IMAGINARY EXCHANGE WITH AG BARR AT A CONGRESSIONAL HEARING
Committee member (CM): Mr. Barr, let me start with a basic question. I understand that you have legal training. Is that correct?
Barr: Harrrumph. Are you trying to insult me?
CM: Not at all. You’ll see why I asked that shortly. So, as a legally-trained person, a lawyer, an Attorney General, can you tell me if “collusion” is a legal term for a specific offense?
Barr: Well, I don’t know that you are asking an appropriate question.
CM: It’s just a simple question. You’re a lawyer, and I presume you know the answer.
Barr: Collusion…well, it is not a specific legal term, no.
CM: Thank you. Can I direct your attention to page 2 of the Report, in which Special Counsel Mueller states that the authors “applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of ‘collusion’,” because “collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law.” Do you see that?
Barr: Ummm, yes. I can read.
CM: Yet on two very important occasions, including presenting your summary to the public and in testifying under oath before this committee, you stated that the Report found no evidence of collusion. Did you read page 2 of the Report before you made those statements?
Barr: I cannot specifically speak to what I read or did not read at a specific time.
CM: If you did read those statements – which I cannot imagine that you would not have if you have any sense of responsibility as Attorney General – I assert that you perjured yourself before this committee and before the American people. You knowingly made false statements. The Mueller Report does not say there was no collusion, only that the evidence is not sufficient for a charge of criminal conspiracy, which would have required a specific agreement between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Yet you made the assertion of “no collusion,” knowing, as a lawyer, that your statements were not accurate. Am I correct?
Barr: No comment.
CM: What a surprise. Let the record show that Attorney General Barr perjured himself. And that his actions have misled the American people, caused serious damage to the purported role of an Attorney General, and derogated the duty of Congress to hold the President accountable under the law.