Bill Barr's 'hollow and self-serving' image rehabilitation tour shredded in scathing NYT editorial

A new opinion piece from New York Times editorial board member David Firestone takes a torch to former Attorney General Bill Barr's efforts to rehabilitate his image following the calamitous ending of Donald Trump's presidency.

Firestone notes that Barr has tried to distance himself from Trump ever since resigning his post in December of 2020, shortly before Trump would incite a deadly riot at the United States Capitol building.

However, he notes that this effort appears "hollow and self-serving" given the ways that Barr tried to bend the United States Department of Justice to serve as Trump's "protection racket" during his tenure.

He said that Barr's attempt to salvage his reputation was hurt even further after last week's reporting in the New York Times about his efforts to push the Italian government for help in discrediting special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of the Trump campaign's multiple contacts with Russian agents in 2016.

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"If Mr. Barr harbored any fantasy that he might yet be credited with a wisp of personal integrity for standing up for democracy, that hope was thoroughly demolished on Thursday when The Times published the details of what really happened when Mr. Barr launched a counter-investigation into the origins of Robert Mueller’s report on the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia," he writes. "The reporting demonstrated a staggering abuse of the special counsel system and the attorney general’s office, all in a failed attempt by Mr. Barr to rewrite the sour truths of Mr. Trump’s history."

Firestone concludes his editorial by noting that Barr's efforts to sully the Mueller probe failed, while predicting a similar fate for "his campaign to be remembered as a defender of the Constitution."