Barr argues Trump didn't obstruct by 'discouraging' witnesses from 'flipping'
Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday defended President Trump's praising of witnesses for not "flipping" on him.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Wednesday asked Barr during his congressional testimony about whether Trump may have obstructed justice by encouraging witnesses to change their testimony, such as by going after his former lawyer Michael Cohen's father-in-law. Barr said this would not "pass muster" as subordination of perjury.
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"I think what the president's lawyers would say ... is that the president's statements about flipping are quite clear and express and uniformly the same, which is by flipping, he meant succumbing to pressure on unrelated cases to lie and compose in order to get lenient treatment," Barr said.
Barr subsequently argued that "discouraging flipping, in that sense, is not obstruction." Klobuchar, clearly, was not happy with this answer, shooting back, "Look at the pattern, here." Brendan Morrow
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