Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) pinned down William Barr during his Senate testimony and exposed the fact from the fiction of Trump’s obstruction of justice exoneration.
Van Hollen Separated Barr’s Opinions From Mueller’s Findings
Here was the exchange:
Van Hollen: Your assessment on — you made a conclusion on the question of obstruction of justice that was not contained in the Mueller report. And I’m simply asking you when you looked at the evidence, did you agree with Mueller and his team that there were difficult issues of law in fact?
Barr: As I say, I am going to explain my decision and to the extent that requires any assessment of the Mueller report, I’ll —
Van Hollen: Did your decision —
Barr:- When the report comes out.
Video:
Van Hollen: Did your decision require to you to look into the intent of the President Of The United States with respect to obstruction of justice?
Barr: I won’t discuss my decision. I will lay it out after the report is out.
Van Hollen: But put this out there. The president went out and tweeted the next day that he was exonerated. That wasn’t based on anything in the Mueller report, that was based on your assessment. That was on March 24th. And now you won’t elaborate at all as to how you reached that conclusion? Because I’m not asking you what is in the Mueller report. I’m asking you about your conclusion. Let me ask you this. You said — it was the conclusion of a number of people including me and I obviously am the attorney general. It was also the conclusion of the deputy attorney general rod Rosenstein. As well as understand that I will discuss the decision after the report —
Van Hollen: Did Bob Mueller support your conclusion?
Barr: I don’t know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion.
Van Hollen: So in your June 2018 memo, you indicated that president can commit obstruction of justice in the classic sense of sabotaging a proceeding’s truth-finding functions. Did you see any evidence in this report about whether or not president trump committed what you call a classic sense of obstruction of justice?
Barr: I’m not going to characterize our discuss the contents of the report. The report will be made public hopefully next week and I will come up and testify at that point.
Van Hollen: But the thing about it is, you put your conclusion out there. And now you refuse to talk about any basis of your conclusion. I’m not asking for you what is in the report. I’m asking you how you — last question. Can you assure us that the key factual evidence relevant to charges of obstruction of justice will be included in the public report?
Democrats Blew Up Barr’s Obstruction Cover-Up
Attorney General Barr created a narrative where he weaved his own opinions in with a dash of Mueller’s findings. Barr testified today that he would redact all sections of the Mueller report, so the American people aren’t going to get to see the full report. What Sen. Van Hollen did was show that Trump was “exonerated” on the basis of Barr’s opinion, not Mueller’s facts.
The cover-up is crumbling, and William Barr has been exposed as another Trump stooge.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
Follow Jason Easley on Facebook
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
- Trump And House GOP’s Promise To Not Cut Social Security Is Total Nonsense - Fri, Dec 20th, 2024
- Trump And Mike Johnson Agree To Apparently Cut Americans’ Healthcare To Pay For Tax Cuts For The Rich - Fri, Dec 20th, 2024
- Dozens Of Republicans Humiliate Trump/Musk By Voting Down CR - Thu, Dec 19th, 2024
