Exposing the Attorney General's corruption on Capitol Hill means little without real accountability

The look on Sen. Cory Booker’s face told us what the next five minutes were going to be like for William Barr. After just one question from the colleague and presidential primary rival sitting to his immediate left, it seemed the New Jersey Democrat had to muster every bit of his strength to keep his eyes from popping out of his skull. Something approximating an “Oh, shit!” was undoubtedly in his throat,
trapped by decorum. Watching on television, it was tempting to enjoy this.

Sen. Kamala Harris repeated her question at Barr’s request:

“Has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no, please, sir.” This should have been easy, but Trump’s attorney general obfuscated and fell apart from there.

Choosing not to waste her time with theatrical condemnations or scolding, the former California prosecutor was surgical in her questioning, revealing that Barr hadn’t even reviewed special counsel Robert Mueller’s evidence, himself, before he made the decision not to charge President Trump with obstruction of justice. We already knew that Barr had misrepresented Mueller’s findings in his four-page letter to Congress. And that he’d misled lawmakers by playing dumb when he’d been asked if Mueller’s team was satisfied with his summary of their investigation. And that he’d caped for Trump, both in writing and in person. Now we learned that Barr hadn’t bothered to even perform the basic functions of his job.

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