It was clear representatives from the National Security Agency and the Department of Justice didn’t do their homework before appearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee suggested the Senate may need monthly hearings on FISA authorities. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
It was clear representatives from the National Security Agency and the Department of Justice didn’t do their homework before appearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before a Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election on June 8, 2017. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stands off to the side as other leaders speaks at the House Democrats' 2019 Issues Conference opening press conference at the Landsdowne Resort and Spa in Leesburg, Va., on Wednesday, April 10, 2019. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
LEESBURG, Va. — Attorney General William Barr is “going off the rails,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Wednesday after the head of the Justice Department told Senate appropriators that U.S. intelligence agencies spied on President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Barr later walked back those comments, saying, “I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred. I am saying I am concerned about it and looking into it, that’s all.”
Attorney General William P. Barr expects to release a redacted version of the Mueller report by mid-April. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
As Attorney General William Barr prepares to hand Congress a scrubbed version of the Mueller report “by mid-April or sooner,” he wrote lawmakers Friday, House Democrats, who want to see the special counsel’s findings in their full and unredacted form, appear to be facing an uphill climb.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler blasted Barr on Friday for “expending valuable time and resources trying to keep certain portions of this report from Congress” instead of acquiescing to Democratic demands not to redact anything from the report except information that would compromise U.S. intelligence sources and methods.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has so far largely escaped Democratic criticism his boss Attorney General William P. Barr has faced for their conclusion that the special counsel investigation did not yield enough evidence to prosecute President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
House Democrats have been quick to suggest bias in Attorney General William P. Barr’s assessment that the special counsel investigation lacked enough evidence to prosecute President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. But most of them are holding their fire when it comes to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who joined Barr in that conclusion.
“We cannot make a judgement on the basis of an interpretation by a man who was hired for his job because he believes the president is above the law, and he wrote a 19-page memo to demonstrate that,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her caucus during its weekly meeting Tuesday, according to an aide present.