Attorney General William Barr is putting Chairman Nadler and his judiciary committee on notice, telling them he won’t bother to show up to their hearing if they insist on having their legal counsel question him:
WEAU – The Justice Department has informed the House Judiciary Committee that Attorney General William Barr may skip a Thursday hearing on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report if committee lawyers seek to question him.
The Democratic-run committee plans to allow counsels from both sides to ask Barr about the Russia probe after the traditional round of questioning by lawmakers. Department officials also told the committee that they opposed a plan to go into a closed session if members wanted to discuss redacted portions of Mueller’s report, according to a senior Democratic aide on the committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential communications with the department.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said given that Barr had agreed to testify, lawmakers “should be the ones doing the questioning. He remains happy to engage with members on their questions regarding the Mueller report.”
Barr is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and the House panel on Thursday. The GOP-led Senate committee is expected to have normal rounds of member questioning.
The audacity of Democrats.
Not only do they want their members to question Barr, which is perfectly acceptable, but they want their own committee counsel to grill him as well! You’d think that Barr is on trial for vindicating Trump they way they are treating him.
The AP, via WEAU, suggests that while committees can make up their own rules, it is very unusual for the legal counsel of committees to question a witness. Indeed, the last time we saw this occur publicly was during the Kavanaugh hearings, and those were certainly special circumstances.
The article also points out that Democrats have turned down Barr’s offer to allow a select few see the unredacted report minus the grand jury material:
House Democrats have subpoenaed the Justice Department for the unredacted version of the Mueller report and underlying material gathered from the investigation. In response, the Justice Department has said they will make the full report, minus grand jury material, available to a limited group of members — an offer that Democrats have so far refused. The dispute could eventually end up in court.
I’m glad they turned Barr down so he can embarrass them in court, because I really don’t think there’s any way they are going to win this.