Attorney General Bill Barr told Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein that it’s “not a crime” for President Donald Trump to order the White House Counsel to lie in order to cover up the president’s actions.
Those actions relate to Trump telling White House Counsel Don McGahn to get rid of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, then ordering him to lie to cover it up.
“You still have a situation where a president essentially tries to change the lawyer’s account in order to prevent further criticism of himself,” Senator Feinstein tells Attorney General Barr.
“Well, that’s not a crime,” Barr replies.
Feinstein takes a long pause, then asks, “So you can, in this situation, instruct someone to lie?”
Barr, befuddled, finally says, “No. Well. To be obstruction of justice, the lie has to be tied to impairing the evidence in a particular proceeding.”
Here’s one attorney who apparently disagrees, tweeting the video and saying, “Watch Barr try and explain to Feinstein how a crime is not a crime.”
This veteran journalist appears to agree: