him.

“At long last, this man responsible for killing Americans and many others will be subject to justice for his crimes," Barr said of the alleged bombmaker, Abu Agela Masud, who is currently in Libyan custody.

Barr said American and Scottish authorities are working to bring him to the U.S. to face charges.