Trump Mulling Former US Attorney General Barr to Replace Jeff Sessions

Barr, who served as USA attorney general from 1991 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush, is a well respected lawyer among Republicans, and following his time as AG served as general counsel and executive vice president of Verizon Communications.

The appointment of a new attorney general would come at a precarious time as special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian Federation investigation, which the department oversees, is showing signs of entering its final stages.

Attorney General nominee William Barr (center) chats with then-Sen.

Barr also wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post previous year defending Trump's controversial decision to fire former attorney general James Comey.

Another person familiar with the discussions said Barr is "a really serious contender, and possibly the front-runner" for the job, but stressed it was impossible to predict Trump's pick definitively until it was announced publicly. This, however, is a nomination that will be hard for Democrats to derail.

The White House is hopeful that Barr's experience, which also includes a stints at the Central Intelligence Agency and in the Reagan administration, will help steer his nomination past the Senate.

Mr Barr holds degrees in government and Chinese studies from Columbia University. He clerked for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals before working for roughly a decade as a lawyer in private practice.

For a year, Mr Barr was a member of President Ronald Reagan's domestic policy staff at the White House; a role he eventually left to pursue corporate law.

As the top USA law official at that time, he oversaw Robert Mueller, who was then leading the department's criminal division.

Barr was George H.W. Bush's attorney general between 1991 and 1993. I was happy that GTE's conduct of the litigation was considerably more aggressive than that of other similarly situated carriers who were also required to share their facilities and equipment with new competitors under the Act.

Barr not only said that an investigation of this would be above-board, he claimed it was necessary in the interest of justice.

Barr also at one point took issue with the political affiliations of those on Mueller's team, telling the Washington Post in July of 2017 that "prosecutors who make political contributions are identifying fairly strongly with a political party".