Panel to explore ‘other side’ in probe
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr has made his determination about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Now Democrats want to make their own.
Mueller didn’t find that President Donald Trump’s campaign “conspired or co-ordinated” with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election, but he reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Barr decided there was no evidence requiring prosecution on the obstruction issue.
Trump claimed full vindication, but the delivery Sunday of Barr’s summary to Congress about Mueller’s conclusions opened a new chapter in the battle over the two-year investigation that is likely to consume Capitol Hill in the coming weeks and months.
Democratic lawmakers are demanding a full look at Mueller’s findings and dismissing Barr’s summary as incomplete, at best, and biased, at worst.
On Monday, a leading Republican senator previewed his party’s strategy, defending Barr’s decision and vowing to “unpack the other side of the story” of the Russia investigation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Senate Judiciary chairman who spent the weekend with Trump in Florida, said his committee will investigate the actions of the Justice Department in the Russia investigation, including the FBI’s use of a dossier compiled by British spy Christopher Steele.
Graham’s comments echoed Trump’s own complaints Sunday in which he compared the probe to a failed coup and said those behind it should be held responsible.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats have seized on a line in Barr’s summary that says Mueller’s report “does not exonerate” Trump on obstruction of justice — even though Barr concluded the evidence of obstruction is insufficient to find Trump committed a crime.
Monday morning, White House aides and allies blanketed television news broadcasts to trumpet the findings and claim that Trump had been the victim in a probe that never should have started.
“The fact that Special Counsel Mueller’s report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement. “Given Mr. Barr’s public record of bias against the Special Counsel’s inquiry, he is not a neutral observer and is not in a position to make objective determinations about the report.”
Given the report, Democrats seemed more likely to focus on their ongoing investigations, calls for transparency and frustrations with Barr, rather than engaging with the talk of impeachment that has been amplified on Pelosi’s left flank. As the release of Mueller’s report loomed, Pelosi recently tried to scuttle that talk by saying she’s not for impeachment, for now.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, who would lead any impeachment effort, said he would call Barr to testify soon “in light of the very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department.”
Yet while Democrats focused on the obstruction piece, Barr’s summary report dealt their investigative efforts an undeniable blow by concluding that Trump’s campaign never conspired with Russia. Top Democrats, now leading broad investigations of Trump in the House majority, had long suggested just the opposite.
“After 22 months of a special counsel and two years of congressional investigations, it’s over,” tweeted North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, a close ally of Trump.