Barr to testify before House panel next week on Mueller report

Attorney General William Barr is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee next Thursday on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the panel announced Thursday.

Barr’s appearance, which is public, will offer lawmakers on the Democratic-led panel to grill him on his handling of Mueller’s final report, as well as the special counsel’s findings on Russian interference and potential obstruction of justice by President Trump.

{mosads}The attorney general’s House testimony, which had been expected, will come one day after he appears before the GOP-chaired Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions on the same topic.

Barr released a redacted version of Mueller’s sprawling 448-page report last Thursday, roughly three weeks after summarizing the special counsel’s principal conclusions in a four-page letter to Congress. Democrats have relentlessly criticized Barr for painting what they see as a biased portrait of Mueller’s findings.

They have demanded he provide Mueller’s full report and underlying evidence to Congress. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) issued a subpoenaed for those documents on Friday, demanding the Justice Department comply by May 1 — one day before his scheduled testimony.

Mueller did not establish that members of Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 election and the special counsel also did not come to a conclusion on potential obstruction of justice. Instead, his report analyzes nearly a dozen instances of possible obstruction by Trump and explicitly states that it does not “exonerate” the president.

Barr said in his letter on March 24 that Mueller did not make a decision on obstruction but that Barr and Attorney General Rod Rosenstein judged the evidence to be insufficient to accuse the president of an obstruction of justice offense.

The attorney general defended Trump in remarks at the Justice Department before releasing the Mueller report last week, saying the president faced an “unprecedented situation” and was “fully” cooperative with Mueller’s investigation.

House Democrats have also sought testimony from others as they seek to probe the details of the special counsel’s report, including Mueller himself and former White House counsel Don McGahn. The White House has sought to block McGahn’s testimony.