William Barr said in a 1998 interview that he was "disturbed" that Attorney General Janet Reno had not defended independent counsel Ken Starr from "spin control," "hatchet jobs" and "ad hominem attacks."
Two decades later, Barr is now attorney general himself -- and defending another president who has repeatedly blasted a special counsel's investigation of his activities. Barr stayed silent as President Donald Trump railed against special counsel Robert Mueller's "witch hunt." And as Barr released a redacted version of Mueller's report last week, the attorney general offered the best possible portrayal of the unflattering findings about his boss.
Barr's 1998 comments about "spin control" came several months after he co-authored a public statement with three fellow former attorneys general expressing concern that attacks on Starr from officials in the Clinton administration appeared "to have the improper purpose of influencing and impeding an ongoing criminal investigation and intimidating possible jurors, witnesses and even investigators."
Barr, then several years removed from
his time as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, co-authored the March 1998 open letter with former Attorneys General Ed Meese, Dick Thornburgh and Griffin Bell -- two fellow Republicans and a Democrat, respectively. All four men opposed the Independent Counsel Act but thought Starr was being unfairly maligned.
''What I don't understand about the modern psyche is that nobody cares about the truth,'' Barr said in the September 1998 interview with Investor's Business Daily that was dated just days after the public release of the Starr report, which detailed President Bill Clinton's sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky and outlined a case for impeachment. "The whole system should be geared to getting the truth. But it has been geared to stonewalling and spinning what people think.''
CNN's KFile found the letter and interview during a review of Barr's public comments during the Whitewater investigation, which led to Starr's report. Hillary Clinton
at the time had referred to the Starr investigation as part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" against her husband,
with the White House and allies attacking Starr
as a partisan prosecutor.
''We were also disturbed that the incumbent attorney general wasn't coming to (Starr's) defense. There has been only silence,'' Barr said, concluding Starr should be allowed to finish his work free from White House attacks.
''Starr should be given the chance to get the facts out. We live in a world of spin control and ad hominem attacks,'' he said. ''And we're seeing a lot of hatchet jobs.''
Twenty years later, Mueller's special counsel investigation has similarly homed in on the White House inner circle amid daily efforts by Trump and his allies to undermine its credibility.
