WASHINGTON: Democrats intensified their pressure on President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Attorney General William Barr of committing a crime by lying to lawmakers and a key committee chairman threatened to hold Barr in contempt of Congress.
Even as Democratic lawmakers accused the Trump administration of a growing attack on US democracy and the authority of Congress, the White House showed no sign of backing down.
White House legal counsel Emmet Flood said in a defiant letter that 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 the White House and Democrats who control the House of Representatives.
With Trump seeking re-election next year, Democrats are weighing whether to try to remove the Republican president from office using the impeachment process while pressing forward with demands for information on his taxes, businesses and other topics.
Shortly after Barr refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, Pelosi accused him of lying to lawmakers about interactions with Mueller after the special counsel ended a 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 testimony.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec called Pelosi’s allegation “reckless, irresponsible and false.”
Democrats have accused Barr of misleading Congress by testifying in April he was unaware of any concern by the special counsel’s team about Barr’s initial March 24 characterization 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 of Congress if he does not provide a full, unredacted copy of Mueller’s report and the underlying evidence, as the panel has requested by a subpoena that had a Wednesday deadline. That could potentially lead to legal steps against 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, whom Trump appointed after firing Jeff Sessions as attorney general, to resign. — Reuters
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