Top Republicans defended Attorney General William Barr in an unusual joint statement of support one day after more than 2,000 former Justice Department officials called on him to resign.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California called the demand, organized by a group critical of President Trump, an effort “to intimidate” Barr.
“Suggestions from outside groups that the Attorney General has fallen short of the responsibilities of his office are unfounded,” the three lawmakers said in the statement. “The Attorney General has shown that he is committed without qualification to securing equal justice under law for all Americans.”
The group Protect Democracy has been critical of Trump in the past, calling him an “immediate, acute, and extreme threat to our democracy that must be blunted.”
The group accuses Barr of using the department to benefit Trump politically. Protect Democracy is critical of Barr’s intervention in the sentencing guidelines for former Trump adviser Roger Stone that were set by four prosecutors.
Barr called for reducing the seven- to nine-year sentence, which has been deemed excessive. Stone was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering. The four prosecutors who recommended the longer sentence have resigned.
Barr, in an interview with ABC News, said Trump’s tweets made it impossible for him to do his job but that the president did not influence his decision to intervene in the Stone sentencing.
“I will make those decisions based on what I think is the right thing to do, and I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody,” Barr told ABC. “And I said, whether it’s Congress, newspaper editorial boards, or the president, I’m going to do what I think is right.”
[Opinion: William Barr ‘must’ not resign]
