Former US Attorney General Bill Barr spent more than four hours in a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee on Monday, and the reaction from lawmakers could not have been more different.
Democrats Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia emerged saying they were left with “more questions now” than before Barr even sat down. Subramanyam suggested Republicans were not taking the investigation seriously, saying, “I think the Democratic side is doing most of the heavy lifting, and I don’t think we’re learning much from the questioning from the House Republicans. It doesn’t seem like this is something where they are truly caring about the victims and about trying to get to the bottom of what’s happening”, reported CNN.
Crockett added, “It seems like they are going through the motions, and they want people to believe that they are digging in. But at the end of the day, I don’t think that we’ve learned anything through the Republican questioning that you couldn’t find in one of the articles that most likely your outlets have printed.”
Republican chairman James Comer, the only GOP member present, had a very different view. He told reporters Barr “shed a lot of light” on the Epstein case and “answered all the questions” put to him. He insisted the investigation was about transparency and praised Democrats for engaging seriously, though he also accused them of politicising the process.
“It’s unfortunate the Democrats are trying to, it seems to me, politicize this. When you look at the basis of this, horrific crimes against young girls, and, of course, the Democrats’ goal is to try to dig up some type of dirt on President Trump,” Comer said. He argued Republicans were asking “tough questions” and pointed to what he saw as a double standard, noting that Democrats had never subpoenaed one of their own former attorneys general.
Subramanyam had raised the possibility of a cover-up by Trump and his allies, but Comer pushed back, saying Democrats were pushing a “false narrative” linking the former president to Epstein. “This is a serious investigation. This is a sincere investigation. I hope this will be a bipartisan investigation,” Comer said. He added that Barr “had never communicated with President Trump on a potential Epstein list or anything else” and “had never seen anything that would implicate President Trump.”
Barr himself gave little away. He arrived nearly an hour early, joking to reporters that “the early bird gets the worm,” and when he left just before 3 p.m., he only said “absolutely” when asked if it had been a good conversation.
A source familiar with his testimony told Fox News Digital that Barr “made clear that President Trump never provided any views or instructions related to the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein or his death, and that he never saw any evidence suggesting President Trump committed a crime.” The source added Barr was “cooperative” and said he believed the Biden administration would have released any damaging information against Trump if it existed.
Barr is the first of several high-profile figures subpoenaed to testify in the committee’s probe, with more former attorneys general, ex-FBI directors, and even Bill and Hillary Clinton expected to appear.