House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday accused Attorney General William Barr of committing a crime.
Pelosi in a press conference said that Barr "lied to Congress" and that "nobody is above the law." She subsequently tweeted that Barr's "decision to mislead the public" was "a crime."
Pelosi had previously said in a closed-door meeting on Thursday that "we saw [Barr] commit a crime" when he testified before Congress, Politico reports. Her comment was addressed to Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), who asked Barr when he testified last month whether he was aware of reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team was unhappy with his summary of their findings. Barr said no, although it was later reported that he had by this point received a letter from Mueller complaining that Barr's summary "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance."
Barr argued while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that his previous testimony was correct because he was not aware of complaints from members of Mueller's team, and because Mueller privately told him his summary of the findings was not incorrect but that the media was misinterpreting it. Barr told Congress Mueller said this on a phone call that there are notes of, but he refused to hand these notes over, saying, "Why should you have them?"
When asked on Thursday whether Barr should go to jail for lying to Congress, Pelosi said that "there's a process here" and that the committee will "act upon how we will proceed." Crist had previously tweeted that if Barr's answer to his question wasn't honest, "there will be consequences." Brendan Morrow