Attorney General Bill Barr told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that he does not read President Trump's tweets after being grilled by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) about the president's praise for Roger Stone for not testifying against him.
Why it matters: Barr has previously said that Trump's "constant background commentary" about the Justice Department can "make it impossible" for him to do his job. Stone was convicted of lying to Congress about his efforts to find out more about the timing of WikiLeaks' email dumps and recently had his sentence commuted by Trump.
The big picture: Trump testified in written answers to former special counsel Robert Mueller that he did not recall discussing WikiLeaks with Stone. Evidence from Stone's trial and recently unredacted material from the Mueller report suggest the opposite.
- Stone later told journalist Howard Fineman: "I had 29 or 30 conversations with Trump during the campaign period. He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t. They wanted me to play Judas. I refused."
- Democrats have accused Trump of commuting Stone's sentence to ensure that Stone would not incriminate him.
The exchange:
SWALWELL: "If Donald Trump lied to the Mueller investigators, which you agree would be a crime, then Roger Stone was in a position to expose Donald Trump's lies. Are you familiar with the Dec. 3, 2018, tweet where Donald Trump said Roger Stone had shown guts by not testifying against him?"
BARR: "No, I am not familiar with that."
SWALWELL: "You don't read the president's tweets?"
BARR: "No."
SWALWELL: "Well there's a lot of evidence in the president's tweets, Mr. Attorney General, I think you should start reading them."