‘We cannot have a situation where the attorney general just thumbs his nose and the administration holds Congress in contempt…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said on Wednesday that House Democrats are considering issuing a subpoena to force Attorney General Bill Barr to explain the Justice Department’s decision to drop its criminal case against Michael Flynn.
“Now that the District of Columbia has extended the stay-at-home order until June 8, we expect to see Barr in front of our committee on June 9, the very next day,” Nadler told MSNBC.
Barr has not yet agreed to testify before the committee, but Nadler said he is prepared “to do whatever we have to do,” including issuing a subpoena.
“We cannot have a situation where the attorney general just thumbs his nose and the administration holds Congress in contempt,” he said.
The DOJ announced last week that it would drop its criminal charges against Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, after new evidence revealed that Flynn had been led into a perjury trap by FBI officials.
Nadler claimed that this decision is an attempt to “subvert” justice, and he accused Barr of becoming “a personal agent of the president.”
Barr, however, has defended the DOJ’s decision, telling CBS News that he was “not at all” influenced by Trump.
“I made clear during my confirmation hearing that I was gonna look into what happened in 2016 and 2017. I made that crystal clear,” Barr said last week.
“I was very concerned about what happened,” he continued. “I was gonna get to the bottom of it. And that included the treatment of General Flynn.”
What happened to Flynn was a miscarriage of justice, Barr added, so dropping Flynn’s charges was necessary.
“I’m doing the law’s bidding,” he said. “I’m doing my duty under the law, as I see it.”