Trumpy’s Little Bunny

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The Attorney General should act independently of the president. Trump’s first AG was Jeff Sessions, a man who was on Trump’s campaign team and had lied during his confirmation hearing. Sessions was actually giddy while announcing the policy of separating children from their families. But even Sessions was more independent and ethical than William Barr.

Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation and it was Assistant AG, Rod Rosenstein, who made the appointment. Trump publicly screamed and complained about Sessions recusing himself. He didn’t hide his anger. He said that if he knew Sessions would recuse himself, that he wouldn’t have given him the job. That’s Trump saying he wouldn’t have given Sessions the job if he had known he wouldn’t use the position to protect Trump.

Trump ordered people in his administration to force Sessions to un-recuse himself, but the orders weren’t followed, either out of direct refusal or the minions just hoping Trump would forget about it. This was a direct attempt to obstruct justice. Fortunately for Trump, he eventually fired Sessions and got an AG who wouldn’t rule his obstruction is obstruction.

Trump often said to his staff, “where’s my Roy Cohn?” Roy Cohn was a very unethical lawyer who was close to Trump’s family, was Trump’s legal (haha) mentor, and had helped Joseph McCarthy during his crusade to destroy anyone, personally and professionally, who vaguely looked like a communist. Roy Cohn was eventually disbarred.

In William Barr, Trump found more than his Roy Cohn. He found his little bunny.

Before Barr was Trumpy’s little bunny, he was hopping for George H. W. Bush. He recommended pardons for several individuals in Iran/Contra and he’s proud to this day to have done so. Casper Weinberger had been set to go on trial for charges about lying to Congress. Barr said later that he believed Bush had made the right decision and that people in the case had been treated unfairly. Who had described Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn as being treated “unfairly?”

Before he became Trumpy’s little bunny, Barr was criticizing Robert Mueller for hiring people who had made donations to Democrats. But here’s the thing, people. It’s Justice Department policy that politics is not to play into hiring decisions. You know who should know this better than a blogging political cartoonist? Anyone who has served as Attorney General and that includes William Barr.

Before he became Trump’s little bunny, Barr wrote a memo criticizing the legal basis upon which Mueller might have been looking into whether Trump had obstructed justice. During his sham of a confirmation hearing, Barr promised “full transparency” in regard to the Mueller Report. This is where Barr first laid an egg.

Barr ruled that Trump did not obstruct justice and that Mueller left that decision to be made by him. Barr sat on that egg for three weeks. Now that we have the Mueller Report, we see that’s not the case. Barr misled the public and Congress. Mueller wanted Congress to make the obstruction decision and had cited at least ten instances where Trump may have obstructed justice. Barr never mentioned these instances, or the constant lying, or the many connections to Russia, or Trump’s eagerness to benefit from Russia, etc.

Barr issued a four-page summary that focused on collusion where the nearly five-hundred page Mueller Report barely mentions collusion. Now, those of us who have read the bulk of the report get to be screamed at by Trump defenders who didn’t read all four pages of the Barr summary.

There are now calls for impeachment, not for Trump but for Barr. William Barr acted as Trump’s personal attorney and used the position of Attorney General to defend a man who obstructed justice and was disloyal to the United States. Keep in mind that all the Republicans defending Trump once impeached a Democratic president for lying about receiving oral sex.

William Barr has disgraced himself. He couldn’t have less dignity if he was wearing a bunny costume.

William Barr is Trumpy’s little bunny.

Creative notes: I often hide what’s called “Easter eggs” in my cartoons. This cartoon has actual Easter eggs. This cartoon was very easy as I knew CNN would want this issue and I only sent them two roughs, where previously I have never sent less than eight. For this one, maybe I only needed to draw one as they picked the first rough I drew.

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