US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accused Attorney General William Barr of committing a crime by lying to Congress while a key committee chairman has threatened to hold him in contempt.
However as Democrats continued on Thursday to lash the Trump administration for launching what they called a growing attack on American democracy, the White House showed no sign of backing down.
Legal counsel Emmet Flood said in a defiant letter Trump had the right to tell advisers not to testify to congressional panels on the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia inquiry.
The duelling statements marked a sharp escalation in the conflict between Trump's administration and Democrats who control the House of Representatives.
With the president seeking re-election next year, they are weighing whether to try to remove him from office using the impeachment process while pressing forward with demands for information on his taxes, his businesses and other topics.
Shortly after Barr refused to appear before House Judiciary Committee, Pelosi accused him of lying to lawmakers about interactions with Mueller after the special counsel ended a 22-month investigation into Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election to boost Trump's candidacy.
"That's a crime," Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, told reporters, referring to Barr's congressional testimony.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec called Pelosi's allegation "reckless, irresponsible and false".
Democrats have accused Barr of misleading Congress by testifying he was unaware of any concern by the special counsel's team about Barr's initial March 24 characterisation of the report, an account that led Trump to claim full exoneration.
Barr failed to mention a March 27 letter he got from Mueller complaining that Barr's March 24 account did not "fully capture the context, nature and substance of this Office's work".
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler threatened to hold Barr in contempt if he does not provide a full, unredacted copy of Mueller's report and underlying evidence, as the panel has requested by a subpoena that had a Wednesday deadline.
That could potentially lead to fines or imprisonment for the top US law enforcement official.
Barr released Mueller's report on April 18, with some parts blacked out to protect sensitive information.
Several Democrats have called on Barr, who Trump appointed after firing Jeff Sessions as attorney general, to resign.
Pelosi and other House Democrats previously had cautioned against impeachment, which would begin in the House but face long odds of success in the Republican-controlled Senate and could alienate voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
But Pelosi said the Trump administration was continuing to ignore congressional subpoenas and noted Congress launched impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon after he resisted similar demands. Nixon resigned in 1974.
Pelosi said Trump's "blanket statement that he's not going to honour any subpoenas is obstruction of justice".
The White House signalled little appetite to co-operate.
Share
