Barr To Smear Russiagate As ‘Bogus’ During House Judiciary Hearing

Get ready to hear some Trump-esque language from Attorney General Bill Barr during his testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee today.

A copy of Barr’s opening remarks to the committee shows the attorney general invoking the same partisan talking points seen on President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed with regards to the scandal over the 2016 Trump campaign’s contacts with the Russian government.

“Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal, many of the Democrats on this Committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the President’s factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions,” Barr writes in his statement. “Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today.”

The attorney general, who has been attempting to delegitimize Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe over the past several years, insists in his remarks that his decisions in the aftermath of the probe “have been left to my independent judgment, based on the law and fact, without any direction or interference from the White House or anyone outside the Department.”

Under Barr’s leadership, the Justice Department has made several shocking moves to chip away at the results of the Russia investigation that have led to the criminal prosecution of Trump’s allies, particularly Michael Flynn and Roger Stone. Earlier this year, the department suddenly dropped its case against Flynn, whose case Trump had repeatedly bashed as “unfair” to his former adviser, and the department also watered down the sentencing recommendation of Stone, which Trump had also repeatedly complained about.

Read Barr’s statement below: