Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

William Barr Stuns Dianne Feinstein With His Defense of Donald Trump Ordering Don McGahn to Lie About Firing Robert Mueller

William Barr Stuns Dianne Feinstein With His Defense of Donald Trump Ordering Don McGahn to Lie About Firing Robert Mueller
@girlsreallyrule/Twitter

Not buying it.

During his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr insisted that President Donald Trump ordering his underlings to lie to Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not meet the definition of obstruction of justice.

Mueller outlined in his report that Trump had instructed then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to deny that he had ordered McGahn to fire Mueller:


"The President asked McGahn, 'Did I say the word "fire"?' McGahn responded, 'What you said is, "Call Rod [Rosenstein], tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can't be the Special Counsel."' The President responded, 'I never said that.'"

Trump "called McGahn and directed him to have the Special Counsel removed," Mueller wrote in his report. “In interviews with this Office, McGahn recalled that the President called him at home twice and on both occasions directed him to call [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein and say that Mueller had conflicts that precluded him from serving as Special Counsel.”

On Wednesday, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Committee's ranking Democrat, pressed Barr on the matter.

Watch below:

“The special counsel in his report found substantial evidence that the president tried to change McGahn’s in order to prevent, and this is a quote, ‘further scrutiny of the president toward the investigation,’” Feinstein said during Barr’s testimony. “The special counsel also found McGahn is a credible witness with no motives to lie or exaggerate, so what I’m asking you then is that a credible charge under the obstruction statute?”

Barr insisted that "at that episode, the government would not be able to establish obstruction. If you go back and look at the episode where the president gave McGahn an instruction, McGahn’s version of that is quite clear.”

Feinstein was not buying it.

"You still have a situation where a president tried to change the lawyer's account in order to prevent further criticism of himself," Feinstein said.

"Well that's not a crime," Barr replied, leaving Feinstein stunned.

"So you can, in this situation, instruct someone to lie?" she asked.

"No," Barr said. "To be obstruction of justice, the lie has to be tied to impairing evidence in a particular proceeding."

Barr insisted that "there is a distinction between someone saying ‘go fire him, go fire Mueller’ and saying ‘go have him removed because of conflict of interest."

Although her questions were tough and pointed, Feinstein's lack of a stronger rebuttal to Barr's hairsplitting defense of Trump has some legal experts exasperated.

But that is far less frustrating than Barr's distortion of the facts and misleading characterization of Mueller's findings.

So what does the obstruction of justice statute say?

Federal law defines obstruction of justice as:

"Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs, resists, or opposes any officer of the United States, or other person duly authorized, in serving, or attempting to serve or execute, any legal or judicial writ or process of any court of the United States, or United States magistrate judge;  or

Whoever assaults, beats, or wounds any officer or other person duly authorized, knowing him to be such officer, or other person so duly authorized, in serving or executing any such writ, rule, order, process, warrant, or other legal or judicial writ or process--

Shall, except as otherwise provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both."

The law is crystal clear. Barr, however, has written that he does not believe a president can commit obstruction because of his or her enumerated executive powers.

"It is inconceivable to me that the Department could accept Mueller's interpretation of

?1512(c)(2)," Barr wrote to Trump in a memo last summer, a few months before he was nominated to replace Jeff Sessions. "It is untenable as a matter of law and cannot provide a legitimate basis for interrogating the President."

Charging Trump with obstruction, Barr said, "would violate Article II of the Constitution by impermissibly burdening the exercise of core discretionary powers within the Executive branch."

More from People

Donald Trump
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Fox News Just Listed Off Trump's 'Accomplishments' So Far—And They're Completely Bananas

As shown during coverage of a cabinet meeting when members spent time telling the President how great he is, MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's biggest priority is Donald Trump's image and ego.

Also caught on video was Trump telling a Fox News correspondent to make sure the network praised his cabinet meeting.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Donald Trump and Terry Moran
ABC News

Trump Bizarrely Clashes With Reporter Over Photoshopped 'Tattoo' On Abrego Garcia's Knuckles

President Donald Trump sparked criticism after claiming during an interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran that an edited photo depicting tattoos of wrongly-deported Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia showed that he has an alleged connection to the MS-13 gang.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who arrived in the U.S. in 2012, was labeled a threat in 2019 due to an alleged connection to MS-13. He spent months in detention before an immigration judge found he had a credible fear of persecution—not from MS-13, but from a rival group, Barrio 18, which he said had been extorting his family.

Keep ReadingShow less
Karoline Leavitt; Jeff Bezos
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Leavitt Lashes Out At Amazon Over 'Hostile' Plan To Display Added Tariff Costs For Products On Website

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at Amazon over news that the commerce giant planned to display increased "import charges" on items on their Amazon Haul website, essentially showing to customers the extra money they'd have to shell out as a result of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Trump has escalated a growing trade war by imposing tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese imports, prompting China to retaliate with its own 125% tariffs on American goods. Additionally, the U.S. has slapped a 10% tax on imports from most other countries, while temporarily suspending higher rates for several nations for 90 days.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Canadian voter
CNN

Canadian Voter's Epic Take On Trump In Viral Interview Clip Has The Internet Cheering

A Canadian woman has gone viral following her NSFW interview with CNN in which she explained that her decision of whom to support for prime minister In Monday's election was based primarily on who could "take care of" President Donald Trump, who had threatened Canadian sovereignty amid an ongoing trade war.

In the end, Canadian voters returned the Liberal Party to power for a fourth consecutive term, although Prime Minister Mark Carney will lead a minority government, according to projections from CNN’s broadcast partner CBC.

Keep ReadingShow less
man and woman with cardboard boxes on their heads with faces drawn on them
julio andres rosario ortiz on Unsplash

People Describe The Most Unhinged Things They've Seen Someone Do In Public

One person's "most unhinged thing they've ever seen" is another person's everyday occurrence. It's all about perspective.

If you live 24/7 in an insane environment, unhinged starts to seem completely normal.

Keep ReadingShow less