Barr Threatens Not to Testify Before House, but Democrats May Subpoena Him

WASHINGTON — The powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee threatened on Sunday to subpoena Attorney General William P. Barr if Mr. Barr refuses to testify this week, a move that could lead to a major escalation of the long-running feud between the White House and congressional Democrats over testimony and access to documents.

The threat by the chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, came on the eve of Democrats’ return to Washington after a two-week congressional recess that has been dominated by questions about the special counsel’s report. Mr. Barr is scheduled to come before Mr. Nadler’s committee on Thursday to testify about it.

But Mr. Barr and Democrats are at loggerheads over the Democrats’ proposed format for questioning him, and now the much-anticipated hearing is in doubt. The dispute spilled out into the open on Sunday when Democrats revealed that Mr. Barr was threatening to skip the session if they did not change their terms. Mr. Nadler said they have no intention of doing so.

View the complete April 28 article by Shertl Gay Stolberg on the The New Times website here.