Fox News legal analyst says Barr ‘probably misled’ lawmakers in prior testimony on Mueller report

Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano said Wednesday that Attorney General William Barr “probably misled” the House during his April testimony about Robert Mueller’s report, pointing to evidence that Barr mischaracterized the special counsel’s opinion of his handling of the case.

“He’s got a problem in my view,” Napolitano said on Fox News as Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

{mosads}Napolitano added that he doesn’t think Barr told a “lie,” but that he “probably misled” the lower chamber when he testified on April 9 about whether there were “objections to the tone and tenor and content” of his initial summary about Mueller’s findings. 

Barr said at the time that he didn’t know where media reports were coming from that said Mueller’s team had qualms with his characterization of their report.

But The Washington Post first reported Tuesday night that Mueller sent a letter to Barr on March 27 criticizing how the attorney general summarized the investigation’s findings. Mueller expressed frustration that the letter “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions.” 

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Wednesday accused Barr of “purposely misleading” House members. 

“Why did you say you were not aware of concerns when weeks before your testimony, Mr. Mueller had expressed concerns to you?” Leahy asked.

Barr defended his testimony, saying that the question focused on “unidentified members” and that he talked to Mueller, not members of his team. 

“Look, Bob Mueller is a member of his own team, and I think the attorney general was splitting hairs there,” Napolitano said, before later adding that he hopes Barr on Thursday appears to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. 

Barr has threatened not to show up for the hearing due to Democrats’ proposed format. 

In March, just days after receiving the special counsel’s report, Barr sent a four-page memo to Congress summarizing Mueller’s 22-month investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump obstructed justice. The letter said that the Justice Department did not establish that there was a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow, but that Mueller had not made a determination on whether Trump had committed obstruction.

During his testimony, Barr defended how he handled Mueller’s investigative report. Among other things, he stated that Mueller told him his summary letter on the bottom-line conclusions of the investigation were accurate.