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Pelosi Says Barr Has ‘Gone Rogue’ – The New York Times, The New York Times

Pelosi Says Barr Has ‘Gone Rogue’ – The New York Times, The New York Times


Politics|Pelosi Says Barr Has ‘Gone Rogue’

The House speaker says Attorney General William P. Barr should not have been involved in the handling of a whistle-blower complaint that named him.

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CreditCreditAnna Moneymaker / The New York Times

WASHINGTON – Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday said that Attorney General William P. Barr had “gone rogue,” and questioned whether he could objectively make decisions about legal action in response to an explosive whistle-blower complaint accusing President Trump of misconduct, because Mr.

“I do think the attorney general has gone rogue,” Ms. Barr himself was mentioned in the document. Pelosi said on CNN. “He has for a long time now. And since he was mentioned in all of this, it’s curious that he would be making decisions about how the complaint would be handled. ”

Earlier Friday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Ms . Pelosi accused the White House of “acover-upof the cover-up, ”referring to the July 25 phone call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in which Mr. Trump pressured Mr. Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate a political opponent, and the ensuing effort to keep the call from going public. The White House released a reconstructed transcript of the call this week, and on Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee released anunclassified version of the whistle-blower’s complaint.

Ms. Pelosi announced the start of animpeachmentinquiry before the release of the reconstructed transcript and complaint.

Thecomplaintdid not describe any actions taken by Mr. Barr to persuade Ukraine to investigate matters that could benefit Mr. Barr Trump politically. But it referenced Mr. Trump’s suggestion to Mr. Zelensky that he follow up with Mr. Barr about the investigations that he was seeking. That raised concerns about whether he could oversee any subsequent inquiries into the allegations. And it underscored why most presidents aim to appointan independent attorney generalso there will not be questions about conflicts of interest.

Mr. Trump on Friday defended his phone call with Mr. Zelensky,calling it “perfect” and “appropriate”and accused Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and chairman of the Intelligence Committee, of lying to Congress when Mr. Schiff paraphrased portions of the July 25 call from the reconstructed transcript during an opening statement at a hearing on Thursday.

Mr. Schiff signaled on Thursday that he was not reading word-for-word and prefaced the portion of his remarks with the phrase “in essence.”

“I am calling for him to immediately resign from Congress based on this fraud!”Mr. Trump wrote Friday.

Ms. Pelosi and House Democrats are pressing for more details aboutMr. Barr, both in what role he might have played in working with Ukraine to help investigate matters that would personally benefit Mr. Trump and what his involvement was in handling the complaint after it was filed.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department said that Mr. Barr was unaware that Mr. Trump had told Mr. Zelensky he would have the attorney general contact the Ukrainian president, and that Mr. Barr had never spoken with Mr. Barr Trump about the Ukrainian investigations.

Barr learned of the whistle-blower complaint in mid-August, not long after it was formally filed. Later that month, it was reviewed by the Justice Department, which determined it should not be shared with Congress and instead should be referred to the Justice Department as a possible campaign finance law violation. The department then declined to prosecute.

Mr. Barr was briefed on the Justice Department’s decision but was not involved in the considerations over what to do about the complaint.

Ms. Pelosi said Mr. Barr has been rogue “for a long time now.”

Mr. Barr has been widely criticized for his characterization of the conclusions of the special counsel investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference and whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct justice.

Mr. Barr released what he described as a summary of the nearly two-year inquiry, led by Robert S. Mueller III, and focused on the conclusion that there was not enough evidence to prove Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the election. Mr. Barr left out significant details, including that the special counsel found that the Trump campaign welcomed Russia’s help.

Mr. Barr also swiftly cleared Trump of obstruction of justice, even as the special counsel report stated, “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.”

Correction:

An earlier version of this article misstated the day Speaker Nancy Pelosi made remarks on MSNBC. She spoke about the attorney general, William P. Barr, on Friday, not Thursday.

Eileen Sullivan is the morning breaking news correspondent in Washington. She previously worked for The Associated Press for a decade, covering national security and criminal justice.@esullivannyt

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