Arguably, Barr doesn’t have a completely clean record when it comes to supervising investigations like Mueller’s. He oversaw two independent counsel probes when he was attorney general, including the Iran-Contra investigation, which examined whether Reagan administration officials illegally sold arms to Iran and then covered it up. Barr reportedly considered firing the independent counsel in that investigation. And Barr later urged Bush to pardon six high-level officials implicated in Iran-Contra, one of whom was slated to go on trial for allegedly lying to Congress about the coverup. The pardons, coming in the waning days of Bush’s presidency, effectively ended the investigation. (Barr seems to have had a more hands-off relationship with the second probe, which examined influence-peddling under Reagan’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Samuel Pierce, and didn’t conclude until 1998.)

But let’s say Barr was chosen because he seems likely to take views about the investigation that favor the president. That was the apparent rationale behind Whitaker’s appointment too, and he seems to have been unable or unwilling to stop Mueller’s investigation, which appears to be moving full steam ahead.