House Judiciary Committee pounces after Robert Mueller calls out William Barr
Barely an hour ago, we learned from the New York Times that Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr, accusing him of having thoroughly misrepresented the Mueller report with his four page “summary.” Palmer Report told you that this would change everything, and sure enough, the wheels are already quickly turning in response.
Chairman Jerry Nadler, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted this: “Mueller has written a letter objecting to Barr’s summary of his report because it “did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of the investigation.” I have demanded the letter & Barr must answer for this. Mueller must be allowed to testify.” This is crucial for two reasons.
First, it comes even as William Barr is set to testify before Nadler’s committee this Thursday. Barr has already been publicly threatening not to show up. If this happens, Nadler will have far stronger legal grounds for holding Barr in contempt of Congress. But this makes Barr’s testimony far less important than it otherwise would have been. House Democrats would have spent the hearing trying to get Barr to screw up and admit to dishonest behavior. Now there’s a smoking gun proving this, in the form of Mueller’s letter.
That brings us to the second point. Nadler is looking to get his hands on Mueller’s letter. Barr may not be willing to turn it over. But the NY Times source appears to have a copy of the letter, and could be willing to give it to Nadler. More importantly, Mueller surely kept a copy of his own letter, and will no doubt be willing to give it to Nadler.
The bottom line is that House Democrats were looking to use William Barr’s testimony to expose him as having led a dishonest coverup, so they could use that as a springboard for bringing in Robert Mueller to tell the nation the real truth. This bombshell sufficiently exposes Barr – and it means House Democrats can move right on to bringing in Mueller and his cooperators to publicly testify. Look for things to happen more quickly now than they otherwise would have.
