Attorney General William Barr will join Senate Republicans at their weekly lunch as they work to keep President Trump’s top Justice Department official in position.
Barr’s frustrations with Trump’s public comments on Justice Department business came to a boil this week, with the Justice chief telling ABC News that Trump’s tweets made it “impossible” for him to do his job.
Senior GOP senators worried about losing a deft political ally have put pressure on the White House to take the issue seriously, charging that lawmakers are unlikely to confirm a replacement before the end of the year if Barr does indeed leave.
A source familiar with the planning told Politico that Barr’s lunch invite, where the scheduled discussion is on a soon-to-expire provision of the Patriot Act that allows for bulk collection of metadata from cell phone records, and his acceptance, came “weeks ago.” Barr supports the measure, known as Section 215, arguing that it supports U.S. counterterrorism surveillance efforts.
But the session could easily turn to Barr’s job satisfaction.
Barr has faced criticism over the Justice Department’s move to change Roger Stone’s sentencing recommendation, which the DOJ insists was decided before Trump tweeted his criticism. Stone, a longtime Trump ally and Republican operative, was charged with lying to Congress and witness tampering.
