Barr skips session with House Democrats, escalates standoff

At Barr's no-show hearing, Democratic members of the committee had fun with the spectacle, passing around fried chicken and placing a prop chicken by Barr's unused microphone to underscore their contention that he was afraid to appear. He later spoke outside the chamber.

Nadler said he would weigh a contempt citation against Barr if the unredacted version of the report was not released. This man was picked to be Roy Cohn and to be Donald Trump's fixer.

"The challenge we face is also bigger than the Mueller report".

Representative Doug Collins, the House Judiciary Committee's top Republican, said Barr did not appear before that panel because Nadler had insisted on an aggressive format with an extra hour of questioning from its own lawyers, in addition to those from the committee's lawmakers.

Nadler, a Democrat, said during an abbreviated hearing Thursday that Barr has failed to "stand up to the president" and address "this clear and present danger to our constitutional order". Democrats have raised questions about that testimony since it was revealed this week that Mueller had written Barr on March 27 complaining that the attorney general had not properly portrayed his findings in a four-page memo summarizing the report's main conclusions.

Mueller explained in his report that he saw the effort in part as preserving details because the President "does not have immunity after he leaves office" and that his team "conducted a thorough factual investigation in order to preserve the evidence when memories were fresh and documentary materials were available".

A Justice Department spokeswoman addressed Mueller's letter and the follow-up phone call in a statement to the Post.

Democrats are speaking out following Attorney General Bill Barr's refusal to show up at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday. Mueller's report outlines 10 times that Trump attempted to interfere with the investigation-going as far as telling then-White House counsel Don McGahn "Mueller has to go".

The Tennessee lawmaker also placed a ceramic chicken at the table where Barr was supposed to testify. The House panel is considering holding Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to show.

ME 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree and other Democrats are calling for Barr to resign after his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein subsequently concluded that Trump, who has repeatedly called the Mueller probe a "witch-hunt", did not break the law.

Republicans objected to Nadler's demands and say the staff questioning is unnecessary.

"There is no witness because the Democrats saw what happened yesterday and they've decided they are incapable of actually asking questions of the attorney general", said Sanders".

The airing of disagreements over the handling of the report followed Mr Mueller's two-year investigation into Russian interference to help Mr Trump in the 2016 campaign and the possibility that his team conspired with the Russians. Flood also aimed to draw a distinction between cooperating in a criminal investigation and a congressional investigation led by the House Democrats.

In a telephone interview with the Fox Business Network on Wednesday night, Trump praised Barr for his appearance before the committee: "He did a fantastic job today, I'm told, I got to see some of it, he did a fantastic job".