Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he had an opportunity to spar with Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein got the worst of it – by far.
Feinstein accused President Trump of obstruction of justice over the suggestion that Trump tried to fire Robert Mueller. Trump has a constitutional right to fire a special counsel, but the bottom line is he didn’t fire him. Feinstein tried to describe that as a crime, and Barr emphatically told her that it is not a crime.
She tried to push back, but Barr humiliated her.
Ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) grilled Bill Barr about the so-called ‘obstruction episodes’ in Mueller’s report.
Feinstein questioned Barr about the report’s claims that President Trump asked his lawyer Don McGahn to fire Mueller — Trump also asked McGahn to correct the inaccurate New York Times article stating he instructed Mueller’s firing.
In reality, President Trump instructed his counsel to look into Mueller’s conflicts of interest and ultimately Mueller was never fired — a fact that Bill Barr pointed out to Feinstein.
Feinstein continued to push back and argued that Trump trying to prevent further criticism of himself is somehow a crime — Bill Barr put her in her place.
“You have a situation where the President tries to change a lawyer’s account in order to prevent further criticism of himself,” Feinstein said.
“That’s not a crime,” Barr said leaving Feinstein speechless.
.@SenFeinstein on McGahn: “You have a situation where the President tries to change a lawyer’s account in order to prevent further criticism of himself.”
Barr: “That’s not a crime.”
Feinstein: “So you can … instruct someone to lie?”
Barr: pic.twitter.com/rMZWszFspN
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 1, 2019