Tensions between Barr and House Judiciary Committee come to head in

The Judiciary Committee’s oversight hearing with Barr concluded just before 4 p.m. 

Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat from Florida, asked the attorney general whether he would commit to not releasing any report from U.S. Attorney John Durham before the November presidential election. Barr said he would not commit to withholding the report until after voters head to the polls.
 
Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, was tapped by Barr to conduct a sweeping probe into the origins of the Russia investigation.
 
“We’re not going to interfere,” Barr told lawmakers of the Justice Department. “In fact, I’ve made it very clear that I’m not going to tolerate it.”
 
The attorney general said any report released in the lead-up to the election “will be in my judgment not one that is covered” by Justice Department policy against taking investigative moves that could disrupt an election.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal lambasted Barr over the Trump administration’s disparate treatment of protesters who descended on state capitals demanding governors lift restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic and demonstrators who are protesting police brutality and racial injustice, which has led to the deployment of federal officers to U.S. cities.
 
“There is a real discrepancy in how you react as the attorney general, the top cop in this country, when White men with swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to ‘activate’ you, because they’re getting the president’s personal agenda done,” Jayapal told Barr. “But when Black people and people of color protest police brutality, systemic racism and the president’s very own lack of response to those critical issues, then you forcibly remove them with armed federal officers, pepper bombs because they are considered terrorists by the president.”
 
Jayapal referenced a phone call Mr. Trump had with governors regarding how to handle the protests when they turn violent, in which he urged them to “get tougher” and “dominate.” The president also warned governors he would “activate” Barr.
 
Barr said he is aware of protests with regards to the federal government.
 
“I have a responsibility for the federal government and the White House is the seat of the executive branch,” he…