Attorney General William Barr may be subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee to testify next month before Congress over the decision to drop the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Barr initially was scheduled to testify in front of the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee at the end of March, but that was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Now that the District of Columbia has extended the stay-at-home order until June 8, we expect to see Barr in front of our committee on June 9, the very next day,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told MSNBC during an interview Wednesday.
Nadler noted that Barr has not yet agreed to testify before the committee and said the panel will issue a subpoena should Barr choose not to cooperate.
“We’re prepared to do whatever we have to do — we will consider all those methods,” said Nadler, adding, “We cannot have a situation where the attorney general just thumbs his nose and the administration holds Congress in contempt.”
Barr has defended his decision to drop the prosecution of Flynn amid efforts by the retired Army general to withdraw his guilty plea for lying to the FBI.
“Well, you know, people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes,” Barr previously told CBS News.
“And the Department of Justice is not persuaded that this was material to any legitimate counterintelligence investigation. So it was not a crime.”
Barr also denied carrying out President Trump’s “bidding,” saying he was “doing my duty under the law, as I see it.”
In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his phone calls with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but has said he didn’t lie intentionally.
Flynn in January filed a motion to withdraw his plea when prosecutors sought a six-month prison sentence.