Thread by @dfriedman33

Graham opens the Barr hearing by citing hypothetical people who may not know who Bob Mueller is, and mocking those pretend people for their ignorance. "I don't know where you've been..."

Graham: "After all this time and all this money, Mr. Mueller and his team concluded there was no collusion."
This is not true.

Graham says Mueller asked Barr to decide if there was obstruction of justice. This is also false. Mueller didn't ask Barr to do that.

Graham: “There were zero instances of Trump impeding Mueller.” False. It says Mueller by refused an interview and gave only written answers that Mueller called "inadequate."It shows how Trump's pardon offers encouraged Manafort and others to lie. motherjones.com/politics/2019/…

Anyone who read the Mueller report knows that the Office of Legal Counsel view that a sitting president shouldn't be indicted was a key factor in Mueller decision not to conclude Trump obstructed justice. Yet Barr is still defending his BS claim to the contrary.

Barr says after getting Mueller letter: "I called Bob and said, you know, 'What's the issue here?'"... "I told Bob that I was not interested in putting out summaries."

A basic dishonesty by Barr is his pretense that he didn't set out to influence media coverage of the Mueller report with his summary letter. When Mueller complained about the media coverage, he was talking about something Barr worked to create.

Grassley repeats the canard that the Steele dossier was collusion because it included info from Russian sources. This claim is idiotic: Despite disinformation concerns, the dossier included info about Russian actions that they didn't want out, because exposure hurt their efforts.

Leahy: "I feel you answer [to Rep. Crist on 4.9] was purposefully misleading and I think others do too."

Barr pretended not to understand what Leahy was asking: Shouldn't the Trump campaign have reported Russian approaches to the FBI? Then Barr pretended not to understand the text of the report.

Republican senators understand the difference between Mueller not finding a prosecutable conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia and Mueller concluding the campaign did not collude, but pretend not to.

Lee pretended the Steele dossier, not Papadopoulos' statements, was the basis for the FBI's probe. This is false, and also ignores Mueller's report revealing that important new info about Papadopoulos' interactions with the Russians.

https://twitter.com/DavidCornDC/status/1118906047224328192

Barr: "I don't think the word spying has any pejorative connotations at all ...
It's a good English word."

Hirono says Barr has showed he is willing to sacrifice his integrity for the "grifter and liar" in the White House. And he should have recused himself.

Hirono: "Finally, you lied to Congress."

Hirono is not asking Barr questions. She is just reading him the riot act.
"You should resign."

Barr says that via Mueller report, allegations that Trump's actions were treasonous "were proven false." False. Mueller didn't "establish" that the Trump campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy. That doesn't disprove allegations about Trump. It just doesn't support them.

Barr when Booker referenced Manafort sharing polling data: "With who?"
Oleg Derispaska. That is who. By way of Kilimnik, a suspected Russian agent.

Harris asked Barr if Trump or any of his aides have asked Barr to open an investigation of anyone. Barr didn't or wouldn't answer yes or no.

Harris completely shred Barr.

Crapo asks multiple questions based on the premise that there is something wrong with Mueller's letter being "leaked" to the media. But why should that letter be secret to begin with? All of this is the public's business.

Leahy attacks Barr's claim that Trump couldn't obstruct justice because there was no underlying crime to obstruct. Asked if Mueller revealed the hush money scheme Cohen pleaded guilty to, in which Trump is unnamed coconspirator. Barr: "Yes."

Barr repeats a false claim: "We now know that [Trump] was being falsely accused." We don't know that. The Mueller report doesn't prove anything didn't happen. Not proving something did happen isn't proving it didn't.

Wow: Barr says Mueller's letter: "was a bit snitty and was probably written by a member of his staff."

Blumenthal to press after hearing on Barr: "I think he probably should resign."

Notable words Barr used today: "Abjure," (had to look up) "pejorative," "precedential," "predicated," "snitty" and also "ahm" and other confused noises when Harris took him apart.