Nancy Pelosi Calls On William Barr, Jeff Sessions To Testify About Seized Data Records
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday called on former attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions to testify before Congress about the seized data records of prominent Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.
“Attorneys General Barr and Sessions ... to say that they didn't know anything about it is beyond belief. So we will have to have them come under oath to testify about that now,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi's comments come after the Justice Department’s independent inspector general on Friday opened an inquiry into the secret seizure of data, which also included journalists' phone records.
Tech giant Apple in May alerted House committee members that the Justice Department had issued grand-jury subpoenas for their information in February 2018, which as at about the same time that Donald Trump and his administration sought the source of leaks about contacts between Russia and top members of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
Barr, who served as attorney general from February 2019 to December 2020, told Politico that Trump "was not aware of who we were looking at in any of the cases,” and that he "never discussed the leak cases with Trump."
The record seizures targeted at least a dozen people, including California Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, who were both were involved in the investigation of Trump.
Pelosi referenced Richard Nixon when touching on the allegations that the Trump administration secretly subpoenaed the metadata of prominent critics.
“What the administration did — the Justice Department, the leadership of the former president — goes even beyond Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon had an enemies list. This is about undermining the rule of law,” Pelosi told host Dana Bash.
Pelosi would not directly say if she would push to subpoena Barr and Sessions, should they refuse to appear before Congress.
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