Thread by @jedshug

Barr Thread:
Just in case anyone might interested in the history of corrupt crony Attorneys General - and how they have been investigated and prosecuted - I published this @washingtonpost op-ed, and a @FordhamLawNYC article last month on this topic. 1/
washingtonpost.com/opinions/think…

2/ Nixon's AG Kleindienst was convicted for lying to Congress:
"In 1971, Kleindienst cut a corrupt deal for ITT, and later lied to Congress about it. He resigned as the Watergate escalated and, in 1974, pleaded guilty in connection with the ITT case."
washingtonpost.com/opinions/think…

3/ My law review article "Professionals, Politicos, and Crony Attorneys General" surveys the history of the US Attorney General, categorizing each one, and focusing on the cronies - how they got there, and what happened to them.
fordhamlawreview.org/wp-content/upl…

4/ Some have attributed to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., perhaps apocryphally, this advice to his son John: “When you get to the White House there are two jobs you must lock up — attorney general and director of the Internal Revenue Service.”
(Citing @LarryTye)
Sound familiar?

5/ Nixon named his campaign manager John Mitchell as his first AG (1969-1972). Mitchell was convicted for crimes he committed after he left the AG office to run Nixon's re-election campaign (CREEP). But Mitchell may have committed earlier crimes w/ Nixon's slush fund.

6/ The bigger point of my article is that the rise of the Crony AG occurs not in the era of 19th century Jacksonian patronage or the post-Civil War era thought to be cronyist/corrupt, but in the 20th century. And by both political parties, starting with Woodrow Wilson & Palmer.

7/ For what it's worth, I did not label William Barr a "crony" in terms of how he was selected, because he had no personal connection to Trump. He was a tough case to categorize. In retrospect, I may've been too generous, because his 19-page memo may have turned him into a crony.

8/ I also wrote this about Nixon's "crooked lawyers" who went to jail, as a historical lesson that Whitaker seems to have taken seriously. Barr might want to take these cautionary tails of jail as seriously as Whitaker seems to have:
slate.com/news-and-polit…