AG Under GHWB Is Leading Candidate For Trump’s AG

The Washington Post reports:

Former attorney general William P. Barr is President Trump’s leading candidate to be nominated to lead the Justice Department — a choice that could be made in coming days as the agency presses forward with a probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to multiple people familiar with the deliberations.

Barr, 68, a well-respected Republican lawyer who served as attorney general from 1991 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush, has emerged as a favorite candidate of a number of Trump administration officials, including senior lawyers in the White House Counsel’s Office, these people said.

Two people familiar with the discussions said the president has told advisers in recent days that he plans to nominate Barr. Those familiar with the discussions said Barr, having already been attorney general, doesn’t feel a particular ambition for the position, but does feel a sense of duty to take it if offered.

Under Bush 41, Barr was a hardliner on crime, advocating for expanding state and federal prison systems. His Wikipedia page notes that he was known as a “strong defender of presidential power and wrote advisory opinions justifying the U.S. invasion of Panama and the arrest of Manuel Noriega.”