This Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler received a melt down after William Barr decided to pass on giving testimony over the Mueller report.
The New Yorker is spitting nails now that the reports came true and the attorney general has rejected showing up for what would have been a circus after Nadler radically changed the format of the hearing to allow Dem congressional legal eagles to subject him to questions as if he was on trial.
After a day when AG Barr held his ground while humiliating the Dems in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he ignored the calls of some authoritarian Democrats who want to have him arrested by telling “Fat Jerry” to stuff his dog and pony show where the sun doesn’t shine.
The attorney general was wise enough to realize that he was walking into a trap following the synchronized release of a “snitty” letter from Mueller to Barr whining about the summary of his report that was published within minutes by both the Washington Post and the New York Times, the canny top law enforcement official in the USA said no thank you.
Upon being slammed by Barr, Nadler waddled directly to the media to pitch his latest fit.
The House Judiciary Committee has been informed that Bill Barr will not testify at a planned hearing Thursday, an aide to the panel told Fox News — even as the Dems who lead the committee vowed to hold it anyway, and threatened a possible contempt citation against Barr.
The prospect of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, gaveling a hearing with an empty chair came hours after Barr endured withering questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier today.
Democratic Caucus chairman Hakeem Jeffries, stated Wednesday that the Dems “plan on subpoenaing” Barr “if he decides not to show up.”
“He can run but he can’t hide,” Jeffries said.
A key point was that Nadler wants to have House Judiciary Committee staff, rather than members of Congress, question AG Barr on handling of Mueller’s report. But DOJ officials said members should conduct the inquiry, and it was unclear why the Dems didn’t propose having staffers simply provide questions to members during the hearing.
In remarks to reporters Wednesday afternoon, Nadler said Democrats had “worked around the clock” to address AG Barr’s concerns, and slammed what he called Barr’s “lack of candor.”
“He’s trying to blackmail the committee into not following the most effective means of eliciting the information we need,” Nadler said. “He is terrified of having to face a skilled attorney.”
Nadler also stated that the DOJ had denied House Democrats’ request for the full and unredacted Mueller report and that compliance with congressional subpoenas is “not optional.”
Is there any wonder left in Americans on why Barr would choose to skip Nadler’s committee inquisition? Here is a video from Wednesday where Nadler refused to allow members of the opposition party to speak like one of the apparatchiks in the old Soviet politburo.
Nadler has vowed to subpoena AG Barr but may have a tough time with pulling off his sham hearing unless he caves and walks back his alteration of the traditional format which would be a disaster for the Democrats after their tough talk.