Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., penned a letter to Attorney General William Barr chastising him for his Wednesday appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Schumer’s letter noted that they were “many disturbing things” that Barr said during his testimony, but said he was “particularly troubled” by Barr’s assertion that President Trump can end an investigation if it is based on false pretexts.
“If this idea is how our nation is governed, we will no longer be the democracy Americans think we are,” Schumer wrote. “If these views are truly your views, you do not deserve to be Attorney General.”
“Do you believe that President Nixon, who certainly believed he was falsely accused, could simply have terminated the Watergate investigation?” He added.
During Barr’s hearing Wednesday, he said that if an investigation “is based on false allegations, the president does not have to sit there constitutionally and allow it to run its course.”
“The president could terminate that proceeding and not have it be corrupt intent because he was being falsely accused,” Barr said.
Barr was scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, although he did not show up to the hearing. The Justice Department cited “unprecedented” conditions put on by Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.
[Related: Pelosi: Barr ‘lied to Congress’]
