Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democratic presidential candidate, delivered a tongue-in-cheek response Friday to whether he would pursue imprisonment for Attorney General William P. Barr if he were found to be in contempt of Congress.
“He should be held in contempt. Now there a lot of different options for what that means. You could essentially hold someone in contempt and do nothing. You can technically put that person into prison,” the congressman from Massachusetts said in an interview on CNN’s “New Day” show.
When pressed whether he would pursue prison for Mr. Barr, Mr. Moulton quipped, “Well, he might like [jail]. He’s got a lot of Trump associates in prison as well. The campaign chairman’s there, like a campaign reunion.”
He then stepped back into a serious response, saying, “it’s probably not going to happen. You could assess a fine to really put pressure on him every single day.”
Mr. Moulton is referring to President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is currently serving his 7.5-year prison sentence after being convicted of tax and bank fraud in 2018.
Mr. Moulton said it’s “really sad” that lawmakers need to discuss how to handle Mr. Barr.
“It’s really sad, in this country, we have to talk about the top law enforcement official in the land lying before Congress, violating the Constitution, that he swore an oath to protect and defend,” he added.
House Democrats are considering holding Mr. Barr in contempt of Congress after he informed them that he would not attend a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying he committed a “crime.”
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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