Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday he questioned why special counsel Robert Mueller pursued an investigation into whether President Trump obstructed his efforts.
Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee he was “surprised” when Mueller told him in early March he did not plan to reach a conclusion about whether Trump attempted to obstruct a probe into whether he colluded with Russians in the 2016 campaign.
[Watch: Barr testifies about Mueller investigation before Senate Judiciary Committee]
If Mueller was not planning to reach a conclusion on obstruction, Barr said, “then he shouldn’t have investigated” the matter.
Mueller said in his 400-plus page report that there was not enough evidence to support a charge of collusion but did not decide whether Trump attempted to criminally obstruct the investigation.
Mueller left the decision up to Barr and Justice Department lawyers, who ruled that Trump was not guilty of obstruction.
Barr said he did not expect the task to be handed to him.
“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?”
Mueller disagreed with Barr over his description of the obstruction matter in the four-page memo Barr provided Congress last month.
Democrats indicated during the hearing the evidence showed Trump tried to obstruct the probe by asking then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal and exonerate Trump. They also point to findings in the report showing Trump sought Mueller’s firing over a conflict of interest.
