William Barr testimony: Attorney general grilled about Mueller’s letter, defends handling of report

Attorney General William Barr was grilled by Senate Democrats Wednesday about his controversial handling of the rollout of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference during the 2016 election and its possible ties to President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Here are some key takeaways from Barr’s testimony:

• Barr told lawmakers he did not misrepresent the findings of Mueller’s report in his four-page memo, and that Mueller declined to review it. Mueller told Barr in a letter that his summary did not capture “the context, nature and substance” of his full report and left the public confused about “critical aspects of the results.”

• Barr said Trump did not obstruct justice by ordering former White House counsel Don McGahn to “remove” Mueller from the investigation. Barr said there’s a distinction between ordering to “remove” someone versus ordering to “fire” someone.

• Barr took several shots at Mueller. The attorney general testified that he was surprised the special counsel didn’t make a prosecutorial decision about whether Trump committed obstruction of justice. He also complained that Mueller didn’t flag sensitive material in his report, as Barr had requested.

Here’s a recap of highlights from the hearing:

Near the end of the hearing, Barr described Mueller’s letter criticizing his four-page summary as “a bit snitty” and speculated it was written by one of the special counsel’s staffers.

Barr also told Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) that he wouldn’t share notes from his call with Mueller that occurred after the attorney general received Mueller’s letter.

Mueller’s report revealed that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein resisted an attempt by Trump to have him take the blame for the firing of former FBI director James Comey.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), a 2020 presidential candidate, pressed Barr on whether it was appropriate for Rosenstein to be both a supervisor of the investigation and a witness.

Barr did not have an answer for Harris when asked if Trump or anyone at the White House asked or suggested he open an investigation of anyone.

“Seems you’d remember something like that and be able to tell us,” Harris interjected as Barr struggled with a yes or no answer.

Under questioning by Harris, Barr admitted neither he nor Rosenstein reviewed the underlying evidence used in the Mueller report before determining Trump had not obstructed justice.

“We accepted the statements in the report as the factual record,” Barr said. “We did not go underneath it to see whether or not they were accurate. We accepted it as accurate."

“So you accepted the report as the evidence?” Harris asked.

“Yes,” Barr responded.

Barr told lawmakers he did not exonerate Trump — he simply determined there was not enough evidence to support a criminal prosecution.

"I didn’t exonerate. I said that we did not believe that there was sufficient evidence to establish an obstruction offense, which is the job of the Justice Department,” Barr said.

"The job of the Justice Department is now over. That determines whether or not there is a crime. The report is now in the hands of the American people. Everyone can decide for themselves: There’s an election in 18 months,” the attorney general added.

When pressed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) if he ever discussed ongoing criminal cases spawned from Mueller’s investigation with anyone in the White House — including the president — Barr repeatedly said he “did not recall.”

“I just don’t recall providing any substantive information about a case,” Barr said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), one of three Democratic presidential candidates on the committee, blasted Barr over his handling of the Mueller report and pressed the attorney general on why he didn’t consider actions taken by Trump to be obstruction of justice.

Klobuchar brought up several episodes highlighted in the Mueller report of actions she considered attempts at obstruction by Trump. Barr countered each one individually.

“You look at the totality of the evidence,” Klobuchar said. “That’s what I learned when I was in law school.”

Barr told lawmakers he was reviewing the infamous 35-page dossier — written and compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele — as a possible piece of Russian disinformation.

Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) asked Barr whether he could state with confidence that the dossier — which made several claims about the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia — was not actually a part of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign during the 2016 election.

“No, I can’t state that with confidence and that is one of the areas that I’m reviewing and I’m concerned about it, and I don’t think it’s entirely speculative,” Barr said.

The Mueller report revealed that some of the most sensational claims made the dossier — like the Kremlin running Trump campaign aides like agents — appear to be false.

During an exchange with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), Barr said there is a legal distinction between Trump ordering former White house counsel Don McGahn to have Mueller “removed” rather than ordering him “fired.”

Barr also told Feinstein he didn’t consider it obstruction of justice for Trump to tell McGahn to lie to Mueller. Here’s the exchange between Barr and Feinstein:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, used her opening statement to highlight Mueller’s complaints about Barr’s memo.

“We saw why Mueller was concerned.” Feinstein said. “Contrary to the declarations of the total and complete exoneration, the special counsel’s report contained substantial evidence of misconduct.”

MSNBC host Brian Williams, who is anchoring the network’s coverage of Barr’s hearing, broke into Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R., S.C.) opening statement to correct a comment the senator made about the findings of Mueller’s report.

“We’re reluctant to do this. We rarely do," Williams said. “The chairman of the Judiciary Committee just said that Mueller found there is no collusion. That is not correct.”

Mueller’s full letter to Barr — in which he complained about the “public confusion” created by Barr’s memo — was released to the House Judiciary Committee ahead of the attorney general’s Senate hearing. The House is scheduled to hold its own hearing with Barr Thursday (though there are still questions whether Barr will appear).

There are 22 Senators on the Judiciary Committee — 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) is the chairman of the committee, while Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D, Calif.) is the ranking member.

Senators on the Republican side: Chuck Grassley, John Cornyn, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse, Josh Hawley, Thom Tillis, Joni Ernst, Mike Crapo, John Kennedy, and Marsha Blackburn.

Senators on the Democratic side: Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris.

The attorney general is bound to be asked about reports that surfaced Tuesday night saying Mueller objected to Barr’s description of the findings of his investigation in his four-page memo, which appeared to clear Trump on obstruction of justice charges.

“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 conclusions,” Mueller wrote in a March 27 letter to Barr, according to the Associated Press. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”

Barr was asked during testimony last month whether Mueller supported his conclusion that Trump did not obstruct justice but did not mention Mueller’s letter.

“I don’t know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion,” Barr said.