A senior US congressional Democrat has threatened to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for resisting demands for Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full report on the Russia inquiry and accused President Donald Trump's administration of a "growing attack" on democracy.
House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said on Thursday he was prepared to begin a process that could lead to fines or imprisonment for Barr after the top US law enforcement official failed to appear for a hearing on the Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Nancy Pelosi pressed the president during the meeting. Source: AAP
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat, also accused Barr of lying to Congress and said neither the attorney general nor the Republican president are above the law.
"That's a crime," Ms Pelosi said, though she did not specify which comment she was referring to.
Mr Nadler had set a Wednesday deadline for Mr Barr to hand over the unredacted report and its underlying evidence.
Mr Barr cancelled his testimony after clashing with Mr Nadler over the hearing's format.
Mr Nadler said he will move forward with a contempt citation as soon as Monday.
"We will make one more good faith attempt to negotiate and to get the access to the report that we need, and then if we don't get that, we will proceed to hold the attorney general in contempt," Mr Nadler told reporters on Thursday after a 15-minute committee session held in place of Mr Barr's appearance.
Democrats have said they may issue a subpoena to try to force Barr to testify before their committee.
Mr Nadler's comments indicated that the Democrats, who control the House, are prepared to escalate a showdown with Trump's administration, which has resisted their demands for documents and information on a wide range of topics, from Trump's taxes to his businesses.
Democrat Jerrold Nadler. Source: AAP
Several Democratic lawmakers have called on Mr Barr to resign.
"The failure of Attorney General Barr to come to the hearing today is simply another step in the administration's growing attack on American democracy and its attack on the right of Congress" as a co-equal branch of government, Mr Nadler said.
Nadler said Trump wants to prevent Congress from providing any check on his conduct.
"The very system of government of the United States - the system of limited power, the system of not having a president as a dictator - is very much at stake," Mr Nadler said.
Mr Barr spent four hours before a Republican-led Senate committee on Wednesday defending his handling of Mueller's report on Russia's interference in the election to boost Trump's candidacy and whether the president subsequently tried to obstruct Mueller's probe.
Representative Doug Collins, the House Judiciary Committee's top Republican, said Mr Barr did not appear before that panel because Mr Nadler had insisted on an aggressive format with an extra hour of questioning from its own lawyers, in addition to those from the committee's lawmakers.
"They want it to look like an impeachment hearing because they won't bring impeachment proceedings," Mr Collins said.
Barr refuses to testify
Nadler said Barr refused to testify on Thursday to the House Judiciary Committee on his handling of the Mueller report.
Mr Nadler said that Mr Barr had also refused to supply the committee with a full and unredacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible obstruction by President Donald Trump.
Mr Nadler said he thought Mr Barr did not want to appear if he was subjected to questioning by a lawyer from the committee in addition to its members.
"He is terrified at having to face a skilled attorney," Mr Nadler said.
On Wednesday, the US Justice Department head defended his handling of the Russia interference report after it emerged that lead investigator Robert Mueller had questioned his decision to declare that it cleared President Trump.
Facing allegations that he "whitewashed" the Mueller report, Mr Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee that after receiving it in March, it was his "baby" and therefore his prerogative to sum up its conclusions.
The Democrats are debating whether Trump should be impeached for obstruction of justice based on the evidence set out in Mueller's 448-page report into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Mr Barr rejected accusations that he misrepresented its conclusions when he declared in a 24 March memo that it did not support criminal charges against Trump.
Attorney General William Barr testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee Source: AP
In a previously private 27 March letter to Mr Barr made public on Tuesday, Mueller complained that the attorney general's four-page summary "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of his conclusions, and had generated "public confusion."
The letter also made clear that at least twice in March Mueller proposed that his boss make public the investigation's own summaries first and that Mr Barr had ignored that idea to release his version.
Mr Barr's summary of the report, the result of a two-year investigation which saw six former Trump aides convicted of various crimes, had a significant political impact.
It allowed Trump to declare "complete and total exoneration" over accusations of conspiracy with Russia and obstruction of justice, and to claim that it proved that the Mueller probe was a politicised "witch hunt."
But when Mr Barr released a redacted version of the full report on 18 April, it painted an altogether more damaging picture of the president's conduct.
Mueller said his team did not find evidence that Trump's campaign criminally conspired with Russians, but the report detailed repeated efforts by the Trump team to benefit from the sabotage.
Mueller also laid out a damning pattern of obstructive behaviour by the president and suggested Congress itself should investigate. But he declined to give his own opinion on whether Trump had committed a crime.
Mr Barr told lawmakers he was surprised to find Mueller not making a decision on the obstruction issue and said it would have been "irresponsible and unfair" to release the report without reaching a conclusion.
He said his own summary had been an attempt to "notify the people of the bottom-line conclusion."
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris listen as Attorney General William Barr testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Source: AP
'It was my decision'
In testy exchanges with Democrats, Mr Barr dismissed concerns about Mueller's letter, while skirting questions about his previous testimony to Congress, when he said he had not received any objection from Mueller about his handling of the report.
"It was my decision how and when to make it public, not Bob Mueller's," he said.
The hearing made clear that Democrats remain convinced that Trump did obstruct justice but are unable to decide on whether to open an impeachment action against him based on the Mueller report now that the Justice Department has declined to pursue the issue further.
More ire was directed at Mr Barr himself Wednesday.
"Attorney General Barr should resign," said Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
"He misled the American people with his inaccurate summary of Mueller's report. Then he misled the Congress when he denied knowledge of Mueller's concerns."
"AG Barr is a disgrace, and his alarming efforts to suppress the Mueller report show that he's not a credible head of federal law enforcement," said Senator Elizabeth Warren in a tweet.
"He should resign - and based on the actual facts in the Mueller report, Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against the President."
Share
