WASHINGTON – After a morning of avoiding attacks, US Attorney General William Barr caught one on the chin by Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a Democrat known to aggressively interrogate witnesses .
Barr was on Capitol Hill to testify about his handling of Special Advocate Robert Mueller's report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The morning consisted in part of the Barr's defense of the report, which was made public earlier this month.
Several Democrats defied Barr, but none did so with the vigor of Hirono, who seemed visibly to ring the prosecutor. She did not do so by asking questions but by making statements about her behavior.
"You lied to Congress," she said, referring to Barr's testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on April 9, when Representative Charlie Crist, R-Fla, asked Barr to make a statement. he knew that the members of Mueller's team were "frustrated" by his four summary of the special council report. Barr's summary was broadly positive for Trump. Since then, it appeared that Mueller himself had written a letter to Barr in which he expressed his concern about the summary and how it was described in media reports.
"He did not know if Mueller supported his findings," said Hirono to Barr, questioned by Crist at the April 9 hearing, "but you knew you had lied, and now we know.
The exchange between Barr and Hirono became so acrimonious that the chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Intervened to defend the Attorney General.
"You have slandered this man from the bottom up," Graham said angrily to Hirono.
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William Barr through the years
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DOSSIER – In this archival photo of 12 November 1991, Attorney General William Barr's candidate is presented at Capitol Hill, Washington. One day, Barr had informed the US government that he could attack Iraq without Congressional approval, arrest a fallen foreign dictator, and capture suspects abroad without the permission of that country. These decisions reflect a broad view of the presidential power that Barr, President Donald Trump's choice to resume his former position as Attorney General, demonstrated before the Department of Justice and in the years that followed. (AP Photo / John Duricka)
United States President George H. Bush promulgated new civil rights guarantees for women and minorities at a ceremony at the Rose Garden on Thursday, November 21, 1991 in Washington, DC Dan Quayle, Vice President, and Acting Attorney General William Barr. The signing of the bill put an end to two years of struggle with Congress to see if it encouraged employment quotas. (AP Photo / Marcy Nighswander)
US President George H. Bush, right, and William Barr salute after Barr was sworn in as the new Attorney General of the United States on Tuesday, November 26, 1991, at a ceremony hosted by the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo / Scott Applewhite)
US President George H. Bush takes action by speaking with Attorney General William Barr at the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, May 4, 1992 in Washington. The president met with senior officials of the national cabinet to tackle the long-term issues put forward by last week's deadly riots in Los Angeles. (AP Photo / Marcy Nighswander)
Nicholas Katzenbach, MCI Telecommunications Board Member, second from left, speaks at the Standing Senate Committee on the Judiciary on "The WorldCom Affair: Views on Bankruptcy" and competition "at Capitol Hill, in Washington, on Tuesday, July 22, 2003. Witnesses are: from the left, Marcia Goldstein, vice president of the Communications Workers' Committee for America, Morton Bahr, Vice President of the National Bankruptcy Conference, Douglas Baird, Head of Operations, Cerberus Capital Management, Mark Neporent. (AP Photo / Akira Ono)
Former Georgian Congressman Bob Barr, on the left, listens to William Redpath, National President of the Libertarian Party, answering a question at a press conference in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, October 23, 2007. (Photo AP)
The Attorney General of President Donald Trump, William Barr, meets with the Speaker of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, at Capitol Hill, Washington, on Wednesday, January 9, 2019. Mr. Barr, who held this position at the beginning years a confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate next week and could be set up at the Department of Justice as early as February when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will leave after the confirmation of Barr. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
President Donald Trump's Attorney General's candidate, William Barr, on the left, meets with the Senate Judiciary Committee member and Senator, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator, RS, Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. January 2019. Barr, who served in the early 1990s, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate would be in place at the Department of Justice as early as February, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would leave his office. functions after the confirmation of Mr. Barr. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
President Donald Trump's Attorney General's candidate, William Barr, arrives to meet Senate Committee Member and Sen. Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C, at Capitol, Washington, on Wednesday January 9, 2019. Barr, who served in the early 1990s, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate would be in place at the Department of Justice as early as February, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would leave his duties after Mr. Barr's confirmation. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
William Barr, candidate for the Attorney General of President Donald Trump, on the right, meets with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, at Capitol Hill, Washington, DC on Wednesday, January 9, 2019. Barr, who held the position in the early 1990s, has a confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate next week and could be in place at the Department of Justice as early as February, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will leave after confirmation from M Barr. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
The Attorney General's candidate, William Barr, left, turns to answer a reporter's question while he arrives to meet Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., At Capitol Hill on Wednesday January 9, 2019 in Washington. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
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Hirono, like many of Trump's critics on the left, described Barr as an indisputable comrade to the president. "Now, the American people know you're no different than Rudy Giuliani or Kellyanne Conway, nor any of the other people who sacrificed their reputation, so decent," Hirono said, referring to Trump's personal attorney and senior advisor to the White House.
"You have chosen to be the president's advocate and to stand with the interests of the American people," Hirono told the attorney general. Barr replaced Jeff Sessions, whom the president criticized for his lack of loyalty, as he was Trump's first endorser in the Senate.
Hirono also asked Barr if it was "acceptable" for Trump to instruct his White House lawyer, Don McGahn, to lie to Mueller. This conclusion, which appears in the Mueller Report, has been considered by many to be a clear example of obstruction of justice.
"I'm ready to discuss what's criminal," Barr replied, saying he did not know what Hirono was talking about. He had said earlier in his testimony that asking someone to lie, provided they did not obstruct justice, did not constitute a crime.
"Give us credit for knowing what's going on here," Hirono said.
Things began to evolve quickly after that, leading Graham to reprimand Hirono. Graham's diatribe against his fellow Democrats on the committee recalled the hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court.
Hirono, however, had explained it well and, although she had few questions about the report, she had made a professional recommendation to Barr: "You should resign.
