openpolitics.com

At William Barr Hearings, Mueller Probe in Focus

In response to questions, Mr. Barr said he viewed Mr. Mueller as a fair-minded investigator who would treat the president fairly. “I don’t believe Mr. Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt,” Mr. Barr said, contradicting Mr. Trump’s favorite description of the special counsel’s investigation.

.. Mr. Barr told Ms. Feinstein his memo was “entirely proper.” He was concerned by news accounts of Mr. Mueller’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice, he said, and thought such a theory “would have a chilling effect going forward over time.”

Mr. Barr said he expressed his concerns to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein over lunch before putting them in writing. “He did not respond and was sphinx-like in his reaction, but I expounded on my concerns.”

.. The nominee also said he had expressed similar concerns to Justice Department officials regarding the prosecution of Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) on bribery allegations, saying, “I thought the prosecution was based on a fallacious theory.” That case ended in a hung jury.

.. Likely to be of particular concern to Democrats is Mr. Barr’s disclosure Monday night that he had sent the memo to a wider group of Trump lawyers than was previously known, including Jay Sekulow, Marty and Jane Raskin and Pat Cipollone, a former Justice Department colleague who is now White House counsel. Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, have said Mr. Trump should withdraw Mr. Barr’s nomination given his views in the letter.

.. “I distributed it broadly so that other lawyers would have the benefit of my views,” he said.

On the Mueller probe more broadly, Mr. Barr said in prepared remarks: “I will not permit partisan politics, personal interests or any other improper consideration to interfere with this or any other investigation.” He will add: “On my watch, Bob [Mueller] will be allowed to complete his work.”

.. If Mr. Barr is confirmed, it would bring together a forceful advocate of executive power with a president who has shown no problem wielding that power in unconventional ways. Mr. Barr previously served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush… As a high-ranking Justice Department official in the late 1980s, Mr. Barr advised that a president has the authority to use the military without congressional support, a position that helped underpin the invasion of Panama and later the deployment of troops to Somalia. He urged Mr. Bush to pardon six Reagan administration officials involved in the Iran-Contra matter in 1992; Democrats want to grill him on his reasoning at the time and how he would react to potential pardons of Trump aides who have been convicted in the Russia probe.

In his first stint as attorney general, from 1991 to 1993, Mr. Barr pushed tough-on-crime policies and took a hard-line approach to immigration, which could come into sharper focus as senators ask him about Mr. Trump’s push for a wall along the U.S. southern border.

.. Mr. Barr spent more than 25 years in the corporate world since serving as attorney general, developing a reputation as an aggressive lawyer who forcefully represented his clients. He served as the top lawyer for the telecommunications company that became Verizon Communications Inc., and he later worked on behalf of other large companies in private practice.