Trump's attorney general nominee William Barr advances to full Senate vote

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced President Trump's nominee for attorney general on Thursday with a 12-10 vote along party lines. William Barr will now head for a currently unscheduled Senate-wide vote Senate, where he's likely to get the 60 votes he needs to be confirmed, The Associated Press reports.

Barr was overwhelmingly confirmed when he served as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush. But this time around, Democrats wanted strong assurance that Barr would protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russian election interference. Barr had previously authored a memo criticizing how the probe looked into Trump's potential obstruction of justice, which Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called "disqualifying" on Thursday, per CNN.

Democrats also wanted Barr to consider recusing himself from the Mueller probe, and wanted a commitment that he'd publicly release all of Mueller's final report — two things he refused to completely agree to. Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Barr promised him "executive privilege" would not be allowed to "cover up wrongdoing" in the Mueller report, CNN's Manu Raju tweeted.

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