The District of Columbia's stay-at-home order ends June 8. House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler wants Attorney General William Barr in a witness chair before his committee the following day.
"We expect to see Barr in front of our committee on June 9th — the very next day," Nadler, of New York, told MSNBC Wednesday.
Barr, who has increasingly escalated his war on impartial justice, has kicked testifying to Congress down the road several times. He was finally scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary panel on March 31, but novel coronavirus social distancing measures delayed Barr's appearance once again. The Justice Department still hasn't committed to anything despite the invitation from the committee.
But Nadler raised the prospect of several pressure points if Barr refuses to comply, including yanking Justice Department funding or issuing a subpoena.
"We're prepared to do whatever we have to do — we will consider all those methods," Nadler said, adding: "We cannot have a situation where the attorney general just thumbs his nose and the administration holds Congress in contempt."
Nadler's comments come on the heels of thousands of former Justice Department officials calling for Barr's resignation following his attempt to drop the case against former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn. But the Flynn debacle is just the latest in a long line of actions Barr has taken that have clearly been sullied by political bias in favor Trump. Barr undermined the roll out of the Mueller report findings almost from the moment he was confirmed by the GOP-led Senate. Along with intervening in Flynn's case, Barr also tried to secure a lighter sentence for longtime Trump ally Roger Stone. Barr has also created a regime in which Trump is entirely insulated from any kind of congressional oversight. In fact, the Justice Department to this day is trying to keep Mueller's grand jury materials from being turned over to Congress.
In short, Barr has a lot to answer for, the American people deserve to hear his explanations, and House Democrats shouldn’t hesitate for a second to take whatever steps are necessary to get Barr in that chair.