Watch live: Barr to speak before Senate panel amid calls for his resignation after news of Mueller's letter. Follow our analysis.
By Matt Zapotosky , Matt Zapotosky National security reporter covering the Justice Department Email Bio Follow Devlin Barrett , Devlin Barrett Reporter focusing on national security and law enforcement Email Bio Follow Karoun Demirjian and Karoun Demirjian Congressional reporter focusing on national security Email Bio Follow Rosalind S. Helderman Rosalind S.
“Look, there’s no sugarcoating this. I think he should step down,” Schiff said during an appearance on “CBS This Morning.” Van Hollen pointed to an exchange he had with Barr during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in April over the attorney general’s decision to declare that there was insufficient evidence to accuse Trump of criminal obstruction of justice. Mueller had declined to make such a declaration, writing in his report that because of previous Justice Department guidance saying that sitting presidents cannot be indicted, he could not even say in a private report whether charges would be warranted.
That answer, too, is likely to be scrutinized, although Barr seemed to concede the Mueller team wanted more information put out.Mueller’s letter to Barr complaining about the characterization of the special counsel’s findings will undoubtedly drive much of the questioning Wednesday.
“The Special Counsel’s concerns reflect our own,” Nadler said in a statement. “The Attorney General should not have taken it upon himself to describe the Special Counsel’s findings in a light more favorable to the President. It was only a matter of time before the facts caught up to him.” “From here on, the exercise of responding and reacting to the report is a matter for the American people and the political process,” Barr said in the remarks. “As I am sure you agree, it is vitally important for the Department of Justice to stand apart from the political process and not to become an adjunct of it.”
“I did not believe that it was in the public interest to release additional portions of the report in piecemeal fashion, leading to public debate over incomplete information” Barr said. “My main focus was the prompt release of a public version of the report so that Congress and the American people could read it for themselves and draw their own conclusions.”
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