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The Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, refused to testify before the Judiciary-led House Committee of Democrats about his handling of the investigation of Russia.
Barr previously opposed a plan to have lawyers ask questions at Thursday's hearing.
Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler accused the White House of "completely concealing Congress."
The confrontation suggests that Barr, the most senior US lawmaker, could be held in contempt of Congress.
The Justice Department also said it would not comply with a subpoena issued by Mr. Nadler requesting an unedited version of Mr. Mueller's report, as well as investigation records.
On Wednesday, a Senate panel told Mr. Barr that he had decided to release President Donald Trump from obstruction of justice.
He defended his actions before the Republican-led Senate Committee on Justice, after special advocate Robert Mueller – who led the search for links between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia – expressed his frustration before the summary of the report.
Mr. Mueller is expected to testify before Congress later this month.
Why does Barr not testify?
According to a statement by the Department of Justice, Mr. Nadler imposed "unprecedented and unnecessary" conditions on the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.
The ministry said the plan to ask lawyers to ask Mr. Barr questions was unnecessary because most of the committee members were themselves lawyers.
However, Mr. Nadler told reporters that he thought Mr. Barr was afraid to testify Thursday because of "his dishonesty".
"He's terrified of having to deal with a competent lawyer," he said, adding, "We plan to badign him if he decides not to show up." He may run but can not not to hide. "
"I hope and hope that the Attorney General will think overnight and that he will also be present," Nadler said.
What did Barr say to the Senate?
He testified for the first time on Wednesday since the publication of Mr. Mueller's 448-page report.
The special council did not establish any collusion between the Kremlin and Trump campaigns.
However, the report did not exonerate the president from obstructing justice. He concluded that the Republican President had intervened on several occasions with an investigation which, in his opinion, would condemn his presidency.
Mr. Barr, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was "frankly surprised". Mr. Mueller had not reached a conclusion as to whether the President had attempted to interfere with justice.
The Attorney General added that he was "absolutely" confident in his own judgment that Mr. Trump had not attempted to illegally hinder the investigation.
"I think that he felt that he should not make the decision to make a traditional prosecution decision, so he should not have investigated," he said.
Mueller "frustrated" by Barr's summary
Mr. Barr's testimony comes after a letter he received from Mr. Mueller was made public.
In the document, the special advocate stated that Mr. Barr's summary "did not fully reflect the context, nature and content" of the conclusions of his report and created "confusion among the public regarding the critical aspects of the results of our investigation ".
The letter, dated March 27, expressed Mr. Mueller's frustration at the fact that Mr. Barr had not published the summaries written by the Special Council team.
At the hearing, Barr stated that Mr. Mueller was not worried about the accuracy of the summary, but about the way it was reported by the media.
"I thought his concern was not about the accuracy of the statements in my letter, but that he wanted more documents to be provided to provide additional context to explain his reasoning and why he had not made any decision regarding an obstruction, "he said. .
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Mr. Barr argued that objections to his summary should be overturned by the publication of the report itself, calling the controversy surrounding the summary and the resulting hearings "weird".
"I made it clear from the start that I was submitting the report, as far as possible, and that it was clear that it would take about three weeks, maybe four," Barr said. .
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