Attorney General William “Bill” Barr is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee later this week about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump-Russia collusion. But the much-anticipated hearing may not actually happen.
Refusing to be put at a disadvantage, Barr has threatened to pull out of Thursday’s hearing if changes are not made to the proposed format.
Pushing Back
At issue are the terms set by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the chairman of the committee. Nadler wants two rounds of questioning, the first of which would give each member of the panel five minutes to get their questions answered.
The second would give each side an additional 30 minutes during which a separate counsel, chosen by the committee’s two parties, would be allowed to join in the questioning. It is this second round that Barr has taken issue with.
“The attorney general agreed to appear before Congress,” said Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice (DOJ). “Therefore, members of Congress should be the ones doing the questioning. He remains happy to engage with members on their questions regarding the Mueller report.”
Barr has also taken issue with a further stipulation by Nadler that there be a separate session behind closed doors to discuss redacted parts of the Mueller report.
Power Struggle
Nadler responded to Barr’s objections on CNN, saying: “The witness is not going to tell the committee how to conduct its hearing, period.”
If Barr does not show, Nadler’s plan is to “subpoena him.” He added that Democrats “will have to use whatever means we can to enforce the subpoena.”
Meanwhile, House Republicans have taken issue with Nadler’s hostile approach.
“What actual precedent is there for our committee making such demands of a sitting attorney general as part of our oversight duties?” a GOP spokesperson asked. “The attorney general isn’t a fact witness, and this committee’s investigations — as Democrat leadership reminds us daily — don’t constitute impeachment, so Democrats have yet to prove their demands anything but abusive and illogical in light of the transparency and good faith the attorney general has shown our committee.”
Looking Forward
If Barr does decide to skip out on an appearance before the House, we can expect even more animosity from the legislative body’s Democratic members, who have attacked Barr most recently for not releasing the full, unredacted Mueller report.
Barr issued a lightly redacted version of the report earlier this month that provides explanations for each redaction, but that apparently wasn’t good enough for Dems, who maintain that the redacted material could contain information that proves incriminating for President Trump.
In addition to Thursday’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Barr is scheduled to meet with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The attorney general has shown no signs that he plans to miss that Wednesday hearing.
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