JEFIFIOLD NADLEH, New York DOUG COLLINS 
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February 12, 2020

The Honorable William Barr
Attorney General

US. Department of Justice

950 Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

We are writing to con?rm your agreement to testify before the House Judiciary
Committee on March 31, 2020.

In the interest of transparency, we Wish to be candid about one set of concerns we plan to
address at the hearing. Since President Trump took of?ce, we have repeatedly warned you and
your predecessors that the misuse of our criminal justice system for political purposes is both
dangerous to our democracy and unacceptable to the House Judiciary Committee.1 Our
Republican colleagues have warned the Department of the same.2 We have been consistent?
and bipartisan?in this message for years.

In your tenure as Attorney General, you have engaged in a pattern of conduct in legal
matters relating to the President that raises signi?cant concerns for this Committee.3 In the past

 

See, Letter from Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr., et al., to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Mar. 17, 2017
(?Given the Trump Administration?s wide?ranging and ongoing conflict-of?interest troubles . . . we wonder if the
wiser course of action would have been to allow these attorneys] to stay on and act as an independent voice on
matters that might directly impact President Trump?); Letter from Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler to Acting
Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Nov. 13, 2018 write with growing concern over President Trump?s
repeated attacks on the integrity of the Department of Justice and the FBI?including, but not limited to, his decision
to ?re former Attemey General Jeff Sessions, his frequent statements about ongoing criminal investigations, and his
personal attacks on senior Department of?cials?); Letter from Chairman Jerrold Nadler, et al., to Attorney General
William Barr, Mar. 25, 2019 (?Each of our committees is currently engaged in oversight activities that go directly to
the President?s conduct, his open attempts to obstruct federal investigators . . . and other alleged instances of
misconduct?).

2 See, e. Letter from Chairman Robert Goodlatte, et al., to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney
General Rod Rosenstein, July 27, 2017 (?We need to enable these agencies to perform their necessary and important
law enforcement and intelligence functions fullv unhindered bv 

3 Carol E. Lee, Ken Dilanian, Peter Alexander, Barr takes control of legal matters of interest to Trump, including
Stone sentencing, NBC NEWS, Feb. 1 1, 2020.

week alone, you have taken steps that raise grave questions about your leadership of the
Department of Justice. These include:

The ongoing developments following the removal of U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu, who
oversaw the prosecutions of President Trump?s deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates,
President Trump?s former national security advisor Michael and President
Trump?s longtime political adviser Roger Stone.4

The creation of a new ?process? by which President Trump?s personal attorney Rudy
Giuliani can feed the Department of Justice information, through you, about the
President?s political rivals.5

The decision to overrule your career prosecutors and signi?cantly reduce the
recommended sentence for Roger Stone, who has been convicted for lying under oath, at
the apparent request of the President?a decision that led to all four prosecutors handling
the case to withdraw from the proceedings in protest.6

These are not the only issues that our Committee intends to discuss with you when you appear,
but they are enough to require our immediate attention.

We look forward to your testimony.

Sincerely,

tea/Mamet
?We Quart

 

4 Spencer S. Hsu, et al., Trump withdraws Treasury nomination of former US. attorney for D. C. Jessie K. Liu after
criticism of her oversight of Mueller prosecutions, WASH. POST, Feb. 11, 2020.

5 Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett, Barr acknowledges Justice Dept. has created 'intake process to vet Giuliani ?s
information on Bidens, WASH. POST, Feb. 10, 2020.

6 Matt Zapotosky, Prosecutors quit amid escalating Justice Dept. ?ght over RogerlStone ?s prison term, WASH.
POST, Feb. 11,2020.

 

 

?v?lCQ

 

cc: Honorable Doug Collins, Ranking Member, House Committee on the Judiciary