“Time is of the essence,” says a senior aide, worried that Barr could “set the narrative” – which he has a long record of doing.
House Democrats are working to have the four federal prosecutors who quit the Roger Stone case, apparently in protest of Attorney General Bill Barr‘s intervention, testify before Congress. The DOJ under Barr’s direction reduced the amount of prison time prosecutors had requested after an angry tweet from President Donald Trump, sparking nationwide outrage that the president is using the Justice Dept. to protect his friends.
“Numerous House Democrats are now advocating for the House to solicit testimony from the four prosecutors involved in the initial recommendation for Stone, aides tell me,” The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent says. “Two senior Democratic aides told me many House members want to see these hearings well in advance of Barr’s planned testimony to the Judiciary Committee on March 31.”
“Time is of the essence, since this scandal gets worse by the hour,” one senior aide to a member of Judiciary told me, adding that hearing from the four prosecutors could help create “a record of what happened before Barr gets to set the narrative.”
Another senior House aide told me there’s a “pretty widespread sentiment” among members that the four prosecutors must be heard from, “to get the full story of what’s happening under Barr’s tenure.”
Sargent adds that House Democrats might start to make public their desire to have the four prosecutors testify about what happened in the Stone case. It’s unclear where Speaker Nancy Pelosi stands on this, but she has been clear that the “prosecutors should be commended” and the “DOJ should be investigated.”