House Judiciary Dems Hold AG Barr in Contempt

The House Judiciary Committee has voted to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for not turning over to them the entire, unredacted, Russian election meddling report by Robert Mueller. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said that was a sign the country was in a constitutional crisis and an effort to resist tyranny in order to preserve the Republic. 

Related: Judiciary Chair Says Trump Actions Endanger Constitution 

It would still have to be voted on by the House before Barr would be officially in contempt. 

On May 2, Nadler said that constitutional crisis was looming--he was still negotiating to get the full report. Wednesday he said it was here after the President asserted executive privilege over the information at the advice of Barr. 

Barr is a familiar face, both at Justice where he was attorney general under George H.W. Bush, and in communications circles, where he was a Verizon Communications executive and a member of the Time Warner board. Barr filed an affidavit in the AT&T-Time Warner legal case (Justice unsuccessfully challenged the deal and is still challenging it), taking issue with DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim's characterization of a meeting about the deal where Barr was also in attendance. 

Barr promised at his confirmation hearing that he would recuse himself from any matters related to Justice's legal challenge of that merger.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.