Attorney General William Barr uttered a few words that made headlines on Wednesday; he jokingly asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) whether she had brought her handcuffs, alluding to the Democrats’ calls for his arrest.
According to multiple reports, Barr shook Pelosi’s hand and said loudly, “Madam Speaker, did you bring your handcuffs?”
Pelosi smiled and told Barr that the House sergeant-at-arms was on site if an arrest was needed. Barr chuckled and walked away.
Democrats accuse Barr of failing to comply with a subpoena for the release of the full, non-redacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller. But Republicans say the subpoena forces Barr into a legal Catch-22, since the attorney general would break federal law by disclosing grand jury material.
Redacted Mueller Report
Over the course of 22 months and at an estimated cost of more than $25 million, special counsel Robert Mueller investigated allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. The Justice Department, led by Barr, released Mueller’s report, with redactions, to Congress and the public on April 18.Mueller concluded that there had been no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election, and declined to make a decision on whether the president had obstructed the Russia probe, leaving Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to conclude after reviewing Mueller’s arguments that there is not enough evidence to bring an obstruction case.
This resulted in the Democrats demanding to see beneath all redactions. Barr had outlined with the release of the report that the existing redactions were limited to four categories: grand jury material shielded from disclosure by federal law, intelligence sources and methods which if disclosed could be harmful to national security, the identities of people who were not ultimately charged with a crime, and the interests of peripheral third parties who were not ultimately prosecuted.
In the hours leading up to the committee’s contempt vote, the White House asserted executive privilege over the full Mueller report. Presidents hold the authority to assert executive privilege to withhold information concerning internal executive branch deliberations. The Justice Department is part of the executive branch.
