House Democrats finally line up a one-two punch against William Barr
The House Judiciary Committee voted weeks ago to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress over his attempts at covering up Donald Trump’s crimes, but Democratic House leaders have been strategically waiting to hold a full House vote on the matter so they can move forward with punitive consequences. Now we finally have a date for that vote. It’s happening soon, and it’ll come just one day after some major fireworks.
The contempt battle against William Barr will play out in the court of public opinion just as surely as it’ll play out in a court of law. It’s been fairly clear that House Democrats have been wanting to have a star witness publicly testify about the obstruction scandal before making their move against William Barr. Now they’ve found their witness accordingly.
This afternoon the House Judiciary Committee announced that Watergate figure John Dean, who has more first-hand knowledge about presidential obstruction of justice than any living American, has agreed to publicly testify next Monday, June 10th. This hearing will use the power of live national television to help convince mainstream Americans that Donald Trump’s obstruction of justice is even worse than anything that Richard Nixon did. Then the full House contempt vote will be held against William Barr the next day, June 11th. But that appears to be far from the entire story.
For quite some time, various media outlets and even some House Democrats themselves, have publicly hinted at one big upcoming full House contempt vote against numerous Donald Trump advisers and associates who have been illegally refusing to cooperate. To that end, just as the full House contempt vote was being announced against Barr over the Mueller report, it was separately reported that the House Oversight Committee is about to hold Barr and Wilbur Ross in contempt over the census. It looks like various House committees may move to hold everyone in contempt this week, so it can all be formalized next week.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report