AG Barr calls Democrats’ claims of him lying to Congress ‘laughable’; used to ‘discredit’ him

Attorney General William Barr on Friday rebuked claims by Democrats that he lied under oath and has placed himself in contempt of Congress.

“I think it’s a laughable charge. I think it’s largely being made to try to discredit me partly because they may be concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened during the election. But obviously, you can look at the face of my testimony and see on its face there is nothing inaccurate about it,” he said in an interview with Fox News, which will air in full Saturday.

He added Democrats are criticizing him because “they may be concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened during the election.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Mr. Barr of lying when the attorney general testified special counsel Robert Mueller had no objections to the way Mr. Barr portrayed his report. A letter from Mr. Mueller would later surface showing that was not the case.

Mr. Barr doubled down on the need for investigating the Russia investigation and finding out “what the government was doing during that period.”

“If we’re worried about foreign interference, for the same reason we should be worried whether government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale. I’m not saying that happened, but I’m saying that we have to look at that,” he said.