Those following President Donald Trump on Twitter in recent weeks may have noticed some references to “Obamagate.” The unsubstantiated claims made by Trump hold that the Obama administration unfairly targeted the incoming Trump administration. In 2016, Trump alleges, the Obama administration targeted incoming officials with federal law enforcement agencies. The case against former national security advisor Michael Flynn is pivotal to Trump’s narrative of a conspiracy against his administration.
However, in remarks on Monday, Attorney General William Barr has dismissed the prospect of investigating former president Barack Obama. Likewise, the AG stated there would likely be no investigation of former vice president Joe Biden. Biden, for his own part, is also the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party for the 2020 election.
AG Barr is often described by liberal pundits as being Trump’s personal “enforcer.” Barr himself seems to resent this characterization. In remarks during a press conference on Monday, reporters brought up the “Obamagate” narrative the president has adopted. Barr stated he resented the “increasing attempts to use the criminal justice system as a political weapon.”
“The legal tactic has been to gin up allegations of criminality by one’s political opponents based on the flimsiest of legal theories,” the Attorney General continued. “This is not good for political life and it’s not good for the criminal justice system. And as long as I’m attorney general, the criminal justice system will not be used for partisan political ends.”
Barr went on to note that the looming November election should be decided by a policy debate between candidates. He expressed that the concept of voters deciding a president based on who is investigating who is bad for a free democracy. His concerns in this matter echo those of pundits who feared Trump’s use of the DOJ could undermine the election process.
Notably, Trump endured impeachment in 2019 under similar concerns. The House impeached Trump partly due to a phone call between him and the Ukrainian president. During that call, Trump seemed to suggest that the US could help the Ukraine if the latter could provide the former with information regarding Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
Trump has long championed an unfounded theory about Joe Biden. Trump says Biden used his position as vice president to get Hunter a position in a Ukrainian business. Similarly, Mueller’s report against Trump concerned allegations that Russia aided his campaign. The report itself determined that enterprise cloud storage belonging to the Democratic Party was, indeed, hacked by Russian nationals in order to bolster Trump’s campaign chances.
