His comments on the release of the Mueller report are already under attack by Democrats and legal people…
Some feel that Barr should NOT even be involved in this…
Others question how Barr came to his view that Trump gets a clean slate….
Over the 22 months of their inquiry, Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators examined countless documents and interviewed dozens of witnesses, including some of the highest-ranking lawyers and aides in the White House, to determine whether President Trump obstructed justice. But in the end, the special counsel reached no conclusion — instead producing a report that merely marshaled evidence on both sides.
Then, Attorney General William P. Barr, a political appointee whom Mr. Trump installed less than a month ago and who began reading Mr. Mueller’s report on Friday, stepped in. With the concurrence of his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, Mr. Barr seized the opportunity to render a judgment — pronouncing Mr. Trump clear of committing any criminal offense.
The propriety of that move by Mr. Barr — who had written an unsolicited memo last year arguing that Mr. Mueller ought not be permitted to investigate Mr. Trump for obstruction of justice — is certain to be a focus of political contention as Congress grapples with what it now knows about the still-secret Mueller report.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, cited Mr. Barr’s memo as a reason for suspicion and suggested that Mr. Barr’s action may amount to a “hasty partisan interpretation of the facts.”
Reiterating demands to disclose the special counsel’s report itself and saying he would seek testimony from Mr. Barr, Mr. Nadler added, “I would in fact wonder if the attorney general pressured the special counsel into not making that finding so he could make the finding.”
But Mr. Barr’s clearing of Mr. Trump will arm Republicans with fresh arguments to dismiss Democrats’ inquiries as politically motivated. The top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, urged Mr. Nadler to drop issues that Mr. Mueller’s report covered.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers had believed that out of all the issues Mr. Mueller examined, the president faced the most criminal exposure from the obstruction investigation. Mr. Mueller had investigated a range of the president’s actions as possible obstruction: pressuring James B. Comey, then the F.B.I. director, to drop an investigation into Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser; firing Mr. Comey; and the president’s lawyer dangling pardons to witnesses.
The pattern of behavior raised the question of whether Mr. Trump had violated obstruction-of-justice laws, which make it a crime to impede an investigation with corrupt intent. Courts have ruled that otherwise lawful actions can be such a crime if the motive was malign.
But investigators never got a chance to interrogate Mr. Trump about his motives….
image…TheHill