Presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), on Friday hammered Attorney General William Barr over his handling of congressional oversight probes, saying he has shown a “disrespect for the law.”
“He has shown a complete disrespect for the law, in terms of not showing up at the House, in terms of how he answered our questions,” Klobuchar, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and questioned Barr last week, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Klobuchar, who is one of more than 20 Democratic hopefuls running for the White House, cited her question during last week’s hearing in which she asked Barr if special counsel Robert Mueller reviewed President Trump’s tax returns as part of his probe into Russia’s election interference, to which Barr responded, “I don’t know” and directed her to ask Mueller himself.
{mosads}Barr is at the center of an intensifying feud between House Democrats and the White House over a slew of congressional oversight investigations.
Most recently, the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted to hold Barr in contempt of Congress after negotiations with the Justice Department broke down and the attorney general declined to appear for testimony in front of the panel. As part of the ongoing fight with the panel, the White House also declared executive privilege over the Mueller report.
“Unfortunately, rather than allowing negotiations to continue, Chairman Nadler short-circuited these efforts by proceeding with a politically motivated and unnecessary contempt vote, which he refused to postpone to allow additional time to explore discussion and compromise,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.
Barr has emerged as a top target for Democrats over his handling of the Mueller report, which some say he has sought to whitewash.
Mueller found insufficient evidence to suggest that any Trump associates conspired with Moscow during its efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, but declined to make a prosecutorial judgement on whether Trump had obstructed any subsequent probes, highlighting 10 “episodes” of possible obstructive acts and specifically citing Justice Department guidelines saying a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein later told Congress that they would not bring any obstruction charges after reviewing Mueller’s underlying evidence.