President Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr told senators Tuesday that he and special counsel Robert Mueller are “good friends” and that he doesn’t think Mueller would be involved in a “witch hunt” against President Trump.
“I don’t believe Mr. Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt,” Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to a question from chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Barr, who was nominated to replace Jeff Sessions, was expected to spend much of Tuesday’s confirmation hearing assuring senators that he won’t interfere with Mueller’s investigation of Trump, who has argued for months that Mueller is pursuing a “witch hunt.”
Barr said he “absolutely” believes Mueller is a fair-minded person and that he trusts him to be “fair to the president and a country as a whole.”
“The scope of the special counsel’s investigation is set by his charter and by the regulations, and I will ensure that those are maintained,” Barr added when asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., if he would not interfere with Mueller’s investigation.
[Read: AG nominee William Barr: ‘Vitally important’ that Robert Mueller finish his investigation]
Barr stressed throughout the hearing that he supports the release of Mueller’s final report and said he will “make as much information available as I can consistent with the rules and regulations that are part of the special counsel regulations.”
“If a president attempts to intervene in a matter that he has an interest in, that first should be looked at as a breach of his constitutional duty,” Barr told Feinstein when asked about possible obstruction of justice.
Barr told Feinstein that he has had some discussions about the Mueller investigation and offered to outline those conversations for her, but Feinstein declined because she ran out of time.
In June 2018, Barr sent a memo to Justice Department officials in which he characterized Mueller’s investigation into obstruction of justice as “fatally misconceived.” Barr disclosed in his opening statement Tuesday that he “distributed it broadly so that other lawyers would have the benefit of my views” — but did not elaborate on who those lawyers were.
Later Monday, Barr acknowledged that he sent or discussed the memo with lawyers on Trump’s legal team.
“In addition to sharing my views with the [Justice] Department, I thought they also might be of interest to other lawyers working on the matter,” Barr wrote in a letter to Graham. “I thus sent a copy of the memorandum and discussed those views with White House Special Counsel Emmet Flood. I also sent a copy to Pat Cipollone, who had worked for me at the Department of Justice, and discussed the issues raised in the memo with him and a few other lawyers for the President, namely Marty and Jane Raskin and Jay Sekulow.”
Barr downplayed the memo, saying, “I wrote it myself on my own initiative without any assistance and based solely on public information.” He also said during the hearing that he supports Mueller’s investigation and thinks it’s in the country’s best interest to let it continue.
Mueller is nearing a pivotal moment in his 20-month investigation, and there is widespread speculation that he is close to its conclusion and will soon be writing a final report.
Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after Sessions’ recusal, which eventually led Trump to fire him. Barr said Tuesday that Sessions “probably did the right thing” in recusing himself.
