Barr's empty chair foreshadows the constitutional struggle ahead

[mia]

...The House Judiciary Committee went forward with a hearing on the special counsel report Thursday without scheduled witness Attorney General William Barr, his empty seat at the witness table a sign of a broader separation of powers battle ahead.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the challenge we face is that the president of the United States wants desperately to prevent Congress — a coequal branch of government — from providing any check whatsoever to even his most reckless decisions,” Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in an opening statement.....

Nadler said every member of the committee should know the consequences for the administration ignoring a lawful subpoena, calling it an "act of obstruction" that lawmakers can't hold the executive branch responsible for waste or enact legislation no matter which party controls the White House.

“I do not know what Attorney General Barr will choose. I do not know what my Republican colleagues will choose,” Nadler said. “But I am certain that there is no way forward for this country that does not include a reckoning with this clear and present danger to our constitutional order.”

https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/182725-2

[Blue Owl]

1. It's Clint Eastwoodesque in its ambiguity

n/t