Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, drew parallels Wednesday between the treatment of Attorney General William Barr and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“You’ve had an extraordinarily successful legal career, you didn’t have to take this job, and you step forward and answered the call yet again knowing full well that you would be subject to the kind of slanderous treatment, the Kavanaugh treatment, that we have seen of senators impugning your integrity,” Cruz told Barr during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And I, for one, am grateful that you answered that call and are leading the Department of Justice both with integrity and fidelity to law. That is what the nation rightly expects of our attorney general. And I believe you are performing that very ably.”
Barr previously served as an attorney general for former President George H.W. Bush from 1991 to 1993.
Barr was asked to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer lawmakers’ questions about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and how the attorney general handled the release of Mueller’s report to the public.
Kavanaugh was the subject of a similar grilling when he faced the Senate Judiciary Committee last year as part of his confirmation to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh had been accused of sexual misconduct by three women and was probed by members of the panel regarding the complaints. He has denied all the allegations made against him.
