Barr is the subject of a contempt vote as constitutional conflict escalates

He had that right – although Democrats do not care about Barr's warning that the Justice Department must remain a "beacon", given his highly controversial conduct in recent weeks.

Barr's extraordinary mandate has become a metaphor for the political dislocation and perilous constitutional waters that the country faces as a result of Russia's investigation.

Incapable, or unwilling to hit the president, Democrats in the House are increasingly seeing Trump's current and former leaders.

"I really expect the Committee to find Mr. McGahn guilty of contempt if he does not appear before the Committee, unless the White House obtains an order from the court ordering the contrary, "said Tuesday the president of the judiciary of the House, Jerry Nadler.

Inflammatory symbol

Barr has become the most incendiary symbol, aside from the president, of an administration that critics view as undermining constitutional norms in effect for generations.

Democrats are furious that Barr has shaped the political narrative of the Mueller report in a way that favors Trump and even dismayed the special council.

First, the Attorney General sent a letter to Congress outlining what he said was Mueller's final result.

Barr said that no conspiracy had been established between the Trump team and Russia in the 2016 election and interpreted the evidence collected by Mueller to assert that there was no cause for hindrance to respond.

Next, Barr held a press conference last month before publishing a redacted version of the Mueller report to the public. His gesture allowed Trump to jump into his narrative "no collusion, no obstruction". But the report proved much less clear than Barr had left, especially on the issue of obstruction.

Barr's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week also infuriated Democrats who believed he had been lying to Congress by saying that he did not know what Mueller thought of his summary of the report, even though the special council wrote to him saying that he was missing context and substance in March.

Democrats also accused Barr of playing with the president's conspiracy theories and conservative media when he described the FBI's monitoring of a Trump campaign's 2016 collaborator as "spying." ".

FBI director Christopher Wray has distanced himself from such terminology during a hearing before the Capitol HIll on Tuesday.

"Well, that 's not the term I' d use," Wray said.

The brisk walk to a contempt charge is also prompting scrutiny of the Democratic Party's efforts to take advantage of its new majority in the House to contain and humiliate Trump.

Nadler could have had Barr in front of him last week if he had not insisted that he be confronted with questions from the committee's advisers. And Republicans say Barr would break the law by testifying before a grand jury.

They also argue that his actions are consistent with the behavior of previous attorneys general under the pressure of Congress.

Negotiations between Nadler's and Barr's teams to dismiss the prospect of a contempt vote were broken Tuesday.

"Always scheduled," said Barr when asked if the measure was still active.

In a new escalation, the Department of Justice informed Nadler, in a late letter, in a late letter, that he would ask Trump to invoke the privilege of the executive in order to preserve the 39, the full unrepresented Mueller report and the underlying evidence, votes for contempt on Wednesday.

Barr would not be the first censured Attorney General with a contempt vote.

Republicans did the same thing to President Barack Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder about the Fast and Furious controversy.

Holder continued to serve unhindered his post and contempt prosecutions have dragged on for years, which has diminished political power.

Although despised by a congressional committee would mark a long legal career, it would also give Barr a badge of honor from Trump and his supporters.

The specific arguments surrounding the possible charge of insulting Barr are derisory in relation to the political issues at stake that seem to be increasing every hour.

"It obstructs justice"

Given their reluctance to dismiss Trump, House of Commons Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned on Tuesday that he was trying to urge the Democrats to take such a step: targeting the top presidential advisers might well to be the best thing to do.

"Every day he is obstructing justice by claiming that he should not testify and that he should not testify or the rest," Pelosi said at an event organized by the Cornell University.

Democratic leaders see polls showing that Americans are not ready for the controversial vote of impeachment vote and hope to use their majority to unravel the Trump presidency layer by layer in order to portray it as too corrupt to win a second term.

But the party may have to explain why, if the president openly obstructs justice and abuses his powers, he does not use his ultimate weapon – the indictment – to stop him and he is negligent in his constitutional obligations.

The divisions are already deepening between the Democratic leaders in Washington and in the race for the presidency.

But the Attorney General's prosecution by the House's Judiciary Committee also offers toast to Republicans eager to portray the Democrats as some excuse for targeting a Trump partner.

"The Democrats have started a proxy war that slanders the Attorney General while their anger hangs over the President and the Special Council," said the Supreme Republican on the Judiciary Committee of the House, Representative Doug Collins.

The assault on Barr also seems to convince many Republicans to get closer to the government, reflecting the fact that Democrats have no chance of ousting Trump during a trial in the Senate, even if they dismissed him to the House.

The Republican majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, on Tuesday staged one of his major political interventions intended to alter Washington's speech, stating that "the affair was over" over Russia.

"Two years of exhaustive investigations and nothing to establish the whimsical plot theory that Democratic politicians and television talkers had treated as a fate," McConnell said.