David Rohde: AG Barr is Setting a “Very Dangerous Precedent”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, anyway, Barr, as the top law enforcement officer of this land, has made a lot of interventions to the federalist society, a conservative legal society, as the impeachment hearings were going on, he made this comment.

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BARR: The fact of the matter is that in waging a scorched earth, no holds barred war of resistance against this administration, it is the left that is engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law.

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AMANPOUR: So, that’s a real challenge, the chief law enforcement officer is saying —

DAVID ROHDE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR FOR NEWS, NEWYORKER.COM: Yes.

AMANPOUR: — president’s political opponents are undermining and shredding the rule of law.

ROHDE: It’s — again, I respect Bill Barr. He’s a very serious lawyer and a very effective one. But this is effective messaging. Your side is out of line, you know, you’re destroying the norms, when clearly factually, though, it’s been President Trump and his administration that is limiting information, it’s never happened before. And one thing that Barr has said since he launched the investigations, he’s investigating the FBI officials and intelligence officials who have said that Russia intervened in the election to help Trump investigate the investigators. So, there’s a real fear that there’s a chilling effect, that this is saying to FBI agents or intelligence analysts, don’t investigate this president, don’t question anything he says publicly, because you, yourself, will be investigated if you do that. And it is a very dangerous precedent that Barr is setting up. And Barr might believe that there are these conspiracy theories. And what’s so unnerving about this is, where does it end? Barr thinks he’s besieged, you know, these FBI people under investigation think they are besieged and everyone is sort of believing their own conspiracy theory and that frightens me and I worry sometimes about violence in this country.

AMANPOUR: Really?

ROHDE: I think as we go through a very heated 2020 election, there were bombs, you know, sent to journalists and some public officials. I don’t want that to happen. I hope it doesn’t happen. But when you look at the level of rhetoric, opponents of Trump saying, he’s destroying democracy, supporters of Donald Trump saying, no, you’re destroying democracy, you’re trying to force him out of office in a coup, that’s very dangerous rhetoric.