Attorney General Bill Barr took his fealty to President Donald Trump to a whole new level on Friday by having the Department of Justice file a brief in an effort to obstruct the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment probe.
The House Judiciary Committee voted to move forward with impeachment proceedings against Trump earlier this week, triggering an investigation requiring any documentation related to the probe to be released to the committee, including the grand jury materials from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which Barr has refused to release since the final report went public in a clear effort to protect Trump.
And now, Barr is still protecting Trump by asking a federal judge to block the release of the materials, arguing that the impeachment inquiry is not really an impeachment inquiry.
BREAKING: DOJ has filed a 40-page brief arguing that the Judiciary Committee’s “impeachment investigation” really isn’t one. Cites Pelosi and Hoyer’s statements form *yesterday* as evidence.
Story w/ @AndrewDesiderio TK pic.twitter.com/4nPA246NV4
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 13, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s words in this matter are really worthless as an argument. It’s the vote the House Judiciary Committee took that matters. But Barr continued to argue that Democrats’ past statements about impeachment are somehow relevant today.
They also note that Nadler himself insisted as recently as late July that his committee was not conducting an impeahcment inquiry because of the various possible outcomes. pic.twitter.com/oRrDDq3SvU
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 13, 2019
Barr even went so far as to argue that Nixon-era precedents don’t apply.
DOJ goes even further to say that Nixon-era precedents don’t suggest Congress has a right to grand jury material under a “judicial proceeding” exemption.
Even House Republicans have argued that the Senate removal trial is a judicial proceeding — so this goes way beyond that. pic.twitter.com/yjqVuA9qtG
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 13, 2019
Clearly, Barr and Trump are continuing to flout the law and congressional oversight. Any federal judge should recognize that and dismiss this filing. Congress should have access to the grand jury materials, because it’s clear that they must be damaging to Trump or else Barr would not be working so hard to conceal them. House Democrats have moved forward with impeachment via a vote by the House Judiciary Committee. Any past statements by Democrats that Barr is using are now null and void. If anything, the judge should order the immediate release of the documents. And if Barr refuses to comply, it might be time for House Democrats to throw him in jail.
Featured Image: Screenshot
