While Attorney General William Barr recently said he was frustrated by tweets sent out by President Donald Trump regarding the sentencing of Roger Stone, those who have known Barr for decades say they aren’t buying Barr’s call for Trump to let the Department of Justice (DOJ) keep its independence and that the current AG has had “fascist” tendencies and ambitions for a long time.

Andrew Feinberg of the The Independent spoke with several of Barr’s former classmates, and they made it clear that Barr isn’t about to resign in protest if Trump continues to meddle with the inner workings of the Justice Department:

“Jonathan Smit, one of Barr’s high school classmates at New York’s Horace Mann school, suggested that Barr’s decision to offer himself to Trump was the result of the once-and-future Attorney General recognizing a kindred spirit in the 45th President.

“‘He seems pretty much the guy was in high school. It’s like his whole life has been a straight line…informed by a radically right-wing…conservative strain of Catholicism,’ he said. ‘I think he’s someone who believes in fundamental Old Testament values, basically, and he sees his mission as pointing the country back in that direction.'”

Another of Barr’s classmates, criminal defense attorney Jimmy Lohman, noted that he’d been worried about Barr for some time now:

“‘The only thing that really makes sense to me is that he clearly wanted to get in on all the power and he saw Trump as someone he could manipulate and be a kind of Robespierre to a [foolish] king… in effect the most powerful person in the country by manipulating this man,’ he said.

“‘I think that he just wanted to get in on it and have the power to reshape the world in his image,’ he continued. ‘And that image is some weird ass version of Catholicism, it’s almost unlimited executive power, it’s fascism.’

“‘There are people out there who are fascist. William Barr, in my view, is one, and I evidently picked up on that a long, long time ago.'”

A right-wing fascist as head of the DOJ. That should terrify anyone who gives a damn about freedom and where this country is headed.