President Trump has repeatedly derided prosecutors investigating potential coordination between his presidential campaign and Russia as “angry Democrats,” pointing to their past political donations as proof of bias.

But William P. Barr, Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department and oversee the Russia investigation, would be by far the most prolific political donor to step into the country’s top law enforcement post in at least a quarter-century, according to a Washington Post analysis. Barr has donated more than $567,000 in the past two decades, nearly all to GOP candidates and groups, federal records show. His wife, Christine Barr, gave more than $220,000 over that time, records show.

Before he was nominated to be attorney general, Barr criticized past donations by prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

“In my view, prosecutors who make political contributions are identifying fairly strongly with a political party,” Barr told The Post last year. “I would have liked [Mueller] to have more balance on this group.”

Barr did not respond to messages and emails.

A White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly said on the condition of anonymity that it is “absurd for critics to focus on financial support he provided to his party, which is consistent with what attorneys general have done previously.” The official also drew a distinction between contributions from political appointees and those from career prosecutors.

Previous attorneys general have donated to politicians before landing at the Justice Department, but none since Barr first served as attorney general, in the early 1990s, have given on the same scale. The closest, Eric Holder, who served under President Barack Obama, gave about $37,000 to Democrats before he took office in 2009, records show. Holder was also a campaign bundler for Obama, raising at least $50,000. The Post analysis looked at contributions dating to the earliest available online records, in 1980.

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