Politicians don't follow up effectively even to dumbfounding answers. That's why the biggest news of the morning was that the House Judiciary Committee will allow its lawyers to question AG Barr on Thursday.
If you ever needed a glimpse into Washington’s two alternate universes, Attorney General William Barr’s testmony this morning to the Senate Judiciary Committee provided it. There are two irreconcilable narratives when it comes to President Donald Trump, Russian interference in the 2016 election, and Trump’s alleged efforts to obstruct the subsequent Mueller probe into whether he colluded with the Kremlin.
The Republicans, starting with committee chairman Lindsay Graham's opening statement and continuing with every GOP questioner who followed, focused on whether the entire investigation was a set-up: that the entire investigation was driven by an anti-Trump animus at the upper levels of the FBI.
Democrats couldn’t care less about any of that. Instead, they questioned Barr closely about two issues. First, his decision not to indict the president for obstruction of justice, after Special Counsel Robert Mueller declined to decide whether or not to do so. And second, about his March 24 testimony, before the House appropriations committee, when he said he had been unaware of any problems Mueller and his team had with Barr’s characterization of the report two days earlier.
In fact, Barr had already received a letter from Mueller—revealed last night in press reports—objecting to Barr's summary. Barr said he was asked about gripes from Mueller’s team, but that “Bob” assured him directly that his objection was not to the summary but to the subsequent press reporting. Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse dismissed that defense as “masterful hair-splitting.” And it was also wrong.
The most effective questioning in the morning came from Senator Patrick Leahy on obstruction. He challenged Barr’s assertion that President Trump fully cooperated with the Mueller probe.
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