Barr came loaded for bear.
Attorney General William Barr testified Tuesday before the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee. While he spoke calmly, rarely raising his voice, Barr was in a defiant, combative mood from the moment the session began.
In his prepared statement — as much a defense of President Trump as of himself — Barr “aggressively defended the federal response” to Black Lives Matter protests in Washington D.C., Portland OR and elsewhere — “and accused Democrats of demonizing him because he believed the Trump-Russia investigation was misguided,” reported the New York Times.
The committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) wasn’t having it:
“Shame on you, Mr. Barr,” Nadler said.
Republicans focused on what Barr called “the bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal” and Barr’s efforts on behalf of convicted Trump White House officials. Democrats emphasized Barr’s role in sending federal agents against protesters and what they view as his willingness to forfeit the independence of his office and do whatever Trump tells him to.
Barr insisted that Trump has done no wrong:
“From my experience, the President has played a role properly and traditionally played by Presidents,” the statement said.
Barr was asked if he and Trump have discussed the president’s bid for re-election in November. He said the president has brought it up in Cabinet meetings, but added that he would not “discuss what I discussed with the president.”
“Democrats on the [committee] have long been angling for Barr to appear before them after a no-show last year and previous dates this year were scuttled by the coronavirus pandemic,” reported CNN, adding that“his appearance comes as controversial episodes at the Justice Department have mounted, including Barr’s personal intrusion into the prosecutions of two [Trump] allies….”
Barr was the only witness at the hearing, entitled “Oversight of the Department of Justice,” which was delayed for more than an hour because Nadler was in a minor auto accident en route to the Capitol, the Washington Post reported. Nadler was uninjured.
In his own opening statement, Nadler said that Barr has “aided and abetted the worst failings of this president.”
Speaking directly to Barr, Nadler said: “Your tenure has been marked by a persistent war against the department’s professional corps in an apparent attempt to secure favors for the president.”
Speaking of the clashes in Portland, Nadler “accused Barr of ratcheting up such confrontations because Trump thinks images of law enforcement clashing with protesters will scare more Americans into voting for Trump,” the Post said.
After quoting Barr as saying that police are less likely to shoot at Black suspects than at white ones, a post on Twitter noted that Barr was asked what he would do if Trump loses the 2020 election but won’t leave office.
Barr said that in such a case, he would leave office — “if the results are clear.”
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the panel, attacked Democrats in his statement, accusing them of targeting Barr “every day, every week, for simply stating the truth: that the Obama-Biden administration spied on the [2016] Trump campaign.”
Committee Republicans, said the Times, “have cheered on Mr. Barr as he took steps to discredit the Russia investigation” led by special counsel Robert Mueller, which took aim at Moscow’s efforts to manipulate the 2016 U.S. election in Trump’s favor.
Jordan played a 5-minute video portraying Black Lives Matter and other protesters as violence-prone vandals, while multiple cable news anchors described them as “peaceful.”
Regarding the ongoing protests around the U.S. courthouse in Portland, Barr warned that “violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction” aimed at the federal government.
Portland officials have accused riot-equipped federal agents of overly aggressive actions against protesters, which, they say, have actually made the situation worse.
Barr also accused “many of the Democrats on this committee” of attempting “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.”
Barr insisted that Trump “has never tried to ‘interfere’ in his decisions, and that he feels that he has ‘complete freedom’ to do what he thinks is right,” the Post said.
