Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said if Congress was delayed in receiving the financial records of President Donald Trump because of court battles, “the country continues to be at jeopardy during that delay.”
In a clip reacting to today’s Supreme Court decisions, Attorney General William Barr said, “Well, obviously, we were disappointed in the decision to the extent it did not accept our argument, the government’s argument, about the extent of the president’s immunity. But as a practical matter, the decision made very clear that the president just is not at the mercy of litigants and investigators and that there are protections and defenses that can be raised.”
O’Donnell said, “Your reaction to that, Mr. Chairman?”
Schiff said, “Well, I’m not surprised that Barr finds it a bitter pill to swallow that the president is not above the law. He takes the legal view that essentially the president can’t violate the law because he is the law, and Bill Barr is essentially the hand of the president to implement his will. It’s why the Justice Department under Barr doesn’t represent justice. It doesn’t represent the public interest. It is essentially like a second defense attorney and defense counsel for the president. But, you know, thankfully, you know, as I mentioned, we have a, once again, an affirmation even by justices that Donald Trump appointed that, no, as 200 years of jurisprudence demonstrate, this president is not above the law. He must comply with the legal process.”
He added, “You know, the difficulty is that Bill Barr and Donald Trump will do everything they can to delay. We will go back to the district court. We are very confident we can meet these new tests that the Supreme Court enumerated, this four-part test. And, so, we will prevail, but again if we get the records and they show, in fact, that the president is beholden, does have financial entanglements that might explain, you know, for example, this bizarre affinity for Vladimir Putin and Russia or his interest in Turkey’s Erdogan or Saudi Arabia or other financial interests that are guiding and warping U.S. policy, if we don’t get that for months until — you know, from months from now, it means the country continues to be at jeopardy during that delay.”
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