King Announces Opposition to Attorney
‘General Nominee
King: “This vote is the product of imtense research and
thought, and my final decision is defined as much by the
circumstances as it is by the nominee.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, US. Senator Angus King (1
Maine) released the following statement announcing his opposition
to the nomination of William Barr to serve as United States Attorney
General. In his statement, King points to Barr’s sweeping view of
executive power and refusal to commit to an open process for the
release of the Mueller investigation’ s findings as the driving factors
of his decision
“After carefully studying William Barr's record, attending a portion
of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and
meeting with him one-on-one to pose additional questions, I will be
‘voting no om his nomination to serve as Atiomey General.
“I do not cast this vote lightly; while there are any number of eritical
policy areas where Mr. Barr and I have serious differences, he is
clearly a knowledgeable nominee who has a deep respect for the
Department of Justice. I imagine that, uader typical circumstances,
Mr. Barr would meet my standard that the President should be able
to appoint his or her chosen leaders to federal departments, provided
that they are not grossly ungualified and do not stand in opposition
to the department's mission. However, I do not consider the present
moment to be “typical circumstances,” and two of the nominee's key
positions are so concerning to me as to require a “no” vote.“First: it is clear from his record and from the unsolicited 19-page
memo he wrote arguing in the President's favor on a potential area
of inquiry for the Mueller investigation that Mr. Barr believes in
sweeping executive powers. It is my belief that his view does not
align with the intentions of the Framers of the Constitution, who
took great care to establish checks and balances and ensure that the
American people are not subject to the whims of any one person —
even if that person is the President.
“My concem regarding Mr. Bart's position is compounded by the
fact that our current President has repeatedly taken of proposed
actions that extend well beyond the power of the executive as
imagined by our Framers — from imposing tariffs on steel and
aluminum in the name of national security where no such reason
existed, to his recent threats to build a wall on the southern border
by declaring a ‘national emergency,” even as the data released by
his own administration indicates that the number of illegal border
crossings is actually decreasing. The President seems to be under
the impression that he is still the CEO of a family-owned company
—a dangerous misunderstanding that could be exacerbated by the
presence of an Attomey General who holds Mr. Barr's expansive
view of executive power.
“Second: while Barr has asserted he would allow Robert
Mueller to complete his investigation into Russian interference in
the 2016 election, ne has repeatedly refused to commit to make
Mueller’s findings public. As a member of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, I fully understand that there may be pieces of the
investigation that must remain confidential - but as a U.S. Senator
and as an Americar, I believe that we must restore America’s full
faith and confidence in our system of goverment through higher
standards of transparency than Mr. Barr has committed to support.
The Intelligence Community is clear that foreign powers sought to
interfere in the 2016 election; preventing future incursions in our
electoral process stould be our top priority, and the best way to
defend our elections is by educating the American public on how to
identify foreign attempts to interfere in our public discourse.“Unfortunately, the President has regularly expressed doubt
fegarding the conclusions of our intelligence agencies, and has
referred to the Mueller probe as a ‘witch hunt.’ He also exerted
extensive pressure on then-Attomey General Sessions, publicly
urging him to end or curtail the investigation It is clear that the
President believes that the DOJ should be protecting him from any
investigation, and as a result, I feel that additional scrutiny must be
applied to any nominee for Attorney General to ensure that he or she
would not take any action to undermine the Mueller investigation,
Mr. Barr, who wrote the aforementioned memo arguing in the
President's favor on a potential area of inquiry for the Mueller
investigation and distributed it to top DOJ officials without
solicitation, does not stand up to this additional scrutiny.
“To reiterate: this vote is the product of imtense research and
thought, and my final decision is defined as much by the
circumstances as it is by the nominee. If Mr. Barr is indeed
confirmed. I hope that I am correct in my belief that he will be a
good steward of the Department of Justice — and I hope that he
proves me wrong by standing up for the rule of law and the
Constitutional limits on executive power, even when the President
disagrees.”