Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Friday that President Trump’s nominee to serve as attorney general, William Barr, must promise to protect the special counsel investigation into alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russians.
“Given President Trump’s demonstrated lack of regard for the rule of law and the independence of the American justice system, his nominee for attorney general will have a steep hill to climb in order to be confirmed by the Senate,” Schumer said in a statement Friday after Trump nominated Barr. “Mr. Barr must commit – at a minimum – under oath before the Senate to two important things: First, that the Special Counsel’s investigation will proceed unimpeded, and second, that the Special Counsel’s final report will be made available to Congress and the public immediately upon completion.”
Recommended Stories
Barr served as President H.W. Bush’s attorney general from 1991 to 1993 and has so far earned wide praise from Senate Republicans, who hold the majority and can confirm him next year without the help of a single Democrat.
Republicans are eager to confirm Barr with the help of Democrats, who on the whole say they respect his longtime work as an attorney. At the same time, the GOP will have the votes next year to confirm Barr even if he fails to satisfy Democrats by committing to allow the special counsel investigation to continue unimpeded.
Democrats are wary of anyone Trump picks to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who the president ousted for recusing himself from overseeing the special counsel probe.
Trump has declared the investigation, helmed by Robert Mueller, to be a witch hunt, and Democrats fear he wants the nation’s next top law enforcement officer to extinguish it.
Democrats on Friday made reference to Barr’s November 2017 interview with the New York Times in which he said Hillary Clinton’s Uranium One deal with the Russian government should get a closer look from the Justice Department than any alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russians.
Barr said the Justice Department is “abdicating its responsibility” by not investigating the Clinton-Uranium one deal.
“There’s no question William Barr is an experienced lawyer, having previously served as attorney general,” Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement. “However, there are concerns about his independence given his expansive views of executive power and partisan statements about pardons, the Mueller investigation and Hillary Clinton.Barr must commit to supporting Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation and allowing him to follow the facts. He must also commit to resisting political pressure placed on the Justice Department.”
