Pelosi: A.G. Barr 'has deeply damaged the rule of law'

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rebuked Attorney General William Barr on Thursday for his role in reducing the proposed sentence of Trump associate Roger Stone earlier this week.

“A.G. Barr has deeply damaged the rule of law by withdrawing the DOJ’s sentencing recommendation, the act of interference in Trump’s retribution against [the] lead attorney in the Stone case,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference.

Pelosi called Barr a “sad disappointment to our country” and said that he has “stooped to such levels.” She was referring to the Justice Department's decision to overrule career prosecutors and propose a reduction in the sentence for Stone. The reversal, announced Tuesday, prompted all four prosecutors to withdraw from the criminal case.

“The American people deserve better,” Pelosi said. “This is not what America is about. It is so wrong.”

She also blasted President Donald Trump on Thursday for demonstrating “once again, that he has no respect for the rule of law” by “engaging in political interference” in the sentencing of Stone.

The speaker's comments come a day after it was announced Barr would testify before the House Judiciary Committee on March 31 amid numerous concerns from Democrats about his actions as head of the Department of Justice.

Democrats said in a letter to Barr on Wednesday that they plan to ask him about the change in the proposed sentence for Stone. Pelosi has called for an investigation into the change, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has asked that the DOJ’s inspector general look into what occurred.

Barr has refused to cooperate with House Democrats in the past. Last May, the attorney general skipped a Judiciary Committee hearing on then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference. In July, the House voted to hold Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for obstructing a probe into the administration's failed bid to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Pelosi was asked Thursday whether House Democrats were considering impeaching Barr, but she said only that Democrats were focused on protecting and defending the Constitution by impeachment the president. She added, "There’s so much malfeasance of the people in the executive branch right now."