New questions hang over the integrity and motives of William Barr after it emerged Tuesday night that Robert Mueller expressed concerns about the attorney general’s initial letter to Congress summarizing his special counsel report.
Mueller did not believe the summary was inaccurate but was frustrated with media coverage based on Barr’s letter, officials said. The Washington Post first reported on the letter.
The news of Mueller’s letter caused outrage among senior Democrats already warning that Barr’s handling of a redacted version of the report was designed to produce the most favorable political narrative for Trump. Barr’s decision to find that there was no obstruction case to answer also angered Trump’s critics since Mueller did not come to such a conclusion in the report but did include evidence of clear attempts by Trump to thwart investigations into his campaign and his administration.
Top Democrats immediately called for a swift appearance on Capitol Hill by Mueller himself, in an escalating drama that not only hikes pressure on Barr but could influence the debate in the congressional Democratic Party about impeachment — a step House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been reluctant to initiate.
“The Special Counsel’s concerns reflect our own. The Attorney General should not have taken it upon himself to describe the Special Counsel’s findings in a light more favorable to the President. It was only a matter of time before the facts caught up to him,” House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement.
“Attorney General Barr also should not have withheld this letter from Congress for as long as he has. I have demanded a copy from the Department of Justice. I have asked that it be delivered no later than 10:00 tomorrow morning,” the New York Democrat said.
Barr is due to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday but his attendance is in doubt after he objected to Nadler’s plan to include the committee legal counsels in questioning.
The attorney general is first scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday at 10 a.m ET — a session that will now take on extra significance and controversy and will have added electricity since several Democratic presidential candidates are on the panel and will be keen to make a splash.
One Democratic presidential candidate who is not on the committee — former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro — tweeted Tuesday that Barr should “resign his position or face an impeachment inquiry immediately” for “willfully” misleading the American people.
New intrigue in Mueller end game
Tuesday night’s stunning developments left Washington digesting an unexpected new twist in the endgame of the Mueller investigation, which, in addition to not exonerating Trump on obstruction, did not establish a conspiracy between Trump’s campaign team and Russia during the 2016 election. Trump has selectively embraced Barr’s narrative about the report to declare, “No collusion.
