WASHINGTON -- Attorney General William Barr defended the federal law enforcement response to violent civil unrest in America that he called "scenes of destruction" as he testified Tuesday for the first time before the House Judiciary Committee.
Barr said "violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests" and argued the violence taking place in Portland, Ore., and other cities is disconnected from George Floyd's killing at the hands of police in Minnesota, which he called a "horrible" event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement agencies. He also said there was no systemic racism in the enforcement of the law.
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"Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd's death or any legitimate call for reform," Barr said of the Portland protests.
The hearing marks Barr's first appearance before the committee after 18 months in office, on what Democrats say is politicization of the Justice Department under his watch.
Democrats often used their five minutes to lay out their frustrations and cut Barr off as he attempted to answer questions.
"This is a hearing; I thought I was the one who was supposed to be heard," Barr said in exasperation.
The hearing took place after Barr has taken actions supported by President Donald Trump but condemned by Democrats and other critics. Among them: the Justice Department's decision to drop the prosecution of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn and Barr's request for a more lenient sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone, a move that prompted the entire trial team's departure. Trump later commuted the sentence entirely.
Lawmakers on the committee argued about mask-wearing etiquette, bathroom breaks and more. In the afternoon, the committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., initially refused Barr's request for a five-minute break. "You're a class act," the attorney general said, before Nadler relented.
The top Republican on the panel, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, used his opening statement to show an eight-minute video that spliced together images of violence by protesters around the country.
Democrats presented a shorter video of their own of more peaceful protesters, shown by Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline.
Nadler said the Trump administration had "twisted the Department of Justice into a shadow of its former self," serving the powerful before average Americans.
Nadler said Barr had "aided and abetted" Trump's worst impulses and excoriated him and the Justice Department for turning a blind eye to necessary reforms to police departments, for dismissing Black Lives Matter protests and for flooding streets with federal agents to stop protesters.
"You are projecting fear and violence nationwide in pursuit of obvious political objectives. Shame on you, Mr. Barr," Nadler said.
'ON THE DEFENSE'
Barr replied that U.S. marshals and other federal agents have a duty to guard the Portland courthouse from people tossing fireworks and trying to vandalize and break into the building. He said the agents are under siege in that building and need help dealing with a nightly barrage of fireworks, fires, and attacks. Law enforcement personnel have suffered serious injuries, Barr said.
"We are on the defense, we are not looking for trouble, and if the state and the city would provide the law enforcement services that other jurisdictions do, we would have no need to have additional marshals in the courthouse," the attorney general said.
The Washington Post reported Monday that law enforcement officials have decided to send 100 deputy marshals to Portland, Ore., to beef up courthouse security; the Customs and Border Protection agency is sending an additional 50 agents.
However, White House officials said Tuesday that the administration has started talks with the Oregon governor's office and indicated that it would begin to draw down the presence of federal agents if the state stepped up its own enforcement, a senior White House official said Tuesday.
The official stressed to The Associated Press that the talks with the office of Democratic Gov. Kate Brown are in the early stages and there is no agreement. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan said Tuesday that she had received confirmation that U.S. agents had left the area.
Durkan, Gov. Jay Inslee and other local leaders said in a joint news release that the Department of Homeland Security's Border Patrol Tactical Unit had demobilized.
The attorney general acknowledged that Floyd's death struck a chord in the Black community because it reinforced concerns Black people are treated differently by police. But he condemned Americans who he says have responded inappropriately to Floyd's death.
"As elected officials of the federal government, every member of this committee -- regardless of your political views or your feelings about the Trump administration -- should condemn violence against federal officers and destruction of federal property," Barr said.
OPPOSING TESTIMONY
Civil unrest escalated in Portland after federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause; the people were detained and later released. And in Washington, D.C., protesters were cleared from the streets by federal officers using smoke bombs and pepper balls last month before Trump arrived to take photos in front of St. John's church.
Barr defended the broad use of law enforcement power to deal with the situation, noting that protesters had earlier set fire to the church and "it was total consensus that you couldn't allow that to happen so close to the White House." The department's internal watchdog has opened investigations into use of force and other tactics by agents in Washington and Portland.
He also said the force was used because the protesters would not disperse from the area when law enforcement officials were trying to move back the security perimeter, a decision made the night before. When pressed on details, he pointed to the investigations.
The use of pepper spray was warranted, he said.
Also on Tuesday, Gregory Monahan, head of the U.S. Park Police, testified before the House Natural Resources Committee that the forceful routing of protesters from the square had "zero correlation" with the president's photo event.
But appearing at the same hearing as Monahan, Maj. Adam DeMarco of the Army National Guard told lawmakers of his surprise when Park Police officers suddenly and rapidly mobilized to drive the hundreds of then-peaceful demonstrators from the square, clubbing people with their shields and batons and unleashing chemical irritants.
It appeared "an unnecessary escalation of the use of force," DeMarco said.
CLASHES ON FLYNN, STONE
Beyond the federal response to the demonstrations, Barr was pressed in detail about his intervention in the Flynn and Stone cases, both of which arose from former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Democrats criticized him for partly taking into account Stone's health and age, 67.
"This is a 67-year-old man, first-time offender, no violence, and they were trying to put him in jail for seven to nine years," Barr said of Stone. "And I wasn't going to advocate that, because that is not the rule of law."
"The judge agreed with me," he stressed later.
"And even though I knew I would get a lot of criticism for doing that, I think at the end of the day my obligation is to be fair to the individual," Barr said.
"The message these actions send is clear: In this Justice Department, the president's enemies will be punished and his friends will be protected, no matter the cost, no matter the cost to liberty, no matter the cost to justice," Nadler said.
Barr insisted that the assertion was not true, saying Trump "told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call I think is right," adding, "That is precisely what I have done." He challenged his critics to point to a single indictment of one of Trump's foes.
"I'm supposedly punishing the president's enemies and helping his friends," Barr said. "What enemies have I indicted? Who -- could you point to one indictment that has been under the department that you feel is unmerited?"
"The president's friends don't deserve special breaks, but they also don't deserve to be treated more harshly than other people," Barr said.
ELECTION INTERFERENCE
Barr also addressed Trump's assertions on Twitter that the 2020 presidential election will be "rigged." Asked by Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond if that could be the case, Barr said "I have no reason to think it will be." Barr also said he agrees with the nation's intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
Barr, however, stood by his repeated public suggestion that mail-in voting could lead to fraud, particularly if the practice is expanded widely.
Barr said Americans "have to assume" that Russia is seeking to interfere in the coming election. In one exchange, he stumbled when asked whether it would be appropriate for the president "to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election." At first, Barr told Cicilline, "it depends what kind of assistance." But when asked the question again, with Cicilline adding that the assistance could be "of any kind," Barr shifted course.
"No, it's not appropriate," he said.
Unlike Trump, Barr did confirm that he would leave office if the president lost.
"If the results are clear, I will leave office," Barr said.
Information for this article was contributed by Mary Clare Jalonick, Michael Balsamo, Ellen Knickmeyer, Gillian Flaccus, Andrew Selsky, Jonathan Lemire, Colleen Long, Suman Naishadham, Lisa Baumann and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press; and by Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, Karoun Demirjian and Felicia Sonmez John Wagner and Nick Miroff of The Washington Post.
