1. Tension between Attorney General William Barr and Robert Mueller
Barr revealed a split with the special counsel over the pursuit of evidence that President Trump tried to obstruct the probe. Mueller did not draw any conclusion on obstruction, despite gathering the evidence.
“The investigation carried on for a while as additional episodes were looked into,” Barr told the panel. “So my question was, why were those investigated if, at the end of the day, you weren’t going to reach a decision on them?”
Later in the hearing Barr dismissed a March 27 letter from Mueller complaining about Barr’s four-page memo to Congress about the report. “The letter’s a bit snitty and I think it was written by one of his staff people,” Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mueller served as Barr’s deputy when Barr was President George H.W. Bush’s Attorney General in 1991.
2. Barr didn’t review Mueller’s evidence.
Under questioning from Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a former prosecutor who is running for president, Barr acknowledged neither he nor Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reviewed the trove of evidence gathered by the Mueller team before he cleared Trump of any wrongdoing.
“We accepted the statements in the report as a factual record,” Barr told Harris. “We did not go underneath it to see whether or not they were accurate. We accepted it as accurate.”
3. Barr is probing leaks to media.
Under questioning from Republicans on the panel, Barr said he is investigating Department of Justice leaks to the media regarding the investigation into alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.
Dozens of news stories over the past two years have centered on information provided by anonymous law enforcement sources, some of it inaccurate, about the probe and Trump’s involvement with the Russians.
“We have multiple criminal leak investigations underway,” Barr told the panel.
4. Barr is examining the justification for surveillance warrants into Trump campaign.
Barr said he is investigating the basis for the Justice Department’s decision to secretly surveil the Trump campaign beginning in October 2016. Barr said he is working with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz to determine if a surveillance warrant was properly obtained by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court the month before the election.
Barr said his probe, “is focused on the basis of the FISA and the handling of the FISA application,” and added it could extend into the prior months, when FBI agents who helped initiate the Trump probe were texting to each other about their disdain for Trump, their desire to stop him from becoming president, and their support of Hillary Clinton.
The FBI obtained a warrant to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page on an undisclosed date in October, according to redacted documents released by the Trump administration.
“By necessity, it looks back a little earlier than that,” Barr said of his investigation. “The people I have helping me with my review will be working very closely with Mr. Horowitz.”
5. Senate Judiciary (probably) won’t call Mueller to testify.
Democrats are eager to hear testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller, they said Wednesday. But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., doesn’t plan to invite him.
“I’m not going to do any more,” Graham said after Barr’s day-long hearing. “Enough already, it’s over.”
[Related: Kellyanne Conway says Mueller should testify ‘if he wants to’]
Graham said he would make an exception if Mueller wanted to discuss with the panel his phone conversation with Barr last month over Barr’s memo about the 400-plus page report. Democrats say the Senate should subpoena Barr’s notes from the call, which followed a letter from Mueller to Barr complaining about Barr’s memo.
Barr refused to turn over the notes when Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked for them.
“I’m going to ask [Mueller] if he wants to come talk about this limited thing,” Graham said. “I’m not going to retry the case.”
