William Barr, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, testifies that Robert Mueller’s probe is no witch hunt and must continue
- William Barr, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, heaped praise on Robert Mueller and called him a friend for 30 years
- Barr is trying to placate Democrats’ concerns about a memo he wrote, criticising an aspect of Mueller’s Russia-collusion investigation
US President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general asserted independence from the White House on Tuesday, saying he believed Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, that the special counsel investigation shadowing Trump is not a witch hunt and that his predecessor was right to recuse himself from the probe.
Those comments by William Barr at his Senate confirmation hearing pointedly departed from Trump’s own views and underscored Barr’s efforts to reassure Democrats that he will not be a loyalist to a president who has appeared to demand it from law enforcement.
Some Democrats are concerned about that very possibility, citing a memo Barr wrote to the Justice Department before his nomination in which he criticised an aspect of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Barr told senators he was merely trying to warn Justice Department officials against “stretching a statute” to conclude that the president had obstructed justice.
Trump has repeatedly castigated Mueller’s investigation, calling it a “witch hunt,” and lambasted and ultimately pushed out his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for removing himself from the matter because of his work with the 2016 Trump campaign.
