Attorney General William Barr on Thursday joked about a congressional committee voting to hold him in contempt of Congress, observing that it must be a "record."
Barr spoke in honor of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at his farewell ceremony, saying that the job of attorney general was "a lot different" in the 1990s, when Rosenstein first joined the Department of Justice.
"You like records," Barr told Rosenstein, The Hill reports. "This must be a record of an attorney general being proposed for contempt within 100 days of taking office."
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The House Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to recommend holding Barr in contempt of Congress after he did not provide them with the full, unredacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report. The Department of Justice has argued Barr can't legally release the entire report, and the White House has exerted executive privilege over it. The committee's contempt citation will now go to the full House of Representatives for a vote.
A previous attorney general was held in contempt of Congress before Barr: Eric Holder, who the House of Representatives voted to hold in contempt in 2012, this being the first time a sitting U.S. attorney general was ever held in contempt of Congress — although unlike with Barr, this came three years into his term. Brendan Morrow
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