The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SENATE PANEL ADVANCES BARR NOMINATION FOR AG
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of William P. Barr to be President Donald Trump’s second confirmed attorney general Thursday, as Republicans and Democrats split over his views on executive authority and the special counsel’s ongoing Russia investigation.
Who is he?
Barr, who previously served as attorney general in the 1990s, presented himself in his confirmation hearing last month as a set of steady hands who would guard the department’s independence. He said he would permit special counsel Robert Mueller to finish his work, and he pledged to allow as much transparency as possible around the investigation’s findings.
Why is he in the news?
The committee’s debate and subsequent 12-10 party-line vote revealed how fraught the politics around the Justice Department have become.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the committee’s chairman, opened the hearing by saying “the time has come for new leadership at the department.”
But Democrats, at least those on the committee, remain mistrustful that Barr’s public statements left him discretion to curtail the investigation or suppress its findings if so ordered. A 2018 memorandum drafted by Barr in which he criticized one of Mueller’s main lines of inquiry — whether Trump had obstructed justice — became the focus of Democratic concerns.
What’s next?
Barr will now go before the full Republican-controlled Senate, where he is expected to be confirmed and sworn into office as soon as next week. If confirmed, he would assume responsibility for the Mueller investigation into possible ties between Trump, his associates and Russia, and whether the president obstructed justice.