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Barr: ‘I will not be bullied’
Trump AG nominee says Mueller probe is not ‘a witch hunt’
WASHINGTON — Vowing “I will not be bullied,” President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general asserted independence from the White House on Tuesday, saying he believed that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, that the special counsel investigation shadowing Trump is not a witch hunt, and that his predecessor was right to recuse himself from the probe.
The comments by William Barr at his Senate confirmation hearing departed from Trump’s views and underscored Barr’s efforts to reassure Democrats that he will not be a loyalist to a president who has appeared to demand it from law enforcement.
He also repeatedly sought to assuage concerns that he might disturb or upend special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as it reaches its final stages.
Some Democrats are concerned about that possibility, citing a memo Barr wrote to the Justice Department before his nomination in which he criticized Mueller’s investigation for the way it was presum-
ably looking into whether Trump had obstructed justice.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Barr the memo showed “a determined effort, I thought, to undermine Bob Mueller.”
The nominee told senators he was merely trying to advise Justice Department officials against “stretching the statute beyond what was intended” to conclude that the president had obstructed justice.
Though Barr said an attorney general should work in concert with an administration’s policy goals, he broke from some Trump talking points, including the mantra that the Russia probe is a witch hunt, and said he frowned on “Lock Her Up” calls for Hillary Clinton. Trump has equivocated on Russian meddling in the 2016 election and assailed and pushed out his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself because of his work with the Trump campaign.
Barr stated without hesitation that it was in the public interest for Mueller to finish his investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to sway the presidential election. He said he would resist any order by Trump to fire Mueller without cause and called it “unimaginable” that Mueller would do anything to require his termination.
“I believe the Russians interfered
or attempted to interfere with the election, and I think we have to get to the bottom of it,” Barr said during the nine-hour hearing.
He said that, at 68 and partially retired, he felt emboldened to “do the right thing and not really care about the consequences.” If a president directs an attorney general to do something illegal, he said, an attorney general must resign.
“I will not be bullied into doing anything that I think is wrong by anybody, whether it be editorial
boards or Congress or the president,” Barr testified.
Consumed by the partial federal shutdown, Trump remained out of sight at the White House but also kept an eye on the news coverage of the hearing and told aides he was pleased with how Barr was handling himself, said two White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Barr’s confirmation is likely, given that Republicans control the Senate. Even some Democrats have been looking to move on from acting Attorney General
Matthew Whitaker, who declined to remove himself the Russia probe and has faced scrutiny over his private dealings.
But Barr faced skeptical questions from Democrats over whether he could oversee without bias or interference the remainder of Mueller’s probe.
Barr said under questioning from Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, that he wouldn’t interfere with a Mueller request to subpoena Trump for his testimony “if there was a factual basis.” But he also said he saw no reason to change Justice Department legal opinions that have held that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Barr called Mueller a friend of 30 years and said “it is vitally important” that Mueller be allowed to complete his investigation.
“I don’t believe Mr. Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt,” he said when asked by the panel’s Republican chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
The special counsel is required to report his findings confidentially to the Justice Department. Barr said he expected to produce his own report to Congress and said it was his goal to release as much information as possible to the public, though he stopped short of a direct pledge. He also noted the Justice Department does not typically disclose information about people it investigates but does not prosecute.
He also disclosed having discussed Mueller with Trump during a meeting in 2017 when Barr declined to join his legal team. He said he and his wife had been “sort of looking forward to a bit of respite and I didn’t want to stick my head into that meat grinder.”
Trump wanted to know what Mueller, who worked for Barr when he led the Justice Department between 1991 and 1993, was like.
“He was interested in that, wanted to know what I thought about Mueller’s integrity and so forth and so on,” Barr said. “I said Bob is a straight shooter and should be dealt with as such.”