House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler brushed aside calls to impeach Attorney General William Barr on Sunday, but said he still plans to grill Justice Department officials on Mr. Barr’s alleged corruption.
Mr. Nadler said he believes Mr. Barr has interfered with several pending investigations headed by the Southern District of New York, including ones into Rudy Giuliani and the Turkish Halkbank. However, impeachment is off the table.
“We’ve seen a pattern of the president opposing, of Barr corruptly impeding all these investigations. This is just more of the same,” the New York Democrat said on CNN. “They are a waste of time at this point because we know that we have a corrupt Republican majority in the Senate which will not consider an impeachment no matter what the evidence.”
None of that is to say Mr. Nadler is easing off the attorney general.
This Wednesday the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing with two Justice Department officials and a former official from President George W. Bush’s administration on allegations Mr. Barr has interfered in elections.
All of this comes after Mr. Barr announced that Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, would be leaving the post, but Mr. Berman initially refused.
Mr. Berman was officially fired by the DOJ Saturday afternoon.
Mr. Trump on Friday said he intended to nominate Jay Clayton, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to succeed Mr. Berman, pending Senate confirmation.
Mr. Nadler extended an invitation to Mr. Berman to testify in the upcoming hearing.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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