The stage is set for Attorney General William Barr to defend publicly the Justice Department from accusations of politicization by Democrats.
He will sit before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, an appearance that had been set for late March but was postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic, and face a grilling over claims that he has been doing President Trump’s bidding related to cases against Trump associates. Meanwhile, Republicans are certain to defend his tenure as one aimed at restoring confidence in the Justice Department and the FBI after the Obama administration allegedly sought to subvert Trump’s 2016 campaign and presidency.
The attorney general, who has faced calls to be impeached by his critics, will testify as the Justice Department finds itself in the thick of the Trump administration’s controversial response to protests along with rising violence and riots in multiple cities and as U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators prepares to release a report later this summer. The hearing also comes just under the 100-day mark before the 2020 election.
While DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec downplayed Tuesday’s event as a “general oversight hearing,” it is more likely to play out as a partisan clash akin to a hearing held in late June. During that spectacle, Barr’s rescheduled hearing was announced after Chairman Jerry Nadler threatened to issue a subpoena, and Democrats and Republicans, led by ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, put on display their starkly different concerns and priorities.
“Mr. Barr’s actions make clear that in his Department of Justice, the president’s allies get special treatment, and the president’s enemies — real and imagined — are targeted for extra scrutiny,” Nadler said last month. “He is the president’s fixer. He has shown us that there is one set of rules for the president’s friends, and another set of rules for the rest of us.”
“There is injustice at the Justice Department, ladies and gentlemen,” the New York Democrat alleged, claiming that “the sickness we must address is Mr. Barr’s use of the Department of Justice as a weapon to serve the president’s petty private interests.”
In response, Jordan said Eric Holder, an attorney general under former President Barack Obama, openly referred to himself as Obama’s “wingman.”
The Ohio Republican also said the “Obama-Biden Justice Department spied on four Americans” and that “politics was in the previous administration — and Bill Barr is doing the Lord’s work trying to clean it up so it doesn’t happen again.” He said, “You guys can continue to play your political games — Bill Barr is gonna get to the truth.”
Jordan also hammered Nadler for focusing on Barr when the Democrat had refused to allow DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz to testify about his findings in response to allegations of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses, including the watchdog’s harsh criticisms of the FBI’s reliance on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s flawed dossier when pursuing surveillance against Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
“The Barr Justice Department is about correcting injustice,” Jordan said, pointing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordering the D.C. district court to grant the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn earlier that day. That legal fight is still playing out as presiding Judge Emmet Sullivan resists allowing the charges to be dropped.
FISA and Flynn promise to be just a few of the controversies that Barr will be pressed on. It was during an April 2019 hearing where Barr said that “spying did occur” against Trump’s campaign — a topic sure to be relitigated on Tuesday.
Barr, who is facing the Democratic-led committee for the first time, will likely also be grilled about the use of force by federal officers to crack down on protesters, which became a large controversy when demonstrators were forced out of a park next to the White House early last month before Trump talked across the street for a photo opportunity in front of a church.
The inspectors general from the Justice Department and Homeland Security Department announced on Thursday they will investigate the actions by federal law enforcement in both Portland and Washington, D.C., a day after the Trump administration announced plans to send more federal agents into cities around the country to help corral the violence that has occurred in recent weeks.
“Our goal is to help save lives,” Barr said when announcing the expansion of Operation Legend on Wednesday.
Lawmakers will also likely try to pry information from Barr about the so-called “investigation into the investigators,” which Democrats fear is a politically motivated effort to tar Trump’s political enemies ahead of the November election. Still, in the spring, Barr sought to allay those concerns by noting that neither Obama nor his vice president, Joe Biden, who is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, were targets of Durham and his team who are investigating misconduct during the Russia inquiry.
“Not every abuse of power, no matter how outrageous, is necessarily a federal crime,” Barr said during a May press conference. “Now, as to President Obama and Vice President Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr. Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man. Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others.”
Other potential subjects Barr may face questions about include: the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation saga related to Roger Stone and on whether Barr supported Trump’s grant of clemency to the president’s longtime friend; Barr’s handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report; the firing of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman; the DOJ’s investigations into antifa and other extremists seeking to exploit the protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody; DOJ’s decisions on the Ukraine whistleblower complaint; allegations of election interference by Russia in the 2020 election; the Justice Department’s increased crackdown on Chinese malfeasance; and the attorney general’s role in helping declassify records which undercut the Trump-Russia collusion narrative and the Steele dossier.
“I came in to serve as Attorney General. I am responsible for everything that happens in the department, but the thing I have most responsibility for are the issues that are brought to me for decision,” Barr said during a February interview. “And I will make those decisions based on what I think is the right thing to do — and I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody. And I said, whether it’s Congress, newspaper editorial boards, or the president, I’m going to do what I think is right.”
