Attorney General William Barr is “terrified of having to face a skilled attorney,” said House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler. The evidence is on Nadler’s side, as Barr has backed out of a planned hearing before the committee Thursday because of a plan to have questioning conducted by staff attorneys rather than House members.
Absurd! When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republicans didn’t use their own staff attorneys—they shipped in an outside prosecutor. The attorney general of the United States of America, though, is apparently too delicate a flower to face staff attorneys asking questions about his own conduct and legal reasoning.
Then again, Barr’s experience Wednesday under the attention of Sen. Kamala Harris, an experienced prosecutor who elected to ask direct questions rather than grandstanding, may well have convinced him he can’t handle it.
”Democrats may now opt to subpoena him, setting up a possible showdown in court,” The New York Times reports. It’s time to hold him in contempt.