Washington, D.C. — Following revelations that special counsel Robert Mueller explicitly objected to Attorney General William Barr’s characterization of his report on President Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election —and after further deceptive testimony from Barr today —Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
President Trump chose Attorney General Barr to help cover up his corruption and threaten his political opponents, and Barr has lived up to Trump’s expectations. As special counsel Mueller wrote in his letter, Barr fundamentally undermined a central purpose of the special counsel’s investigation by deliberately creating confusion about its conclusions, even going so far as to lie to Congress.
Barr was given a shocking account of interactions between the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, and Russia—along with what amounted to an impeachment referral on obstruction—and deceptively presented it to the public as an exoneration. He did so while actively withholding the summaries prepared by the special counsel which were designed for quick release.
The prospect of a corrupt, partisan attorney general serving under a corrupt, vindictive president places our entire democracy in jeopardy and should terrify every American. Barr should immediately resign, and if he does not, he should promptly be impeached and removed from office. But the real root of this corruption was President Trump, and Congress must above all be aggressive in holding him accountable for his corruption in every area of government.
For more information on this topic or to talk to an expert, please contact Jesse Lee at [email protected] or 202-741-6350.