Nancy Pelosi just raised the stakes and set up a constitutional crisis with some highly irresponsible words.
She just accused Bill Barr of committing a crime, and basically wants him arrested and charged criminally for lying to Congress.
She knows that won’t happen as she would refer the complaint to Barr at DOJ, and he will not be arresting himself any time soon.
More importantly, the crime she accuses him of, perjury, is bogus. Barr was asked a question if Mueller was ok with his summary.
We found out later from Mueller’s letter he was not happy with everything Barr did. But Pelosi forgets the other part of Barr’s answer: Barr said Mueller may have wanted a little more public disclosure from Barr. Which is what Mueller’s letter said.
From CNBC: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday accused Attorney General William Barr of committing a crime by lying to Congress about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and Mueller’s issues with how Barr has characterized its findings.
“What is deadly serious about it is the attorney general of the United States of America is not telling the truth to the Congress of the United States. That’s a crime,” the California Democrat told reporters.
Pressed again about the accusation, Pelosi said, “He lied to Congress. If anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. Nobody is above the law.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request to comment on Pelosi’s remarks.
During a closed-door meeting on Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Attorney General William Barr of committing a crime by lying to Congress.
“We saw [Barr] commit a crime when he answered your question,” Pelosi told Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) during a private caucus meeting Thursday morning, according to two sources present for the gathering.
Pelosi’s comment was an apparent reference to Barr’s response to Crist last month during a House Appropriations Committee hearing, during which the attorney general said he was not aware of any concerns that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team might have expressed about his four-page summary of Mueller’s findings.
Barr’s response appeared to contradict the revelation earlier this week that Mueller himself wrote to the attorney general saying he was worried that Barr’s summary “threatens to undermine … public confidence” in the Russia probe. Mueller also said Barr’s memo “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the investigation.
Crist later told POLITICO that he agreed Barr committed a crime.
“It’s called perjury,” he said.
Asked what the result should be, Crist said, “We ought to have somebody who is in a law enforcement space charge him.”
Crist said he was open to potential contempt or impeachment proceedings against Barr.
Pelosi also told her colleagues that she couldn’t sleep Wednesday night after watching Barr’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which he challenged Mueller’s legal theories and framework and further endeared himself to Trump and his GOP allies.
.@Kasie: Did AG Barr commit a crime?
Speaker Pelosi: "He lied to Congress. If anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime."@Kasie: Should he go to jail?
Pelosi: "There's a process involved here … The committee will act upon how we will proceed." pic.twitter.com/kQnfEdL1iD
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 2, 2019
