5 questions Barr will likely be asked during hearing

by Morgan Chalfant - 04/30/19 8:46 PM ET

Attorney General William Barr will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in what promises to be a dramatic day of testimony on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

It will mark Barr’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since he released a redacted version of Mueller’s report, and comes a day after the revelation that Mueller had expressed “frustration” over the description of the special counsel’s conclusions, giving Democrats more ammo as they seek to grill Barr on what they view as his improper handling of the probe. Republicans, meanwhile, have embraced Mueller’s findings as exonerating President Trump on allegations of Russian “collusion” and are positioning to defend Barr.

{mosads}Barr’s appearance before the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to be less contentious than his scheduled testimony before the House panel Thursday, which remains uncertain as the Justice Department and House Democrats squabble over the terms.

Here are five questions Barr is likely to receive when he appears for his testimony Wednesday.

What was your thinking behind the four-page letter?

Democrats have excoriated Barr’s decision to release a letter laying out what he described as Mueller’s core findings nearly four weeks before unveiling a redacted version of Mueller’s 448-page report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

Trump seized on Barr’s letter as disproving allegations of “collusion” and clearing him of obstruction, taking an extended victory lap over the results before the release of Mueller’s report laid bare more nefarious details of the president’s behavior that may have crossed the line into obstruction as well as details on his campaign’s contacts with Russians. Democrats have accused Barr of misleading the public on Mueller’s findings in a way that benefited the president.

Mueller did not establish that members of the Trump campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government and did not reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice; Barr judged the evidence on obstruction as insufficient to accuse Trump of criminal wrongdoing.

Democrats are sure to have questions about Barr’s handling of the investigation, including his decision to hold a press conference before the release of Mueller’s report. A dozen Democratic senators, including several on the Judiciary Committee, wrote to the Justice Department watchdog demanding an investigation into his handling of Mueller’s report on the eve of the attorney general’s testimony.

{mossecondads}“Attorney General Barr’s actions raise significant questions about his decision not to recuse himself from overseeing the Special Counsel’s investigation, whether his actions with respect to the release of the report complied with Department of Justice policies and practices, and whether he has demonstrated sufficient impartiality to continue overseeing the fourteen criminal matters related to the Special Counsel’s investigation,” the senators wrote.

Barr has defended his decisions, saying he wanted to get as much information about Mueller’s conclusions to the public as soon as possible while Justice Department officials poured over the special counsel’s report to make necessary redactions.

How did you make the call on obstruction?

Democrats are expected to zero in on the episodes Mueller examined in his obstruction inquiry and question Barr on how he reached the conclusion that Trump did not obstruct justice when the special counsel’s report explicitly does not “exonerate” the president.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) signaled he wants to ask Barr “how he possibly could have reached the conclusion that he did on obstruction of justice evidence in the Mueller report, among other issues.”

Barr said in his March 24 letter to Congress that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who will soon leave the Justice Department, reviewed the evidence in Mueller’s report and concluded that it was insufficient to accuse Trump of an obstruction of justice offense.

Mueller’s report examined nearly a dozen actions by Trump as possible obstruction of justice. The special counsel did not make a decision on whether Trump obstructed his probe and wrote that his team could not “conclusively” determine that no criminal conduct occurred, citing “difficult issues” raised by the evidence of Trump’s conduct and intent.

Republicans are prepared to defend Barr’s call, noting that Mueller did not uncover an underlying crime of conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and the Russians that could have motivated Trump to impede the probe.

“I do plan on asking him sort of a metaphysical question: Is it possible to cover up a crime that nobody committed? Because that’s what the House Democrats are
arguing: That the president covered up a crime that nobody committed,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday. “Mueller didn’t find any evidence of a coverup or of collusion.”

What has been the nature of your discussions with the special counsel about your handling of his probe?

Barr is certain to face questions about an explosive report from The Washington Post that came out just a day before his testimony.

As the Post first reported on Tuesday, Mueller wrote to Barr days after he released his four-page memo and complained that the attorney general’s letter “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions.”

A Justice Department spokesperson subsequently told The Hill that Mueller expressed “frustration” to Barr in a phone call in late March over the “over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage” of his obstruction inquiry, after writing the letter to Barr.

Democrats are sure to seize on the revelations as they question Barr about his interactions with the special counsel on Wednesday. They’re also likely to reiterate calls for Mueller to testify himself to speak about his investigation and Barr’s handling of it.

Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said that, during the call, Mueller “emphasized that nothing in the Attorney General’s March 24 letter was inaccurate or misleading.” The two discussed whether “additional context” from the report could be quickly released, Kupec said, but that Barr eventually decided against it.

“The Attorney General ultimately determined that it would not be productive to release the report in piecemeal fashion,” Kupec said. “The Attorney General and the Special Counsel agreed to get the full report out with necessary redactions as expeditiously as possible.”

How does the U.S. counter the Russia threat going forward?

Committee lawmakers may find an area of common interest in questioning Barr on how Congress and future administrations can prevent foreign powers from interfering in elections.

The core charge of Mueller’s probe was to investigate Russian interference and links between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

The special counsel’s report presented a chilling account of Kremlin efforts to use social media and hacked Democratic emails to tip the scales in Trump’s favor in 2016, as well as numerous Russian attempts to reach out to the Trump campaign. Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the 2016 election.

“We’re going to focus largely on Russia and how we prevent them from meddling in our elections,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said Tuesday when asked what she is prepared to ask Barr.

Some have signaled they want to hear from Barr about what the Trump administration is doing in particular to prevent future foreign meddling. While administration officials have announced steps to deter and punish future foreign interference, Trump himself has begrudgingly accepted the intelligence community’s findings about Russian meddling and attacked Mueller’s investigation as illegitimate.

“What are we doing about it?” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a recent interview with CNN. “What’s the attorney general of the United States and the president going to do to make sure the 2020 election isn’t also a victim of Russian intrigue?”

What about the ‘spying’ investigation?

Some Republicans are eager to ask Barr about his plans to review the origins of the FBI’s original counterintelligence probe into Russian interference, with is likely to detract from Democrats’ efforts to drill down on obstruction.

Republicans have long alleged that FBI agents were politically motivated in opening the investigation into the Trump campaign, something Democrats have dismissed as an effort undermine the special counsel’s investigation.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that he was “pretty much” done with the Mueller report and signaled he was more interested in getting to the bottom of how the investigation began.

“I think the idea that this president obstructed justice is absurd. He turned over a million documents to the special counsel. Almost everybody around him testified. I can’t think of one thing that President Trump did to stop Mueller from doing his job. He never claimed executive privilege,” Graham said. “From my point of view, I have heard all I need to really know. Now I want to look and find out how all this happened.”

Barr sparked a firestorm when he said in earlier congressional testimony that he believed the Trump campaign was spied on and said he would review the “genesis and conduct” of the intelligence collection to ensure no improper surveillance occurred.

The Justice Department inspector general is already investigating the FBI’s compliance with the law and procedures when applying for a warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, and Barr said his findings — expected to be released in May or June — will help guide his further
investigation.

Graham has vowed to review whether the FBI abused its powers in applying for a warrant to surveil Page.

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