Barr Refuses To Bend When Kamala Harris Presses Him on Mueller Investigation Recusal
President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr refused to commit to recusing himself from the Mueller investigation when pressed by Sen. Kamala Harris on the matter.
During Tuesday’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Harris followed up on a line of questioning by her Democratic colleague Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont whether Barr would follow the advice DOJ ethics officials regarding recusal.
“I will seek the advice of the career ethics personnel, but under the regulations, I make the decision as the head of the agency as to my own recusal,” Barr told Leahy, according to The Washington Post.
Harris tweeted a video of her exchange with Barr on the issue calling his answer “absolutely unacceptable.”
“Would it be appropriate to go against the advice of career ethics officials that have recommended recusal, and can you give an example that under what situation or scenario you would go against their recommendation that you recuse yourself?” Harris asked Barr.
“There are different kinds of recusals. Some are mandated if you have a financial interest, but there are others that are judgment calls,” he responded.
AG nominee Barr said he would go against the recommendation of career ethics officials and refuse to recuse himself from the Special Counsel’s investigation if he “disagreed with them.”
That’s absolutely unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/GsmkiEJLQY
— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) January 16, 2019
The California senator wondered what he would do if the judgment of the DOJ ethics office was he should recuse. “Under what scenario would you not follow their recommendation?” she asked.
“If I disagreed with it,” Barr answered.
Harris wanted to know “on what basis” he would reach such a judgment.
“The facts,” was his terse reply.
The rumored 2020 presidential hopeful then questioned Barr specifically if DOJ ethics officials decided he should recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation under what scenario he wouldn’t follow their advice.
“If I disagreed with them,” the nominee said.
When Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal also pushed Barr on overseeing the Mueller investigation, he responded, “I am not going to surrender my responsibilities.”
“I’m not going to make a pledge to anyone on this committee that I’m going to exercise it in a particular way or surrender it.”
On the counsel of DOJ ethics officials, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation a little over a month after taking office in January 2017, which became a source of frustration for Trump.
Barr told the senators on Tuesday, Sessions “probably did the right thing recusing himself,” given his circumstances. The former Alabama senator was an early Trump supporter and campaign surrogate.
CNBC reported that Democrats’ concerns about Barr overseeing the Mueller investigation arise from a 19-page memo he wrote and submitted to the Justice Department last June questioning whether the special counsel’s reputed inquiry into possible obstruction of justice by Trump in the firing of FBI director James Comey was legally sound.
In the memo, Barr described this theory of incriminating Trump as being “premised on a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
“I know you will agree that, if a DOJ investigation is going to take down a democratically-elected President, it is imperative to the health of our system and to our national cohesion that any claim of wrongdoing is solidly based on evidence of a real crime — not a debatable one,” he added.
“It is time to travel well-worn paths; not to veer into novel, unsettled or contested areas of the law; and not to indulge the fancies by overly-zealous prosecutors.”
Barr was unanimously confirmed in 1991 to serve as attorney general under George H.W. Bush.
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