'Like magic': How Trump-era Bill Barr made an industrial giant’s tax woes 'disappear'

13 March 2024

During Bill Barr's second stint as U.S. attorney general, his critics often described him as a "Trump loyalist" who refused to hold then-President Donald Trump accountable for his actions. But when Barr spoke out against Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, he experienced a great deal of animosity in MAGA World.

Barr's years as Trump's attorney general continue to draw a great deal of scrutiny from critics. In an article published by Esquire on March 12, journalist Charles P. Pierce describes Barr's efforts on behalf of industrial giant Caterpillar — whose tax problems, according to Pierce, went away thanks in part to Barr.

In an article full of sarcasm and biting humor, Pierce explains, "Are you better off than you were four years ago? The people at Caterpillar sure are…. It was like magic! No, really, it was. Someone made the IRS disappear."

Pierce adds that the "magician in this case" was Barr, who "had help" liberating Caterpillar from its tax woes.

The Esquire journalist references reporting by the New York Times' Jesse Drucker. In an article published on March 9, Drucker described Barr's connection to Caterpillar and the ways in which the Trump-era Justice Department was favorable to the company.

"Barr's entire career in the legal end of Republican politics indeed has consisted of making inconvenient things disappear," Pierce comments. "He did make Iran-Contra disappear on behalf of Poppy Bush. But the last administration turned Barr into an assembly-line magician."

By "Poppy Bush," Pierce is referring to President George H.W. Bush. Barr served as attorney general under Bush 41 before being chosen for that position again under President Trump.

"During his confirmation hearings, Barr promised, pinky-swear, that he would not take part in any DOJ investigations into his former clients," Pierce writes. "But, by then, he'd already laid the rails for a settlement that saved Caterpillar a 327-ton mining truck full of money. And the IRS was never seen at the job site again."

Read Esquire's full article at this link.

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