Report: Trump Considered Barr As Russia Probe Lawyer Long Before Recent AG Offer

(Eingeschränkte Rechte für bestimmte redaktionelle Kunden in Deutschland. Limited rights for specific editorial clients in Germany.) DiaJurist, Politiker, USAJustizministerPortrait- 1992 (Photo by Gisbert Paech/ull... (Eingeschränkte Rechte für bestimmte redaktionelle Kunden in Deutschland. Limited rights for specific editorial clients in Germany.) DiaJurist, Politiker, USAJustizministerPortrait- 1992 (Photo by Gisbert Paech/ullstein bild via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next attorney general was previously considered as a candidate to be the President’s outside attorney dealing with the Russia probe, Yahoo News reported Saturday, citing unnamed sources.

Trump on Friday announced that he would nominate William Barr, who previously served as President George H.W. Bush’s attorney general, to fill the same role in the current administration.

According to Yahoo News, around late spring 2017, White House officials reached out to Barr about representing Trump on Russia-related matters, unnamed sources said.

Eventually, according to one unnamed source, Trump spoke to Barr in the White House about the job, asking “if he was interested,” per the report. Barr “demurred,” Yahoo News reported: “He had other obligations, he said. He would have to think about it.”

The report indicated Barr was again considered for the job after John Dowd resigned as Trump’s lawyer in March. That consideration, per the report, “continued until the summer, when the president found another candidate far more eager for the job: Rudy Giuliani.”

Yahoo News noted that Barr “had gotten on Trump’s radar” after a Washington Post op-ed in which Barr supported Trump’s decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey.

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