Kaʻū News Briefs, Wednesday, May 1, 2019

"YOU SHOULD RESIGN," SEN. MAZIE HIRONO TOLD THE U.S ATTORNEY GENERAL today during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. She also accused Barr of lying, which drew a response from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Judiciary Committee. Graham told Hirono, "You just slandered this man."
     Hirono said that instead of defending the rule of law, AG William Barr behaves like Pres. Donald "Trump's personal defense attorney." She compared Barr to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, Trump's counselor Kellyanne Conway, and "any of the other people who sacrificed their once-decent reputation for the grifter and liar who sits in the Oval Office."

Sen. Mazie Hirono asked U.S. Attorney General William Barr to resign today. She is a member of the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee.Image from Big Island Video News

     Hirono noted that Barr "once turned down a job offer from Donald Trump to represent him as his private attorney. At your confirmation hearing you told Senator Feinstein that 'the job of Attorney General... is not the same as representing' the President. So, you know the difference, but you've chosen to be the President's lawyer and side with him over the American people."
     Hirono said Barr "mishandled" the Mueller Report - which sought to find out if Russia influenced the 2016 U.S. Presidential election - "every step of the way." She said Barr's four-page "so-called summary" of the nearly two-year investigation that resulted in the Report, and the "political stunt of a press conference" that claimed Trump did not obstruct justice, is "an abuse" of his power.
     "To start with, you should never have been involved in supervising Robert Mueller's investigation. You wrote a 19-page, unsolicited memo, which you admit was not based on any facts, attacking the premise of half of the investigation. And you also should have insisted that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recuse himself. He wasn't just a witness to some of the President's obstructive behavior. We now know he was in frequent personal contact with the President – a subject of the investigation. You should have left it to career officials.
     "Then, once the report was delivered by the Special Counsel, you delayed its release for more than two weeks. You let the President's personal lawyers look at it before you even deigned to let Congress or the public see it. During that time, you substituted your own political judgment for the Special Counsel's legal conclusions in a 4-page letter to Congress. And now we know, thanks to a free press, that Mr. Mueller wrote you a letter objecting to your so-called summary.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr was asked by several Senators to resign today. Image from Big Island Video News

     "When you called Mueller to discuss his letter, the reports are that he thought your summary was giving the press, Congress, and the public, a misleading impression of his work. He asked you to release the report's summaries to correct the misimpression you created, but you refused. When you finally did decide to release the report - over a Congressional recess and on the eve of two major religious holidays - you called a press conference to once again try to clear Donald Trump before anyone had a chance to read the Special Counsel's report and conclusions for themselves.
     "But when we read the report, we knew Robert Mueller's concerns were valid, and that your version of events was false.
     "You used every advantage of your office to create the impression that the President was cleared of misconduct. You selectively quoted fragments from the Special Counsel's Report, taking some of the most important statements out of context and ignoring the rest. You put the power and authority of the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice behind a public relations effort to help Donald Trump protect himself. Finally, you lied to Congress. You told Rep. Charlie Crist that you didn't know what objections Mueller's team might have to your March 24th so-called summary. You told Senator Chris Van Hollen that you didn't know if Bob Mueller supported your conclusion.
     "But you knew. You lied. And now we know. A lot of respected, non-partisan legal experts and elected officials were surprised by your efforts to protect the President. But I wasn't surprised. You did exactly what I thought you'd do. It's why I voted against your confirmation. I expected you would try to protect the President, and indeed you did."

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sen. Mazie Hirono slandered AG William Barr. Image from Big Island Video News.

     Hirono pointed to Barr's past actions: "In 1989, when you refused to show Congress an OLC opinion that led to the arrest of Manuel Noriega; in 1992, when you recommended pardons for the subjects of the Iran-Contra scandal; and last year, when you wrote the 19-page memo telling Donald Trump that a president can't be guilty of obstruction of justice and then didn't recuse yourself from the matter. From the beginning, you were addressing an audience of one: Donald Trump.
     "That's why, before the bombshell news of yesterday evening, 11 of my Senate colleagues and I called on the Department of Justice Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate the way you handled the Mueller Report. I wanted them to determine whether your actions complied with the Department's policies and practices, and whether you have demonstrated sufficient impartiality to continue to oversee the 14 other criminal matters that the Special Counsel referred to other parts of the Department of Justice.
     "But now we know more about your deep involvement in trying to cover up for Donald Trump. Being Attorney General of the United States is a sacred trust. You have betrayed that trust. America deserves better. You should resign."
     At the end of her testimony, Hirono asked Barr if the White House was "exerting any influence" on whether to allow Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify in Congress and when. Barr said, "No." Several other Senators asked Barr to resign, including Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
     See the video of Hirono's testimony: bigislandvideonews.com/2019/05/01/video-hawaii-senator-hirono-blasts-ag-barr-during-mueller-report-hearing
     Hirono asks the public to demand Barr resign immediately by signing a petition.

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