WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday said he was “not happy” with Attorney General William Barr and offered a “no comment” when asked if the AG would serve a second term.
“I have no comment. I can’t comment on that. It’s too early,” the commander-in-chief told Newsmax TV’s “Greg Kelly Reports” when asked if Barr would remain in his post as the head of the Department of Justice.
“I’m not happy with all the evidence I have, I can tell you that. I’m not happy,” Trump continued.
The scathing remarks follow a report Tuesday that revealed that an investigation into the “unmasking” of former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn by Obama-era officials had concluded without finding evidence of any serious wrongdoing.
Barr appointed federal prosecutor John Bash to lead the probe, but Bash resigned on Oct. 5 and was replaced with Gregg Sofer, a veteran Justice Department attorney. The investigation concluded with no criminal criminal charges or a public report.
Barr last week also announced that federal prosecutor John Durham’s review of the FBI’s Russia probe would not be released until after the Nov. 3 election.
Trump lashed into both Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this month, publicly airing his grievances about their job performance in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
The commander-in-chief said Barr would be “either the greatest attorney general in the history of the country” or would “go down” in a “very sad situation” for his failure to bring charges against officials like Hillary Clinton for their role in the investigation into his campaign.
Trump upbraided Pompeo for the fact that the top diplomat had not made his predecessor’s deleted emails public.
“They’re in the State Department, but Mike Pompeo has been unable to get them out, which is very sad, actually,” Trump told Bartiromo.
“I’m not happy about him for that reason. He was unable to get them out. I don’t know why. You’re running the State Department, you get them out,” he said.
In an interview with Fox News several days later, Pompeo sought to allay the president’s fears by telling Dana Perino that he and his agency were working as fast as they could to do just that.
“We’re doing it as fast as we can. I certainly think there’ll be more to see before the election,” he said.