DAILY MAIL:
Attorney General William Barr clashed with Senate Democrats on Wednesday in his first appearance on Capitol Hill since the release of the special counsel’s Russia report, insisting that ‘it was my decision how and when to make it public, not Bob Mueller’s.’
In a tense standoff with Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, a combative Barr insisted that a March 27 letter from Mueller asked for quicker public disclosure of his report’s executive summaries wasn’t proof that the special counsel disagreed with a four-page overview Barr had sent a quartet of congressional leaders days earlier.
‘His concern was not the accuracy of the statement of the findings in my letter,’ Barr said, ‘but that he wanted more out there to provide additional context to explain his reasoning on why he didn’t reach a decision on obstruction [of justice].’
‘He wanted more out,’ he said, comparing his situation to that of a judge charged with communicating a jury’s verdict to the public long before publishing a trial transcript.
Mueller will have his turn to speak this month, in a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, told reporters the special counsel will testify by a date hasn’t been finalized.
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse challenged Barr about why he ignored Mueller’s request to immediately release a redacted version of the report summaries, which the special counsel said were scrubbed of most information prohibited from public disclosure.
‘I wasn’t interested in putting out summaries, period,’ Barr replied.
Mueller had written that his own redactions covered the department’s obligations to keep Grand Jury proceedings secret, along with information related to open criminal cases and decisions about targets who wouldn’t be prosecuted.
He didn’t, however, mention the need to protect information that could reveal intelligence agency sources and methods. Barr said Wednesday that ‘there were redactions made in the executive summaries’ by his office.
‘Bob Mueller is the equivalent of a U.S. attorney,’ he said. ‘He was exercising the powers of the attorney general, subject to the supervision of the attorney general. He’s part of the Department of Justice.’
‘His work concluded when he sent his report to the attorney general. At that point, it was my baby. And I was making the decision as to whether or not to make it public. I effectively overrode the regulations, used discretion, to lean as far forward as I could to make that public. And it was my decision how and when to make it public. Not Bob Mueller’s.’
Democrat after Democrat accused Barr of spinning the Mueller investigation’s findings in President Donald Trump’s favor, especially by honoring an Office of Legal Counsel opinion that prohibits the Justice Department from charging a sitting president with a crime.