Tag: William Barr

Barr: Trump Instructing White House Counsel To Lie Is ‘Not A Crime’

Under questioning from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Attorney General William Barr claimed on Wednesday morning that Trump instructing his top White House lawyer to lie “is not a crime.”

After Barr gave a long answer defending Trump, Feinstein asked a simple follow-up question about the time Trump demanded Don McGahn, who was then the White House counsel, to lie about Trump’s request that McGahn get rid of Mueller.

“You still have a situation where a president essentially tries to change the lawyer’s account in order to prevent further criticism of himself — ” Feinstein started to say before Barr interrupted her.

View the complete May 1 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

James Comey: How Trump Co-opts Leaders Like Bill Barr

Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive this president.

People have been asking me hard questions. What happened to the leaders in the Trump administration, especially the attorney general, Bill Barr, who I have said was due the benefit of the doubt?

How could Mr. Barr, a bright and accomplished lawyer, start channeling the president in using words like “no collusion” and F.B.I. “spying”? And downplaying acts of obstruction of justice as products of the president’s being “frustrated and angry,” something he would never say to justify the thousands of crimes prosecuted every day that are the product of frustration and anger?

How could he write and say things about the report by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, that were apparently so misleading that they prompted written protest from the special counsel himself?

View the complete May 1 commentary by former FBI Directory James Comey on The New York Times website here.

Barr, Dems fail to reach deal on House testimony

Attorney General William Barr is refusing to testify before the House on Thursday, arguing Democrats have put “unprecedented” conditions on his testimony.
The fight sets up a major clash between Barr and Democrats in control of the House Judiciary Committee, who have threatened to subpoena the attorney general to compel his testimony.
It also comes as tensions rise over Barr because of Robert Mueller‘s written criticisms of how the attorney general handled the special counsel’s report on his nearly two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential obstruction of justice.

View the complete May 1 article by Olivia Beavers and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Amy Klobuchar prosecutes Bill Barr with dozens of pieces of evidence from the Mueller report Brendan Skwire

Minnesota Democratic senator and presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar essentially prosecuted Attorney General Bill Barr at Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, using evidence from the Mueller report to score point after point at Barr’s expense.

“I asked you if a president or any person convincing a witness to change testimony would be obstruction of justice, and you said yes,” Klobuchar began. “The report found that Michael Cohen’s testimony to the House, before it, that the president repeatedly implied that Cohen’s family members had committed crimes. Do you consider that evidence to be an attempt to have a witness change its testimony?”

“No. I don’t think that that could pass muster. Those public statements he was making, could pass muster as subornation of perjury,” Barr began, but Klobuchar cut him off

View the complete May 1 article by Brendan Skwire on the Raw Story website here.

Recap: AG Bill Barr’s Senate testimony on the Mueller report

Attorney General Bill Barr is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election — a day after it was revealed that Mueller sent him a letter objecting to his March 24 characterization of the report’s findings.

Catch up quick: Barr told Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that if Mueller felt as if he could not make a prosecutorial decision on the question of obstruction of justice, then he “shouldn’t have investigated it. That was the time to pull up.” When pressed on his March 24 letter clearing Trump of obstruction, Barr said: “I didn’t exonerate. I said that we did not believe there was sufficient evidence to establish an obstruction offense, which is the job of the Justice Department.”

On the process of releasing the report:

Barr said that he told Mueller in a phone call that he “wasn’t interested” in putting out the special counsel’s prepared summaries in a “piecemeal” fashion, despite Mueller’s requests.

View the complete May 1 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

James Comey obliterates Bill Barr’s reputation in brutal op-ed: ‘Trump has eaten your soul’

Former FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday published a brutal op-ed in the New York Times dissecting how people such as current Attorney General Bill Barr and former deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein have found themselves corrupted by President Donald Trump.

In his op-ed, Comey explains that being in constant contact with an “amoral leader” such as Trump inevitably tests officials’ ethics — even when those officials see themselves as guardrails against Trump’s worst behavior.

In the cases of both Rosenstein and Barr, he argues, the two men have shown that they lack the needed “inner strength” to defy the president, which has led to the destruction of their reputations as law enforcement officials.

View the complete May 1 article by Brad Reed on the Raw Story website here.

Dems hammer Barr over Mueller in four-hour grilling

Senate Democrats were fully unleashed in their grilling of Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday, accusing the top Department of Justice official of bungling the release of the Mueller report in an attempt to defend President Trump.

During the four-hour hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats seized on the explosive revelation that special counsel Robert Mueller had criticized Barr’s summary of his report in writing. Some suggested he was no longer fit to serve as attorney general.

“I think history will judge you harshly, and maybe a bit unfairly,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Barr.

View the complete May 1 article by Jacqueline Thomsen and Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Barr defends handling of Mueller report

Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday defended his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report at a tense Senate hearing, explaining in detail his contacts with Mueller, who had objected to his description of the report’s findings on obstruction.

In sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barr said he wanted to release the report’s bottom-line conclusions as quickly as possible because the public was in a “high state of agitation” over the results of Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and potential coordination between President Trump’s campaign and Moscow.

“Former government officials were confidently predicting that the president or members of his family would be indicted,” Barr told senators in his opening remarks.

View the complete May 1 article by Morgan Chalfant and Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Read the letter Mueller sent Bill Barr objecting to description of report

On March 27, special counsel Robert Mueller sent a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr objecting to his March 24 characterization of his report into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Why it matters: Barr is about to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he is sure to be grilled about why he did not publicly release prepared summaries of the report, as Mueller requested. Some Democrats, who have already questioned Barr’s independence for his controversial rollout of the report, are calling on the attorney general to resign.

View the complete May 1 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here. The letter is embedded there.

‘I don’t know’: Barr’s professed ignorance prompts calls for his resignation after Mueller letter

In back-to-back congressional hearings on April 9 and 10, Attorney General William P. Barr disclaimed knowledge of the thinking of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and members of his team of prosecutors investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“No, I don’t,” Barr said, when asked by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) whether he knew what was behind reports that members of Mueller’s team were frustrated by the attorney general’s summary of their top-level conclusions.

“I don’t know,” he said the next day, when asked by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) whether Mueller supported his finding that there was not sufficient evidence to conclude that President Trump had obstructed justice.

View the complete May 1 article by Isaac Stanley-Becker on The Washington Post website here.