Advisers Reportedly Plead With ‘Livid’ Trump Not to Fire Barr

Advisers are reportedly asking President Donald Trump to refrain from firing Attorney General William Barr for comments he made questioning Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

“Several people are trying to persuade Trump not to do so,” a senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Barr told The Associated Press on Monday that he had “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” He added, “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the [Department of Homeland Security] and [Department of Justice] have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.”

The remarks contributed to Trump’s growing discontent with the Justice Department, adding to his dissatisfaction with U.S. Attorney John Durham’s failure to produce a report on federal law enforcement agencies prior to the election. Barr appointed Durham this year to probe whether officials acted appropriately in opening an investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign over alleged election interference by Russia.

“A lot of it is Durham,” the unnamed senior official added.

Trump’s time to act ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration is limited. Biden is reportedly considering candidates for attorney general including Sally Yates, who served as deputy attorney general under President Barack Obama. Yates signed off on the FBI’s decision to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in 2016 and 2017, though she told the Senate this year that she “certainly wouldn’t” have made the same decision in hindsight.