House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed Thursday in a dramatic press conference that Attorney General Bill Barr committed a crime in sworn testimony last month, ratcheting up the latest war of words to paralyze Washington in the Trump era.
'He lied to Congress. He lied to Congress. If anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime,' Pelosi told reporters. 'Nobody is above the law. Not the President of the United States and not the attorney general.'
Barr testified April 9 in a House hearing that 'no, I don't' know why some members of special Counsel Robert Mueller's team were frustrated by the nature of what he released to Congress on March 24.
With this week's revelation of a March 27 letter in which Mueller told Barr he was displeased with how little material had been made public, that statement appears to have given Democrats a new weapon. Barr, however, plans to stick to his guns, according to a Justice Department official.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi ratcheted up Washington's partisan acrimony on Thursday, claiming Attorney General Bill Barr committed a crime in testimony before Congress
Barr told a House panel in April that he didn't know why some members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team were frustrated by how little information he had released to lawmakers; he said no, despite getting a letter weeks earlier with grips from Mueller himself
During a House Appropriations Committee, Florida Democratic Rep. asked: 'Reports have emerged recently, general, that members of the Special Counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your March 24th letter, that it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the report's findings. Do you know what they're referencing with that?”
Barr said he didn't. He added: 'I suspect that they probably wanted more put out, but in my view, I was not interested in putting out summaries or trying to summarize.'
A DOJ official predicted on Thursday that Barr will stand by his claim that Crist's question was poorly worded since it asked about Mueller's team of lawyers and not the special counsel himself.
'Crist asked it wrong. AG Barr did
