House takes steps to impeach Bill Barr
With just a few months to the election – and a guarantee that the Republican Senate will acquit no matter what – the question of whether to impeach Bill Barr is a tricky one. If the House only does it in order to make people feel better, that’s not really a reason. But if there’s something strategic to be gained, it’s another story. That brings us to what happened today.
Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen tweeted this on Monday: “Today, I introduced #HRes1032, which would authorize an impeachment inquiry into Attorney General Barr. He has politicized the DOJ, undermined the rule of law, abused his power, obstructed justice & violated the first amendment. He is not fit to be Attorney General.”
So where is this going? Thus far House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler has publicly expressed mixed feelings about impeaching Bill Barr, while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has publicly dismissed the idea. But they were both publicly opposed to impeaching Donald Trump until they ended up doing it, so it can be tricky to read too much into public statements.
What we do know is that Bill Barr is scheduled to testify to the House Judiciary Committee on July 28th, four weeks from today. He’s supposedly going to show up, but some observers expect him to try to back out. At the least, this first step to impeach Barr serves as leverage for motivating him to show up; if he fails to show, they can just move forward with impeachment.
There is a solid logical argument not to impeach Bill Barr. If the House simply holds investigative hearings into Barr that include his testimony, the House can put his crimes and scandals on display while forcing him to play defense in front of the cameras. On the other hand, if Barr is impeached, it’s unlikely he’ll testify, making it harder for the House to make its case – and then the Republican Senate will get to make a spectacle of falsely acquitting him. We’ll see.
