Democrats are wrong: Barr’s recalcitrance is not criminal contempt

House Democrats are threatening to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt of Congress. They are acting prematurely and irresponsibly.

The supposed grounds for a contempt citation are two. First, Barr has defied a House subpoena ordering him to give Congress an entirely unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report about Russian interference into the 2016 election. Second, he refused to testify to the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday because the committee planned to have staff counsel question him in a process similar to the Watergate hearings of 1974.