US Attorney General Bill Barr warned House Democrats that he may be a no-show and skip the scheduled hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee this week.
The Hill has confirmed that Barr told Democrats they need to alter the proposed format for the hearing after the committee scheduled an extra round of questioning.
Each member of the Judiciary Committee will have five minutes of questioning, but Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) added an additional round that would allow both sides to question Barr for 30 minutes each.
Nadler also proposed additional questioning in a closed-door session to discuss redacted material in Robert Mueller’s report.
According to a report by CNN and confirmed by The Hill, Barr rejected the additional 30 minutes rounds and the closed-door questioning, however, a deal may be reached before the scheduled hearing for Thursday.
Nadler pushed back and threatened to subpoena Barr to compel testimony.
Jerry Nadler told CNN on Sunday that Barr would not “dictate the format of the Judiciary Committee.”
“The witness is not going to tell the committee how to conduct its hearing, period,” Nadler said.
Nadler then threatened to use subpoena power if Barr refused to comply: “Then we will have to subpoena him, and we will have to use whatever means we can to enforce the subpoena.”
A Republican spokesman for the House Judiciary hit back at Nadler’s circus hearing format, according to CNN.
“The only thing, apparently, that will satisfy Democrats, who refuse to read the less-redacted report, is to have staff pinch hit when a cabinet official appears before us,” the spokesperson said. “What actual precedent is there for our committee making such demands of a sitting attorney general as part of our oversight duties? The attorney general isn’t a fact witness, and this committee’s investigations — as Democrat leadership reminds us daily — don’t constitute impeachment, so Democrats have yet to prove their demands anything but abusive and illogical in light of the transparency and good faith the attorney general has shown our committee.”
Barr is also scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary on Wednesday.
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