William Barr testimony - live: US attorney general grilled by Senate amid calls for his impeachment
William Barr is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, just after the public release of a March letter from special counsel Robert Mueller to the attorney general to express his frustration at the handling of the report detailing the investigation into whether Donald Trump‘s campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election, and obstructed justice during the ensuing investigation.
In March, Mr Barr published a four-page summary of the 448-page dossier before releasing a redacted version last month — Mr Mueller sent his letter expressing frustration just days after the initial summary was released. Following the release of that summary, President Trump and the right-wing media hailed the findings of the report as a “total exoneration”, despite Mr Mueller declaring the opposite and the report painting a highly unflattering portrait of Mr Trump and his inner circle.
News that Mr Mueller sent such came the night before Mr Barr began his two days of testimony before the Senate and House judiciary committees. He is expected to face tough questions on the Mueller report and his decision-making surrounding it. Calls for his impeachment as a result of the letter have already begun. The president, for his part, found himself duped on Wednesday morning into retweeting a message from a decidedly hostile Twitter account.
Mr Barr has promised to work with Ms Klobuchar to enhance the security of America's election.
Ms Klobuchar is noting that she helped spearhead an effort to improve America's infrastructure, but that the White House made calls to end that effort.
One of the notable moments from this morning's testimony came early, during an exchange between Mr Barr and Dianne Feinstein.
During the exchange, Mr Barr argued that it is not illegal for Mr Trump to attempt to get an aide to lie or mislead on his behalf.
"You still have a situation where a president essentially tries to change the lawyer's account in order to prevent further criticism of himself," Ms Feinstein said, in reference to an incident involving former White House counsel Don McGahn.
Pulling away for a moment from the testimony of Mr Barr, the White House just asked Congress for $4.5bn in additional border spending — adding on top of the billions already requested.
Mr Lee is saying that the Russian government's attempt to influence the 2016 election is being used as a political weapon against the president.
Mr Barr, when prompted, has said that he is not aware of any evidence that Mr Trump is a Russian asset, or that Russian President Vladimir Putin has dirt on the president.
Mr Durbin is now asking about Don McGahn, noting that the president had asked him to state publicly that Mr Trump did not ask him to fire the special counsel.
Mr Durbin said that his intent was "clear", and that he was explicit in his desire to get the Russia investigation to end. He also noted that Mr Trump said explicitly on national television that he fired James Comey to end the Russia investigation.
Senator Dick Durbin is now up, saying that Republicans are now coordinating the "lock her up defense."
Mocking his colleagues, he suggested that Republicans are resorting to years old attacks on Mr Trump's former political rival, instead of focusing on the issue at hand.
"That is totally unresponsive to the reality of what the American people want to know," Mr Durbin said.
