Barr Defends Actions in Roger Stone Case During Tense Exchange: You Think It’s Fair to ‘Send a 67 Year Old Man to Prison for 7-9 Years?!’

Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Attorney General Bill Barr collided on Tuesday over the accusation that the latter intervened in the Justice Department’s actions in order to protect President Donald Trump and his allies.

Johnson got things off to a combative start by saying Barr’s introductory statement “reads like it was written by Alex Jones or Roger Stone.” Shortly thereafter, John recalled how Barr once complained that Trump’s tweeting about Justice Department matters makes it more difficult for him to do his job.

As Johnson laid out the timeline of Trump’s Twitter complaints about the Stone case, he started interrogating Barr on his pursuit of a lighter sentence for Stone’s charges of witness tampering, obstruction and lying to Congress. When Barr moved to dispute Johnson’s statements, two of them locked horns as they tried to talk over each other.

“Reclaiming my time, sir, I know you don’t want to answer, but the facts are clear,” Johnson said. “You’re expecting the American people to believe that you did not do what Trump wanted you to do when you changed that sentencing recommendation? You think the American people don’t understand that you were carrying out Trump’s will?”

The two of them continued to fight it out with Barr asking “do you think it is fair for a 67 year-old man to be sent to prison for 7 to 9 years?!” Barr was also challenged on his record of adhering to DOJ sentencing recommendations, and whether he was acting as a sycophant to Trump on the Stone and Michael Flynn cases.

Watch above, via MSNBC.