Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who furiously sparred with Attorney General Bill Barr in Tuesday's Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday said he is "now, and will always be the henchman for Donald Trump."
"He acts as Donald Trump's personal attorney to get things done," the Washington Democrat told CNN's "New Day." "Donald Trump activates him when he needs something done and Bill Barr jumps. He is not the attorney general for the people of the United States, and what he's doing is using the Justice Department, the enormous powers of the Justice Department on every level, whether it is going back to, you know, withholding information from the Mueller report and mischaracterizing it or whether it is in terms of the way he responds to certain protests."
Barr, she added, has responded "without regard to equal justice under the law," and she can't imagine that he wasn't aware of the scope of mask protests in Michigan "and act that the governor of Michigan had people with -- you know, guns and swastikas and confederate flags saying that they wanted to behead her. That makes no sense whatsoever. So I think he tells untruths."
Jayapal said she's watched federal law enforcement actions carefully in Portland and has a sister who is a county commissioner there, and its "clear" that officers aren't only protecting federal holdings, as "they are blocks away from the federal courthouse, picking up people in unmarked vans."
She also defended herself and committee Democrats for not allowing Barr to answer questions at length.
"The thing about the 5-minute format is every witness knows that the way to get away from answering questions is to just be very slow in your answers," said Jayapal. "You have to take control of your time because if you don't, the witness will do it."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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