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Attorney General Bill Barr compelled by ‘enforcement’ threat to hand over RussiaGate materials

Adam Schiff’s threats have spooked the Attorney General into complying.

In a stunning reversal today, at appears as though Bill Barr will comply with congressional demands in order to save himself from the enforcement of a contempt charge.

The Attorney General had previously defied Congress in several instances, both stonewalling democratic leaders during his public testimony on the Mueller report, and by enduring a charge of contempt when he refused to turn over an un-redacted version of the document to congressional leaders.

While these moves may have been protective of the President, public sentiment was not with Barr here.  The American people demanded transparency, not to protect Donald Trump, but to better understand the threat that Russia poses to the American system of democracy.

Now, as Congress pondered the enforcement of Bill Barr’s contempt, the AG is ready to play nice.

The Justice Department is trying to stave off an “enforcement action” against Attorney General William Barr this week, making a rare offer to have the House Intelligence Committee review materials from special counsel Robert Mueller’s report if House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff agrees to back down.

Last week Schiff said that he would hold a business meeting Wednesday to take an unspecified action against the Justice Department for not providing the committee documents related to Volume I of Mueller’s report on links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

The statement from the DOJ was telling.

“The Department has already begun the process of identifying, locating and reviewing the materials potentially responsive to the categories of documents,” Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote Tuesday, “a process that will not continue should the Committee take the unnecessary and unproductive step of moving to hold the Attorney General in contempt.”

Congress had previously considered levying hefty fines against those who ignored their constitutional authority, and at one point even considered have Bill Barr arrested by the Capitol Sergeant at Arms and dragged before the committee.

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