United States Attorney General Bill Barr listens during a round table with police hosted by United States President Donald Trump in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, USA, 8 of June 2020.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Attorney General William Barr is slated to testify before Congress that “violent rioters and anarchists” have “hijacked” protests over the death of George Floyd “to wreak havoc and senseless destruction on innocent victims.”
In prepared remarks, Barr also offered a full defense of his much-criticized conduct in the federal investigation of Russian election interference, criticizing the “false ‘Russiagate’ scandal” and claiming that President Donald Trump has not acted inappropriately.
Barr was ready to deliver the statement to the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee. The hearing comes more than a month after President Jerrold Nadler, DN.Y., threatened to subpoena Barr to testify after Geoffrey Berman’s dismissal as the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Barr’s spokeswoman announced on June 24 that the attorney general had accepted an invitation for a “general oversight hearing.” The hearing marks Barr’s first appearance before the House Judiciary panel during his tenure in the Trump administration and his first session before Congress in more than a year.
The hearing was originally set for 10 am ET, but was delayed until around 10:45 am after a “minor accident,” a committee spokesperson told CNBC.
Barr’s opening statement, released Monday night by various media, did not directly address Berman’s removal. Rather, Barr accused Democrats on the panel of using the hearing to promote their attempts to “discredit me by evoking a narrative that I am simply the President’s fact that he eliminates criminal cases according to his instructions.”
He said Trump “has not attempted to interfere” in criminal matters under the jurisdiction of the attorney general. “From my experience, the president has played an appropriate role and traditionally played by presidents,” he said.
Barr’s statement focused largely on Floyd, a black man whose death while unarmed at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis sparked a massive wave of protests across the United States.
Floyd’s murder “understandably shook the entire country and forced us to reflect on long-standing issues in our nation,” Barr’s statement said. “Given our history, it is understandable that among black Americans there is at least some ambivalence and often mistrust of the police.”
But events like Floyd’s death are “fortunately quite rare” today, Barr said. He warned that the “demonization” of the police and the “grossly irresponsible proposals” to eliminate them are “seriously damaging to our downtown communities.”
Barr defended the deployment of federal law enforcement officers in cities like Portland, Oregon, where clashes between police and protesters have become increasingly violent.
“What takes place every night around the courthouse cannot reasonably be called a protest; it is, by any objective measure, an assault on the United States government,” Barr said.
“To say what should be obvious, peaceful protesters don’t throw explosives in federal courts, knock down plywood with levers, or throw fecal matter at federal officials. In fact, such acts are federal crimes under statutes enacted by this Congress.” .
Barr’s statement urged all members of the House Judiciary Committee to “condemn violence against federal officials and the destruction of federal property.”
“To tacitly condone destruction and anarchy is to abandon the basic principles of the rule of law that should unite us even at a politically divisive moment,” he said.
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