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Attorney General William Barr will testify about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday following the revelation that Mueller confronted Barr about his four-page description of the report. .
The Department of Justice said Mueller sent a letter to Barr at the end of March in which he expressed his frustration with the publication of the report. The revelation prompted immediate criticism from the Democrats, with the Speaker of the House Judiciary Committee requesting the letter from the Department of Justice prior to Barr's testimony in the Senate.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is controlled by Republicans and chaired by Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of President Trump. The hearing must begin at 10 am ET.
Democrats accused Barr of trying to protect Trump by waiting weeks before publishing a redacted version of Mueller's report, and determining that the president was not an obstacle to justice. Mueller discovered that there was no conspiracy between Trump campaigners and individuals associated with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.
However, Mueller detailed several cases of potential obstruction of justice by the president, although ultimately he did not make a decision on it. Congressional Democrats believe Mueller has referred the matter to Congress. It is now up to Congress – not Barr – to determine whether Mr. Trump prevented justice from harming.
Republicans of the Senate Judiciary Committee run the risk of asking Barr questions, which would dispel Mr. Trump's wrongdoing, while Democrats will tell him that he has unduly shielded the president by concluding that Mr. Trump had not hindered justice.
Democrats focus on Barr's previous testimony
Democrats begin to accuse Barr of perjury in portraying Robert Mueller's report, citing his previous testimony before Congress.
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen tweeted before Wednesday's hearing that during his testimony last month, he asked Barr if Mueller supported his conclusion.
His response to the senator: "I do not know if Mueller supported my conclusion." But CBS News confirmed that Mueller not only sent a letter to Barr to complain about how Barr had described the special council's findings, but that the two men also spoke on the phone.
During the conversation, Mueller asked for additional information to be disclosed, but the attorney general only promised to release the full report as soon as possible, according to CBS News correspondent Paula Reid.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi made similar statements, tweeting Tuesday night that Barr "misleads the public and needs answers from the American people".
Barr for obstruction of justice
In his testimony, Barr should defend the decision to rule on the obstruction of justice by the president, saying that it "would not have been appropriate" for him "to simply publish volume II of the report (the part dealing with obstruction) without making a judgment of the prosecutor. "
As he has said in the past, he should testify that he and Rosenstein disagreed with some of Mueller's legal theories regarding the possibility of President Trump obstructing justice.
According to his prepared remarks, Barr should tell the committee that both "felt that some of the episodes examined did not in themselves constitute an interference with the law" but nevertheless "accepted the legal framework of the special advocate for the purposes of our analyzed and evaluated the evidence presented by the special advocate to reach our conclusion. "
"We concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Adjudicator's investigation was not sufficient to establish that the President had committed an offense of obstruction of justice" , we should expect from Mr. Barr, according to his words.
His opening statement concludes: "From now on, the process of responding to the report is the responsibility of the American people and the political process, and as you will agree, it is of the utmost importance that the Department of Justice be distinguished from the political and political process. do not become a complement. "
Barr will testify about the drafting process, contribution from the White House
Barr should defend the Mueller report's handling of the Mueller Report, saying he had done everything possible to be as transparent as possible when submitting the report. According to his prepared remarks, he will indicate that an analysis revealed that only eight per cent of the report had been written, adding: "The Deputy Attorney General and I did not cancel any of the drafting decisions, and we We have not requested that any additional documents be provided, redacted. "
Barr also claims that although the Justice Department authorized the White House Council Office and the President's Legal Team to review the report prior to its release, "neither of the two played role in the drafting process ".
Allowing the White House to consider the report before its public release "was an issue of fairness," he said.
Mueller complains to Barr about a letter summarizing the report
Mueller wrote a letter to Barr expressing his dissatisfaction with his letter of March 24, summarizing the key points of the report, announced Tuesday the Department of Justice. In the March letter, Barr stated that Mueller had concluded that there had been no collusion with Russia and that he had determined that Mr. Trump was not obstructing justice. .
Barr called Mueller to discuss the special advocate's letter, which was first reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday night.
"In a cordial and professional conversation, the special advocate pointed out that nothing in the prosecutor's letter of March 24 was inaccurate or misleading, but he expressed his frustration at the lack of context and the coverage resulting media coverage regarding the analysis of the obstruction of the special advocate, "A spokeswoman for the Justice Ministry said in a statement.
"They then examined whether the context of the report could be useful and could be published quickly, but the Attorney General finally decided that it would not be productive to publish the report on a case-by-case basis," the statement said. "The following day, the Attorney General sent a letter to Congress in which he reaffirmed that his letter of March 24 was not a summary of the report, but contained only the main findings of the special advocate and his case. volunteered to testify before the courts of the Senate and the House Committees May 1st and 2nd. "
Although Barr did not want it to be a summary of the report, Mr. Trump interpreted it as such and repeatedly asserted that the report does not concluded that there was "no collusion" or "no hindrance". However, Mueller's report explicitly states that he "does not exonerate" the president.
Congress Democrats called Mueller to testify before Congress.
Graham anticipates Barr hearing
Appearing Sunday on "Face the Nation", the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Graham, explained in detail what he intended to focus on Wednesday's hearing:
Well, he gave a four-page summary. Does the report support his summary? Does the report really indicate that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians? I think the idea that this president obstructed justice is absurd. He gave a million documents to the special advocate. Almost everyone around him testified. I can not think of anything that President Trump did to prevent Mueller from doing his job. He has never claimed the privilege of the executive. From my point of view, I heard everything that I needed to know really. Now, I want to watch and find out how all this has happened.
Barr, Democrats of the House hear on the scheduled testimony
WIN MCNAMEE / Getty Images
Barr is disputed Sunday with congressional Democrats on the terms of his much-awaited testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Barr wants to be questioned only by the legislators of the committee – not by their staff and lawyers.
"The Attorney General has agreed to appear before the Congress, so it will be the members of Congress who will ask the questions," Kerri Kupec, spokeswoman for the Justice Ministry, said in a statement on Sunday. "He remains happy to discuss with members their questions regarding the Mueller report."
But the Democrats believe that Barr, as a committee witness, should not dictate the parameters of the hearing. A spokesman for the Democrat-controlled group also said the Justice Department could not ban members of Congress from asking questions about redacted sections of the Mueller report.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, chair of the committee, scheduled a vote on Wednesday to approve an extra hour of questions – both legislators, their associates and their lawyers – in Barr's testimony. The New York Democrat said he expects the Attorney General to appear Thursday, but has pledged to issue subpoenas if Barr refuses to testify.
"If the Attorney General is afraid to submit (himself) to questions you can follow, it may indicate a lack of confidence in his own position," Nadler told reporters on Monday. "And, more importantly, we need to get to the bottom of the matter, which is why we called it in. It's not up to the Attorney General to tell the committee how to manage its work."
– Paula Reid, Rebecca Kaplan and Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Barr claimed that there was "spying" on the Trump campaign in a recent testimony
Barr testified before the Senate Committee on Supply on April 10, prior to the publication of the redacted report. The Attorney General announced the news claiming that there was "unauthorized" espionage in the Trump campaign, although he subsequently partially opposed that assertion.
Asked by Democrats and Republicans, however, Barr seemed to dismiss this assertion.
"I'm not suggesting that these rules have been violated, but I think it's important to look at this, and I'm not just talking about the FBI, but intelligence agencies more generally," Barr said.
"I'm not saying that inappropriate monitoring has taken place, I say I'm worried about it and that I'm looking at it, that's all," Barr said.
He told the Senate panel: "I just want to make sure there was no abuse of law enforcement or intelligence."
"I'm not saying that an inappropriate surveillance has taken place, I'm reviewing the situation," Barr explained later.
His testimony let the Democrats assume that Barr was carrying the president's waters on this issue, although he clearly refused to echo the president's assertion that the investigation would have been a "hunt" to witches ".
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