US President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee Bill Barr on Tuesday pledged to protect the investigation into possible election collusion with Russia and rejected the president’s characterization of the probe as a “witch hunt.”
Asked in a US Senate confirmation hearing whether he would obey an order from Trump to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the Russia probe, Barr said: “Assuming there was no good cause ... I would not carry out that instruction.”
Barr said that he was a longtime friend of Mueller and it was “unimaginable” that the prosecutor would do anything that would justify reeling the investigation in or shutting it down.
He said he had no reason to rein in or defund Mueller’s probe, both of which Trump has called for.
“I don’t believe Mr Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt,” Barr said.
Barr was testifying on the first of two days of hearings on his nomination by Trump to lead the US Department of Justice.
The 68-year-old was previously attorney general from 1991 to 1993 and then spent 25 years as a corporate lawyer, most of it advising telecommunications giant Verizon.
Barr has also maintained close links to the Republican mainstream and has been a major donor to the party.
The hearing focused on whether Trump recruited Barr to replace Jeff Sessions, who was fired in November last year, to help the White House inhibit the Mueller investigation.
He was interviewed once last year as a possible personal lawyer for the president, and later submitted a brief to the US Department of Justice and White House arguing that Trump could not be accused of obstruction over his May 2017 firing of then-FBI director James Comey.
The dismissal led directly to the appointment of Mueller as an independent prosecutor leading the Russia probe, and has since figured prominently in the obstruction side of the investigation.
Barr wrote that Trump had full discretion to fire Comey for any reason, a view Democrats said showed he had already opted to side with Trump against Mueller.
“Your memo also shows a large sweeping view of presidential authority and a determined effort, I thought, to undermine Bob Mueller,” said US Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
“The attorney general must be willing to resist political pressure and be committed to protecting this investigation,” she said.
US Senator Patrick Leahy said the memo appeared to be a “job application” to replace Sessions, who angered Trump by recusing himself from overseeing Mueller.
“That’s ludicrous. If I wanted the job and was going after the job, there are many more direct ways of me bringing myself to the president’s attention than writing an 18-page legal memorandum,” Barr said.
Despite his previous criticisms of the Mueller investigation, Barr refused to agree to recuse himself from overseeing it as Sessions had.
He pledged to be as transparent as possible with Mueller’s concluding report, which could come within months, but would not commit to making it public.
Some of the report would have to be confidential, he said, adding: “My goal and intent is to get as much information out as I can.”
The hearings opened just days after the New York Times reported that the FBI had opened a counterintelligence investigation into Trump immediately following Comey’s firing, amid suspicions that the president might be compromised by Russia.
Trump and Republicans say the investigation was uncalled for and showed that the FBI and the US Department of Justice had become deeply politicized.
“The rank and file of the FBI are great people who are disgusted with what they are learning about Lyin’ James Comey and the so-called ‘leaders’ of the FBI,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
“Twelve have been fired or forced to leave. They got caught spying on my campaign and then called it an investigation. Bad!” the president tweeted.
Barr said he thought the investigation was “strange,” but he did not know what was behind it.
“It’s critical” to make sure FBI is not political, he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number