Chris Wallace: Barr’s decision to make a conclusion on obstruction is ‘troubling’ and ‘politically charged’
Chris Wallace: AG Barr’s decision to make a conclusion on obstruction is ‘troubling’ and ‘politically charged’
“Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace said Friday Attorney General William Barr’s decision to make a conclusion on the question of obstruction of justice “seems even more troubling, and perhaps even more politically charged when you read the report.”
Wallace made the comment on “America’s Newsroom” Friday referencing Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ‘s determination there was not sufficient evidence on the obstruction front even though Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether President Trump committed this offense.
“When you read the report it becomes clear that the reason that Robert Mueller didn't make a finding on obstruction wasn't because he didn't feel capable of doing it, but because he thought in direct contradiction to what Bill Barr said yesterday, that under department guidelines, there could not be an indictment of a sitting president, and he very much left it to Congress to make that decision,” said Wallace Friday.
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“So the fact that Barr decided to interpose himself and to make this decision himself, although Congress obviously can go ahead and do what it wants, really seems to go against the grain of what Robert Mueller was suggesting in his own report.”
Wallace referenced Barr’s statements to the press before the redacted Mueller report on the Russia investigation was released to the public on Thursday.
Barr offered a staunch defense of President Trump on Thursday morning during the press conference where he previewed the report’s findings and explained why he and Rosenstein concluded that the president had not obstructed justice.
Wallace also reacted to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler’s push for Mueller’s “complete and unredacted” Russia report.
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Nadler, D-N.Y., issued a subpoena Friday to obtain the "complete and unredacted" version of Mueller's report, as well as the underlying materials.
Wallace said the release of the unredacted report “has to be decided by a court.”
“The main thing they're talking about here is grand jury testimony. It is in fact the case that in the past, that attorneys general have gone to the courts and said -- gotten a court to agree, a judge to agree to release that information, to give it to Congress to fulfill its constitutional duties. Bill Barr chose not to do that. It now is on Jerry Nadler as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,” said Wallace.
“This will end up in the courts, and it’s going to end up, I suspect, taking months if not longer to determine whether or not they’re going to release that information. But given the kind of ill will that there seems to exist now between House Democrats and the attorney general, the idea that they would simply sit down and wait and accept whatever Barr decided he was going to redact and not redact, that ship seems to have sailed.”
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He added: “I think they are going to contest this and say we want to see everything that’s in there.”