12/7/2018

ATTORNEY GENERAL/JEFF SESSIONS/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Donald Trump said Friday [12-7-18] that he plans to nominate former Attorney General William Barr to his old job, naming a formal replacement for Jeff Sessions after ousting him last month and inserting a new controversial figure into special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump told reporters outside the White House that Barr, who served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, is “one of the most respected jurists in the country,” and he said he believes the Senate confirmation process will ‘go very quickly’…The White House counsel’s office has in recent weeks had several conversations with Barr, who initially urged the president’s advisers to look at other candidates. But as those candidates fell away, the White House came back to Barr. Prior to his nomination, some White House aides wondered whether the president would pick a stranger for a job he believes belongs to someone who will be loyal to him. Trump grew frustrated with Sessions for recusing himself from Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and has signaled for more than a year he’d prefer to have someone in the job who can keep close tabs on the wide-ranging probe that has consumed his presidency.”

Darren Samuelsohn, Eliana Johnson and Burgess Everett, “Trump to nominate William Barr as attorney general,” Politico, December 7, 2018 3:11 pm