William Barr

William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as the United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the administration of President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2020.

Born and raised in New York City, Barr was educated at the Horace Mann School, Columbia University, and George Washington University Law School.

Barr was born in New York City in 1950.

His father, Donald Barr, was an American educator, writer, and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) officer who taught English literature at Columbia University before becoming headmaster of the Dalton School in Manhattan and later the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, both members of the Ivy Preparatory School League.

Barr's mother, Mary Margaret (née Ahern), also taught at Columbia.

Barr's father was raised Jewish but later converted to the Roman Catholic Church.

His mother is of Irish Catholic ancestry.

Barr was raised as a Catholic.

Barr was the second of four sons, and his younger brother Stephen Barr is a professor of physics at the University of Delaware.

Barr grew up on New York City's Upper West Side.

As a child, he attended a Catholic grammar school, Corpus Christi School, and then the non-sectarian Horace Mann School.

From 1971 to 1977, Barr was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency.

He then served as a law clerk to judge Malcolm Richard Wilkey of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

After high school, he attended Columbia University, where he majored in government and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1971.

Barr was also an active member in the Sigma Nu fraternity.

Barr worked for the CIA from 1971 to 1977 while attending graduate school and law school.

He was first hired as a summer intern for two years.

He did two additional years of graduate study at Columbia, receiving a Master of Arts in government and Chinese studies in 1973.

While at Columbia, Barr opposed anti-Vietnam War occupation protests by students on campus.

After moving to Washington, D.C., to work as an intelligence analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Barr entered the evening student program at George Washington University Law School.

During his law school years he was an analyst in the Intelligence Directorate division from 1973 to 1975, and then transitioning to an assistant in the Office of Legislative Counsel and an agency liaison to Congress from 1975 to 1977.

He graduated in 1977 with a Juris Doctor with highest honors.

After graduating from law school in 1977, Barr spent one year as a law clerk to Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

He then joined the law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) from 1978 to 1982 and again from 1983 to 1989, after serving as Deputy Assistant Director for Legal Policy on the domestic policy staff at the Reagan White House from May 1982 to September 1983.

Barr has never prosecuted a case.

In the 1980s, Barr worked for the law firm Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, with one year's work in the White House of the Ronald Reagan administration dealing with legal policies.

In 1989, Barr, as the head of the OLC, justified the U.S. invasion of Panama to arrest Manuel Noriega.

In 1989, at the beginning of his administration, President George H. W. Bush appointed Barr to the U.S. Department of Justice as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), an office which functions as the legal advisor for the President and executive agencies.

Barr was known as a strong defender of presidential power.

Before becoming attorney general in 1991, Barr held numerous other posts within the Department of Justice, including leading the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and serving as deputy attorney general.

As deputy attorney general, Barr authorized an FBI operation in 1991 which freed hostages at the Talladega federal prison.

An influential advocate for tougher criminal justice policies, Barr as attorney general in 1992 authored the report The Case for More Incarceration, where he argued for an increase in the United States incarceration rate.

Under Barr's advice, President George H. W. Bush in 1992 pardoned six officials involved in the Iran–Contra affair.

From 1994 to 2008, Barr did corporate legal work for GTE and its successor company Verizon Communications, which made him a multimillionaire.

From 2009 to 2018, Barr served on the board of directors for Time Warner.

Barr is a longtime proponent of the unitary executive theory of nearly unfettered presidential authority over the executive branch of the U.S. government.

Barr became attorney general for the second time in 2019.

During his term, he received criticism from many for his handling of several challenges, including his letter on the Mueller report, interventions in the convictions and sentences of former advisors to President Trump, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, his order of the federal government to resume federal executions after 17 years, and allegations of political interference in the removal of Geoffrey Berman from his Southern District of New York attorney position in a matter pertaining to the indictment of Turkish bank Halkbank, a bank with close personal ties to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

On December 1, 2020, Barr stated FBI and Justice Department investigations found no evidence of irregularities that would have changed the outcome of the presidential election.

Barr is the second person to ever serve two non-consecutive terms as U.S. Attorney General, after John J. Crittenden.