Nancy Pelosi Didn't Hold Back About AG Barr's Testimony: "That's A Crime"
On Wednesday, May 1, United States Attorney General William Barr testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report. For hours, Barr was grilled by Senate Democrats and Republicans about his handling of the report, but on Thursday, May 2, Barr stunned many people when he failed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee for his second hearing. Well, judging by Nancy Pelosi's response to William Barr's testimony, the House speaker has some thoughts on the matter.
On Thursday, May 2, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press conference, where she addressed Barr's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as him failing to show up for the second hearing. In the press conference, Pelosi claimed that Barr lied to Congress in regards to the report, and went on to make some even bolder claims. She said,
What is deadly serious about it is the attorney general of the United States of America was not telling the truth to the Congress of the United States. That's a crime.
Later in the press conference, reporters asked the house speaker if she believed Attorney General Barr explicitly committed a crime. Pelosi didn't hold back in her response. She said,
He lied to Congress. And if anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. Nobody is above the law. Not the President of the United States, and not the attorney general.
Elite Daily reached out to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for response to Pelosi's remark and for comment on Barr failing to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, but did not hear back in time for publication.
On May 1, Barr took the hot seat when he testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding Mueller's investigation into whether the Trump campaign actively colluded with Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential election. The report was officially submitted on March 22, and two days later on March 24, Barr released a short summary of Mueller's findings, which found no "sufficient" evidence to prove that President Donald Trump or his campaign team had committed collusion or obstructed justice. Notably, the report explicitly did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice.
Since releasing the summary, Barr received criticism from politicians that the summary did not include enough details and context about the investigation's findings. On April 18, a full redacted version of the special counsel's report was released to the public, and Barr was grilled by the committee for leaving out some key details. Many senators brought up a March 27 letter from Mueller to Barr, in which the special counsel objected to Barr's characterizations of his conclusions, saying they failed to capture the "context" of the report's findings. A part of the letter read,
The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office's work and conclusion.
Just when the House Committee might have thought they'd get more answers from Barr, it looks like they'll have to be held in suspense. Don't touch that dial, folks.
