Controversy surrounds Barr's decision on obstruction issue

WASHINGTON - Months before William Barr was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as attorney general, he sent the Justice Department and the White House an unsolicited memo criticizing the investigation into whether the president had illegally obstructed the Russia investigation.

Maybe a president could obstruct justice by destroying evidence or tampering with a witness, Barr wrote in his memo, but it wasn't appropriate for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to question how Trump used his constitutional authority to take actions such as firing an FBI director.

That was an unsurprising view from Barr, 68, who previously served as the nation's top lawman under George H.W. Bush and has long held