National Security

Durbin: Barr’s testimony was ‘at the minimum misleading’ if not ‘deception to the American people’

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday that he believes that Attorney General William Barr’s testimony before Congress was “misleading” if not an outright “deception to the American people.”

“Attorney General Barr not only received that letter from [special counsel] Bob Mueller saying in writing that he disagreed with the attorney general’s characterization of the Mueller report, he then had a telephone conversation with him to follow,” the second-highest ranking Senate Democrat said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

{mosads}“To say he wasn’t aware of Mueller’s misgivings about his characterization, that is at the minimum misleading if not deception to the American people,” he said. 

Durbin also said he agreed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that Barr lied. 

“I don’t know what other conclusion you could reach,” he said.  

Barr testified last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats on the committee also released a letter Mueller wrote to Barr slamming his summary of the Mueller report as causing “public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation.”

Barr in an earlier summary said that Mueller did not find evidence that President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, but did not make a determination on obstruction of justice.