Pelosi Downplays Potential Barr Impeachment

L: House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) holds a press conference in the Capitol building, Washington, on March 7, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) R: U.S. Attorney General William Barr testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 1, 2019. Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday rejected the possibility that House Democrats would impeach Attorney General William Barr after some Democrats alleged that he took political considerations in handling cases related to President Donald Trump.

The speaker suggested that the November election would be an alternative to impeachment.

“A hundred and thirty-one days from now, we will have the solution to many problems, one of them being Barr,” Pelosi said during a live event. But she claimed that Barr is a “disgrace to the Department of Justice.”

The Department of Justice hasn’t responded to a request for comment.

“At this point, let’s solve our problems by going to the polls and voting on Election Day, 131 days from now,” Pelosi said during the live event, hosted by the Washington Post.

This week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) suggested that House might impeach Barr, who is slated to testify in July in front of the panel.

“We’re looking into that, we may very well,” Nadler told reporters on Wednesday when he was asked about impeachment after a hearing where two DOJ prosecutors said Barr had politicized an investigation into Roger Stone. He added, “I think the weight of the evidence and of what’s happened leads to that conclusion.”

Nadler previously said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that he believes pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Barr would be a “waste of time.” Republicans still control the Senate.

Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) have also called for Barr’s impeachment.

It came after a court ruled that former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s case could be dismissed, giving a win to the Trump administration and the DOJ.

A spokesperson for the DOJ, Kerri Kupec said Thursday that Nadler’s threat is political in nature.

“If people have a problem with Bill Barr coming back to the Department of Justice to restore one system of justice, not a two-tiered system, I think that says a lot more about the critics than it does about the attorney general,” Kupec told Fox News. “Because that is what he has done again and again.”

“He approaches all cases with an open mind. He judges them according to the facts and the law without regard to political consideration,” Kupec continued. “This is what he promised to at his confirmation, this is what he has done throughout his tenure as attorney general, and that is what he will continue to do until his last day as AG.”

Kupec on Wednesday also confirmed that Barr accepted an invitation to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing for oversight in July.