Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., stopped just short Wednesday of saying Attorney General William Barr lied to members of Congress when he first testified he did not know if special counsel Robert Mueller supported the conclusions he had reached on his report, but Murphy did accuse him of becoming a "political actor" who has "compromised the independence of the attorney general's office."
"It frankly makes me much more worried about the decisions he made on what to redact from his report," Sen. Murphy told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," while commenting on a letter Mueller sent to Barr indicating his concerns about how the report had been summarized back in April.
"This news broke overnight," Murphy said. "If he did represent to a congressional committee he had not heard from the special investigator about his distaste for the way in which he communicated information to Congress, clearly, he's not telling the truth."
Meanwhile, he said he never thought Barr should have been confirmed, and he had voted against him, but he is concerned about who would replace him, as President Donald Trump is "very clearly trying to put people in the attorney general's seat who are going to do his political bidding."
Murphy added he thinks there was "subtlety" to Barr's answers about knowing if Mueller disapproved of his findings, but also it does not sound like he told the "full truth."
"I think we need to know more about what Mueller told the attorney general, then we need to hear from Mueller himself," Murphy said. "I mean, I think it is hard to get a full picture of this unless Congress talks to the special investigator."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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