Intense, aggressive interrogation for Barr
WASHINGTON >> Attorney General William Barr defended himself Wednesday against withering criticism of his handling of the special counsel investigation as Democrats accused him of deceiving Congress and acting as a personal agent for President Donald Trump rather than a steward of justice.
At a contentious hearing marked by a deep partisan divide, Barr denied misrepresenting the investigation’s conclusions despite a newly revealed letter by special counsel Robert Mueller protesting the initial summary of its findings. Barr dismissed the letter as “a bit snitty” and the controversy over it as “mind-bendingly bizarre.”
But in a series of aggressive interrogations, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed indignation and asserted that the attorney general had been “purposely misleading,” engaged in “masterful hairsplitting” and even “lied to Congress.” Several Democrats on the committee,
elsewhere in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail called for Barr’s resignation or even impeachment.
The conflict escalated afterward when Barr announced that he would not show up for a parallel hearing today before the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee. Barr objected to the format of questioning, which would have included questioning by staff lawyers, not just lawmakers. Democrats may now opt to subpoena him, setting up a possible showdown in court.
“He is terrified of having to face a skilled attorney,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the committee’s chairman.
In just 11 weeks in office, Barr has become a lightning rod for criticism for minimizing the findings of Mueller’s report and publicly embracing the president’s explanations of his actions. Senate Democrats took the opportunity Wednesday to excoriate him before a national television audience.
“Mr. Barr, now the American people know that you are no different from Rudy
“To listen to some of the rhetoric, you would think that the Mueller report had found the opposite.” — U.S. Attorney General William Barr
“You put the power and authority of the office of the attorney general ... to help Donald Trump protect himself.” — Sen. Mazie K. Hirono , D-Hawaii
Giuliani or Kellyanne Conway or any of the other people who sacrifice their once decent reputation for the grifter and liar who sits in the Oval Office,” Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, told him, likening the attorney general to the president’s personal lawyer and White House counselor.
“You put the power and authority of the office of the attorney general and the Department of Justice behind a public relations effort to help Donald Trump protect himself,” she added. “Finally, you lied to Congress.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and the committee chairman, scolded Hirono for being unfair. “You slandered this man from top to bottom,” he said.
Democrats skipped over the fact that Mueller accused Trump of no crime and instead focused on the evidence within his report that they still saw as proof of wrongdoing. Republicans dismissed the report’s damning elements and shifted attention to what Trump has called the actual scandal, the fact that he was investigated in the first place.
Picking up themes that have animated Trump’s public appearances and Twitter feed, Republicans accused President Barack Obama’s administration and former FBI officials of orchestrating a scheme “to overturn a democratic election,” as Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri put it. “And to my mind, that’s the real crisis here.”
At one point in the hearing, Sen. Kamala Harris of California left Barr appearing stumped after she asked him whether the president or anyone at White House ever asked or suggested that he open an investigation into anyone.
Barr said the White House hadn’t asked him to open an investigation, but said repeatedly he didn’t know when Harris asked him if Trump or his aides had “suggested” or “hinted” that he investigate a specific person.
“Seems you would remember something like that and tell us,” Harris told him.
After the hearing, she and a half-dozen other Democratic presidential candidates called for Barr to resign.
“It is clear that Attorney General Barr lacks all credibility,” Harris said in a statement, arguing that the Trump appointee “has a fundamental conflict of interest that seriously undermines
his ability to fulfill his vital role on behalf of the American people.”
Barr, 68, navigated his way through hostile questioning in part by quarreling over the meaning of words like “summary” and “suggest” and “fire.” But at several points, he made clear that he agreed with Trump’s view of the investigation, its origin and the current debate over Mueller’s findings.
“How did we get to the point here where the evidence is now that the president was falsely accused of colluding with the Russians and accused of being treasonous and accused of being a Russian agent and the evidence now is that was without a basis?” Barr asked.
“And two years of his administration have been dominated by the allegations that have now been proven false,” he continued. “And, you know, to listen to some of the rhetoric, you would think that the Mueller report had found the opposite.”
By the end of the day, Barr refused to do it all over again the next day, even though he had been summoned to testify before the House Judiciary Committee today. The committee’s Democratic majority voted Wednesday to allow staff lawyers from both parties to question Barr in addition to members. Barr and Republicans objected to that format, saying that the committee members could adequately ask questions. Nadler accused Barr of “trying to blackmail the committee” over its format as part of the administration’s “complete stonewalling” of Congress. “We cannot permit the administration to dictate to Congress how we operate,” he told reporters.
Barr’s appearance before the Republican-controlled Senate committee was inflamed by reports about Mueller’s extraordinary letter objecting to the attorney general’s four-page summary of the special counsel’s conclusions sent to Congress on March 24.
In the letter, dated March 27 and released Wednesday, Mueller said Barr’s summary had failed to capture “the context, nature and substance” of the report and left the public confused about “critical aspects of the results.”
Barr told the committee Wednesday that he called Mueller when he read the letter the next day, but that the special counsel did not take issue with the attorney general’s letter itself, only how it was being interpreted.
“He was very clear with me that he was not suggesting that we had misrepresented his report,” Barr said. Mueller, he said, told him that “the press reporting had been inaccurate and that the press was reading too much into it.” He said he resisted releasing summaries as requested by Mueller because he did not want to put out the report piecemeal, adding that the matter was moot since he eventually did release a redacted version of the full report.
“At that point, it was my baby,” he said.
But Mueller’s letter made no mention of media accounts and attributed his concern to Barr’s letter. Moreover, Democrats seized Wednesday on Barr’s testimony before a House committee on April 9 when he seemed to suggest he was not aware of concerns about his letter.
During that hearing, Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., cited articles in The New York Times and elsewhere reporting that some members of Mueller’s team were frustrated that Barr’s letter did not adequately describe their conclusions.
“Do you know what they’re referencing with that?” Crist asked.
“No, I don’t,” Barr replied. “I suspect that they probably wanted more put out, but in my view, I was not interested in putting out summaries or trying to summarize.”