Blumenthal, Barr tangle over Mueller
Senator grills attorney general over handling of Trump-Russia investigation report
Attorney General William Barr’s contentious appearance before the Senate’s Judiciary Committee over his handling of Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation report included a few testy exchanges with Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
He grilled Barr on the exact sequence of receiving Mueller’s March 27 letter complaining about how Barr had portrayed his conclusions, and how Barr called him on the phone.
“I said ‘Bob, what’s with the letter? Just pick up the phone and call me if there is an issue,’ ” Barr said.
Barr insisted to Blumenthal that Mueller was not complaining that Barr’s four-page summary had misrepresented the report.
Rather, according to Barr, Mueller’s misgivings were based on media interpretation of the Barr summary — which said Mueller concluded there was no conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, and quoted Mueller as stating: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
But the Mueller letter mentions nothing about media interpretation, Blumenthal said.
The Mueller letter said: “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
Barr called the Mueller letter a “a bit snitty.”
Barr said he put the call from Mueller on speaker phone, and that a member of his staff had taken notes.
Blumenthal pressed Barr to release the notes to the committee, which the attorney general declined to do.
When Blumenthal asked why not,
Barr replied: “Why should you have them?”
Blumenthal later tweeted, “Why does Congress need to review Barr’s call notes? Check Article I of the U.S. Constitution.” Article I says in part, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.”
Testifying for the first time since releasing Mueller’s report, Barr also told the committee said he was surprised Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether President Donald Trump had tried to obstruct justice, and that he had felt compelled to step in with his own judgment that the president had committed no crime.