During a press conference on Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) stated that Attorney General William Barr “appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump,” and expressed concern that Barr “is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House.”
Nadler said, “The attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump, the very subject of the investigation at the heart of the Mueller report. Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation. One, he summarized the report and cherry-picked findings in his March 24th letter to Congress. Two, he withheld summaries written by the special counsel that were intended for public consumption. Three, he has briefed the White House on the report before providing Congress a copy, which has helped them prepare a rebuttal response for the president. And now, the evening before the report’s scheduled release, the Department of Justice has informed the committee that it will receive a copy between 11:00 a.m. and noon, well after the attorney general’s 9:30 a.m. press conference.”
He added, “The central concern here is that the Attorney General, Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves, but is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House. And of course, he’s doing this just before the holiday weekend so it’s extraordinarily difficult for anybody to react. This is wrong. It is not the proper role of the attorney general.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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