Attorney General William Barr appears before House lawmakers Tuesday in a long-awaited showdown between congressional Democrats and one of the President’s most effective enforcers.
Barr is preparing to fire right back at Democrats, in what could become a combative hearing. In his prepared opening remarks provided to CNN, Barr accuses Democrats of seeking to discredit him because of his investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe. Barr said in his opening statement that Trump «has not attempted to interfere» in criminal decisions he’s made.
«Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal, many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the President’s factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions. Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today,» Barr says in his written remarks.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York, is investigating several of Barr’s actions and had threatened to subpoena the attorney general before they agreed on Tuesday’s appearance. Last month, after Trump had Barr fire the US attorney in Manhattan who had been overseeing an investigation into the President’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Nadler suggested that his committee might attempt to impeach Barr, though he also called pursuing it a «waste of time» and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tamped down talk of impeachment.
«Barr’s priorities are clear: Trump first, America second,» Nadler said earlier this month. «There is one rule for the President and one rule for the rest of us. Barr is corrupting DOJ at all costs to protect the President and subvert the election.»
Pelosi said in an MSNBC interview on Monday that Barr was «there to protect Donald Trump. He’s not there as the attorney general of the people of the United States.»
Republican lawmakers have a whole different set of issues they’re eager to discuss with Barr related to the FBI’s actions in the Russia investigation, which Barr has tapped US Attorney John Durham to investigate.
