National Politics

Atty. Gen Barr Initiated Contempt Citation, Partisan Politics or Not

Attorney General William Barr’s refusal to attend the House Judiciary Committee Hearing last Thursday (May 02, 2019) has posed as challenge to the house committee’s ability to conduct hearings. In light of Barr’s no-show at the scheduled proceedings, a resolution to hold Atty. General Barr in contempt of Congress has been passed and approved 24-16 by members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Although partisan politics is being touted as the root of the lightning speed by which the contempt citation was processed, it should be noted that Atty. Gen. Barr initiated the citation by not appearing in a Democrat-dominated hearing,

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler stated that the Trump administration and its supporters are brazenly hiding the misdeeds uncovered by Special Counsel Mueller, asserting that

…”on this committee we will represent the American people and ensure the truth is known.”

The Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings issued a statement, to express his view regarding the Trump Administration’s attempt to stonewall further investigations of the facts uncovered by Mueller’s investigating team:

“If
we do not put brakes on what is happening in our country, we will no longer have a democracy,” “We are being blocked every which way from getting information. We are also being blocked from having access to members of the administration.”

This includes president Trump’s act of invoking his executive privilege to block the release of a full, unredacted version of the Mueller report, hours before the contempt citation went into voting.

How Republican Judiciary Committee Members Voted

All 16 Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee, excluding one absent Republican representative, voted against the resolution to hold Atty. Barr in contempt.

Top Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, Representative Doug Collins asserted that Democrats are actually angry with Mueller, because the latter did not provide them with a clear road map toward a presidential impeachment. Calling the contempt citation a

“craven and insincere politics that seem to be yielding no benefits for the American people.”

The committee-approved citation resolution is yet to move on for a full House voting process. Once approved, it would launch a criminal referral to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, to decide on Barr’s contempt action.

In a related report, more than 500 former officials of the Justice Department signed an open letter branding as criminal, Trump’s actions as described in the Mueller Report.