Sen. Kamala Harris accused Attorney General William Barr of “disrupting justice in America” after the Justice Department filed to drop its criminal charges against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
“He [Barr] clearly has never followed the role, the responsibility, and the mission of the attorney general, which is to be the people’s lawyer,” the California Democrat told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Thursday. “The role and responsibility of the United States Department of Justice is to do justice, unimpeded, uninterfered by favor or fear, and also to do the work that is about doing justice and not being interfered with by a political agenda, which is clearly Donald Trump’s agenda.”
“I absolutely agree we have to make sure that the career professionals in that department stay there and hold down the fort in spite of the fact that there’s an attorney general of the United States who is — who has really done the work of disrupting justice in America,” she said.
Harris, a former California attorney general who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also called for Barr’s resignation. She argued that Barr is doing the president’s bidding rather than upholding the rule of law.
Harris previously called on Barr to resign in the spring of 2019 over his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report.
Barr defended the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Flynn and specifically took issue with accusations that he is doing the president’s political dirty work.
“No, I’m doing the law’s bidding,” Barr said during an interview with CBS News’s Catherine Herridge. “I’m doing my duty under the law, as I see it.”
