Sen. Leahy Confronts Barr: How Can You Say Trump Was Fully Cooperative With Investigation?

Sen. Patrick Leahy confronted Attorney General Bill Barr during today’s big congressional hearing over the Mueller investigation and President Donald Trump‘s cooperation with it.

Leahy opened by questioning Barr on his previous testimony on media reporting on the Mueller team’s response to his summary letter, asking, “Why did you testify on April 9th that you did not know the concerns expressed by Mueller’s team when in fact you heard those directly from Mr. Mueller two weeks before?”

Barr again said Mueller told him on their call he didn’t consider the DOJ letter misleading or inaccurate. As for the question he was asked in that previous hearing, Barr said it was about how “members of the special counsel’s team are frustrated at some level” about the information in the summary letter portraying the overall findings.

Leahy pressed Barr again before moving on to ask about his previous statement that President Donald Trump “fully cooperated” with the investigation. Barr stood by his assessment as Leahy ran down a list of questions.

“You think it’s fully cooperating to instruct a former aide to tell the attorney general to un-rescue himself, shut down the investigation, and declare the president did nothing wrong?” Leahy asked.

Barr reiterated that he didn’t see evidence that supported obstruction.

“The president, of course, declared many times publicly in tweets and campaign rallies that he would testify, but he never did testify, correct?” Leahy asked.

“Not as far as I know,” Barr said.

“And Mueller found his written answers to be inaccurate, is that correct?” Leahy asked.

“I think he wanted additional but he never sought it,” Barr replied.

You can watch the full exchange above, via C-SPAN 3.

[image via screengrab]

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