Nadler Calls Barr to Testify Again
Attorney General William Barr listens during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Department of Justice on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, July 28, 2022 in Washington. Bit Somodevilla/AP hide explanation
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Chip Somodevilla/AP
Attorney General William Barr listens during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Section of Justice on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, July 28, 2022 in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla/AP
Updated at iv:06 p.thousand. ET
Chaser Full general William Barr puts the founding principles of the Justice Department "more than at adventure than at any time in mod history," the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee charged on Tuesday.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-Due north.Y., excoriated Barr because he said the attorney general sought disharmonize with Americans at an unprecedented scale, including via federal law enforcement crackdowns, and has created what Nadler called a special reserve of justice for the well-connected.
"The message these actions send is articulate: In this Justice Section, the president's enemies will be punished. His friends volition be protected — no matter the cost, no matter the cost to freedom, no matter the price to justice," Nadler said.
Barr is a longtime political target of the panel's bulk Democrats, who censured him last year during one of a number of bitter disputes over access to information and the House of Representatives' powers of oversight.
On Tuesday, Nadler said the Justice Department had get "a shadow of its former self."
Democrat after Democrat followed on Tuesday along a number of lines of assail, criticizing Barr for the Trump administration'south treatment of the coronavirus pandemic, for his management of the Justice Department and his handling of individual cases.
Barr defended his independence vehemently, maxim the president "has not attempted to interfere" in decisions related to criminal cases.
"Indeed, information technology is precisely because I feel complete freedom to do what I think is right that induced me serve once again as attorney general," he said.
Barr stands his ground
The attorney general has told NPR he believes the department is separated accordingly from the White House and that he has a responsibility to make sure cases are handled correctly.
And Barr told lawmakers on Tuesday that he had no relationship with Trump before being nominated and was prepared to "slip happily into retirement" with aught more to prove in his career.
Barr rejected the characterization that he has embraced a role every bit the president'south own homo atop the federal law enforcement apparatus.
All the aforementioned, Nadler's panel has heard from Justice Department whistleblowers and outside critics who argue that Barr'southward camp leans on underlings to deliver the results that it — and the White House — want.
Democrats likewise pressed the attorney general on Tuesday almost matters involving Trump's friends, including political adviser Roger Stone, in whose case Barr interceded; former national security adviser Mike Flynn, whose charges Barr dropped.
And they faulted him for deploying federal agents to suppress protesters in Washington D.C., Portland, Oregon and elsewhere.
"The protesters aren't mobs — they're mothers and veterans and mayors," Nadler said. Real leadership, the chairman said, would involve de-escalation; "instead you employ pepper spray and truncheons on American citizens."
The attorney general rejected that.
Federal officers are deployed to help local agencies, he said, and, in the example of Portland, to protect the federal courthouse there against what Barr called nightly attacks. The attorney general also cited the numbers of police officers and federal agents who have been injured in the course of conveying out their duties.
Democrats said they fright that Barr is responding to orders from Trump to create ugly scenes of violence and needlessly escalate clashes with demonstrators in order to heighten a narrative of danger that Trump wants to plan into a "law and lodge" re-election entrada.
Nadler asked Barr whether he and Trump have discussed the re-election campaign; though the attorney general said he preserves his official independence, he acknowledged that he has discussed information technology in meetings at the White House.
"I'1000 a member of the Chiffonier and in that location'south an election going on," Barr said. "The topic comes upwardly in Cabinet meetings — it shouldn't be surprise that it comes up."
And Barr volunteered that he thought his conduct and that of the Justice Department had been appropriate with respect to Trump'southward friends, citing Stone and Flynn in particular.
Flynn'south example was problematic, Barr argues, which is why he supported dropping the charges even after the one-time national security adviser's admissions of guilt.
Every bit for Rock, Barr pointed out that he oversaw the prosecution and supported it — merely what Barr said he didn't support was the prospect of an excessive judgement, which he interceded to oppose in court.
"I concur the president's friends don't deserves special breaks — simply they as well don't deserve to be treated more harshly than anybody else," Barr said.
Trump later on used his clemency power to commute Rock's judgement.
Witness: Lafayette Square deportment were 'disturbing'
Meanwhile on Tuesday at a parallel hearing, the Firm Natural Resources Committee heard from a Washington D.C. Regular army National Guard member who testified that he was "securely disturbed" by the actions of law enforcement during last month's crackdown by law enforcement against protesters at Lafayette Square beyond from the White House.
Maj. Adam DeMarco told lawmakers that information technology was his observation that the demonstrators "were engaged in the peaceful expression of their Offset Amendment rights, yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive utilize of force."
DeMarco said he was assigned to human activity every bit a liaison betwixt the D.C. Guard and the U.S. Park Police, and was in the square when law enforcement forced demonstrators out of the park, minutes before President Trump crossed the area on his mode to a photo op in front of St. John'southward Church building.
DeMarco contradicted testimony from the Park Police'south acting Principal Gregory Monahan that police used a "long-range acoustic device" to warn the protesters to go out the park that evening. DeMarco said constabulary used a standard-issue megaphone placed on a bench, which he said was barely audible from where he stood some 20 yards way.
DeMarco, a West Point graduate and Army veteran who served in Iraq, also said based on his training he believed Park Police fired tear gas at the demonstrators, and said that he institute spent tear gas canisters.
Monahan denied his officers used tear gas, and said the decision to clear the park was fabricated in consultation with the U.Southward. Underground Service, merely that neither White House officials nor the Department of Justice were involved.
Monahan said the activeness was undertaken in accelerate of a 7 p.m. Washington curfew and that "in that location is 100 percent, nil correlation betwixt our action and the president'south visit to the church."
At Barr'southward hearing elsewhere at the Capitol, however, the attorney full general told members of Congress that he was aware throughout the 24-hour interval that Trump planned to leave the White Business firm and eventually that Trump would pose for photographers — as he did after the square had been cleared.
Allies level counter-charges
The Firm Judiciary Commission's Republicans, led by the panel's ranking member, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, mounted a loyal defense of Barr and Trump and as well drew attention to the findings of investigations that have embarrassed the Justice Department and FBI.
Barr, in their telling, is cleaning house and getting to the bottom of what Trump'southward allies call wrongdoing.
"Spying," Jordan said on Tuesday, alluding to what he called the existent basis for the Russia investigation. "That's why they're after you, Mister Attorney Full general."
Jordan hailed Barr'south revelation that he has deputed John Bash, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, to wait into the use of national security "unmasking" authority with respect to Flynn toward the end of President Barack Obama's administration.
"Wow — that's bang-up," Jordan said.
Jordan also praised what he called Barr's support for police equally a clear alternative to what he said were proposals by Democrats to withdraw support from law enforcement.
He played a video apparently created past the committee'south Republican staff that showed what appeared to be police videos and some news footage depicting violence directed at law enforcement officials and some injured officers.
Some activists support directing a portion of current police budgets to other agencies, such as for mental wellness treatment; Trump, Jordan and Republicans have seized on the brand "defund the constabulary" to charge that Democrats desire to disestablish police departments altogether.
Nadler said Tuesday'due south hearing is Barr's first time earlier the House Judiciary Commission both in his current stint every bit chaser general and also from the last time he served in that part, under President George H.Due west. Bush.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/07/28/894891884/watch-attorney-general-barr-set-to-testify-on-justice-department-oversight
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