Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday is set to appear before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee to discuss the Justice Department’s fiscal 2020 budget request. He is expected to face questions about special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation, which Barr has said he will release within a week. A number of questions focused on the Mueller report when Barr testified at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Watch live in the video above.<doc-sep>Attorney General William Barr testified before a House subcommittee Tuesday, marking his first appearance before lawmakers on Capitol Hill since releasing his four-page memo on the key findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The official purpose of the hearing, which was conducted by the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, was to discuss Barr's fiscal year 2020 spending request for the Department of Justice. However, top Democrats grilled the attorney general on his Mueller report summary. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The subcommittee's chairman, Rep. José Serrano (D-NY), expressed his doubt on how Barr accurately turned a 300-page report in to a four-page summary in his prepared opening remarks. Barr indicated that a redacted version of the Mueller report would be made available "within a week." Follow Fox News' live blog below. Mobile users click here. Fox News' Chad Pergram and Gregg Re contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Sitting in the hot seat of a high-profile congressional hearing has a way of unmasking the mettle of any witness. Attorney General William Barr Bill BarrWatchdog group suing for Trump obstruction memo blasts DOJ for trying to block release Biden DOJ to appeal court order to release Trump obstruction memo CNN reporter's phone and email records secretly obtained by Trump administration: report MORE showed us Tuesday, in his first testimony since the end of the Russia probe, that he’s not big on emotion, animation or flashy presentations. Calm, scholarly and precise was his modus operandi, even as Democrats tried to lob a bomb or two his way. But the even-keeled nature of his two-hour-plus performance shouldn’t blind us to one momentous declaration he made to lawmakers. ADVERTISEMENT Though it didn’t happen on his watch, Barr told Congress he will investigate how the FBI came to conduct a counterintelligence investigation against Donald Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE, then the Republican nominee for president, starting in the summer of 2016. We have known for more than a year now that Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been investigating whether the FBI or DOJ abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to secure a warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page less than three weeks from Election Day 2016. But Barr made clear Tuesday that his review is distinct and more far-ranging than IG Horowitz’s investigation. It goes back to the moment when a probe code-named Crossfire Hurricane was opened on July 31, 2016, by Trump-hating FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok. That probe’s goal was to determine whether Trump was colluding with Russia to hijack the election. And very quickly, the FBI chose to use an opposition research project, funded by Trump rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party and written by British intelligence operative Christopher Steele, as key evidence — even though it was unverified at the time. Special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerSenate Democrats urge Garland not to fight court order to release Trump obstruction memo Why a special counsel is guaranteed if Biden chooses Yates, Cuomo or Jones as AG Barr taps attorney investigating Russia probe origins as special counsel MORE has settled the collusion issue, concluding (like House and Senate Intelligence committee Republicans before him) that there was no Trump-Russia conspiracy. But Barr used a question from Rep. Robert Aderholt Robert Brown AderholtHouse Democrats call for paid legal representation in immigration court Mo Brooks expresses interest in running for Shelby's Senate seat Shelby won't run for reelection MORE (R-Ala.) to signal that he wants to go further than Mueller or the IG to determine whether the counterintelligence probe was legit from the start. “The Office of the Inspector General has a pending investigation of the FISA process in the Russia investigation. I expect that will be complete in probably May or June, I am told,” Barr explained, giving the first concrete timetable for the IG probe to wrap up. “So hopefully we'll have some answers from Inspector General Horowitz on the issue of the FISA warrants.” Then Barr volunteered his bigger news: “More generally, I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation and trying to get my arms around all the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted during the summer of 2016.” He didn’t offer much more, although he told Rep. Aderholt that if there are additional issues to investigate when former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes Devin Gerald NunesCNN reporter's phone and email records secretly obtained by Trump administration: report Hillicon Valley: Colonial Pipeline CEO says company paid hackers .4 million in ransomware attack | Facebook sets up 'special operations center' for content on Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Granholm expresses openness to pipeline cyber standards after Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance investing in YouTube alternative popular among conservatives MORE sends the department a criminal referral, he will expand his probe. Within a few hours of Barr wrapping up, official Washington was just starting to grasp the magnitude of his matter-of-fact declaration. Trump’s defenders rejoiced that they finally were getting what they have wanted: a wide-ranging review of whether the counterintelligence probe that tarred Trump for two years was warranted, conducted properly or tainted by political bias. “I think this is huge,” Rep. Jim Jordan James (Jim) Daniel JordanHouse sends anti-Asian hate bill to Biden's desk Sunday shows preview: House GOP removes Cheney from leadership position; CDC issues new guidance for fully vaccinated Americans GOP votes to replace Cheney with Stefanik after backing from Trump MORE (R-Ohio) told me. “We’ve always wanted someone with authority to go back and see how this started and whether it was done by the rules. And now we have that chance.” Jordan said Barr’s review, coupled with planned hearings by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamSenators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission Police reform fight hinges on qualified immunity On The Money: White House counters with .7 trillion infrastructure proposal, GOP unimpressed | USDA to start loan forgiveness for thousands of minority farmers MORE (R-S.C.) should finally give Americans some complete answers about whether figures such as Strzok, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe Andrew George McCabeThe FBI should turn off the FARA faucet John Durham's endgame: Don't expect criminal charges Carter Page sues over surveillance related to Russia probe MORE, fired FBI Director James Comey James Brien ComeyThe FBI should turn off the FARA faucet Barr threatened to resign over Trump attempts to fire Wray: report 'Fox News Sunday' to mark 25 years on air MORE and departing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Rod RosensteinProtect the police or the First Amendment? Rosenstein: Zero tolerance immigration policy 'never should have been proposed or implemented' Comey argues Trump shouldn't be prosecuted after leaving Oval Office MORE acted appropriately. For most of the last year, Comey and McCabe have controlled the public narrative while cashing in with books. But Mueller’s no-collusion conclusion was the first pinprick in their narrative of there being good reason to believe Trump colluded with Russia. And Barr’s and Graham’s deeper investigations could find answers to many troubling questions, such as: Were the FBI and the intelligence community essentially used to carry out a political dirty trick to try to stop Trump from winning and then to delegitimize his election victory afterward? Did the FBI mislead the FISA court by withholding evidence of innocence and failing to tell the judges that their main evidence was bought and paid for by Trump’s Democratic rival and written by a Trump-hating British operative? Did Strzok, Page and Steele’s overt anti-Trump bias impact the investigation? Did the FBI use strategic leaks to the news media to create evidence or a narrative to sustain a probe with weak underpinnings? Did the FBI abuse intelligence tools or unnecessarily use invasive tactics that targeted just one candidate and impinged on a fair and free election? Getting answers to these questions is essential to restore Americans’ trust in the FBI and the justice system. It also is essential to ensuring accountability is meted out to anyone who failed to follow the law. Most importantly, it is the key to ensuring that the checkered history of the Russia collusion case is never repeated. John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work over the years has exposed U.S. and FBI intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal scientists’ misuse of foster children and veterans in drug experiments, and numerous cases of political corruption. He serves as an investigative columnist and executive vice president for video at The Hill.<doc-sep>
Attorney General William Barr testifies before lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for the first time since special counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report on the Russia investigation to the Justice Department last month. Barr will appear before a House Appropriations subcommittee to discuss President Donald Trump's 2020 budget request for the Department of Justice. But many expect lawmakers to question the attorney general about the Mueller report and when the full report will be released to Congress and the public. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT and can be livestreamed below. It can also be viewed live on C-SPAN. Barr has been under scrutiny since he released a four-page summary of the investigation's key findings on March 24. Mueller's full report is more than 400-pages long. In the summary, Barr said the special counsel's team did not establish a conspiracy between Russia and Donald Trump's campaign during the 2016 election. The attorney general also said that while the special counsel did not reach a conclusion on whether the president had obstructed justice, he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined there was not sufficient evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice. Many have speculated that Barr, a Trump appointee, may have interpreted the special counsel's report in a way that favored the president. Some members of Mueller's team told The New York Times and The Washington Post that they believed Barr did not adequately represent the findings of their two-year investigation into Russian election interference. They said, according to The Times and The Post, that the attorney general ignored the summaries they had prepared for public release, which would have allowed the work to speak for itself. They also told the news outlets that the issue of obstruction of justice was actually much more "acute than Barr suggested." The Department of Justice has defended Barr's initial summary and stated that there was sensitive information pertaining to grand jury investigations in the original report that could not be disclosed at this time. Barr himself has pledged to release a version of the report by the middle of this month, although with redactions. House Democrats have demanded that the report be released in its entirety. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee authorized a subpoena for the full report in case Barr did not make the entire document available. "Show us the Mueller report, show us the tax returns, and we are not walking away just because you say no the first time around," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Trump last Thursday. Barr filed a written statement on Monday with the House Appropriations Committee ahead of his testimony. The document makes no mention of Mueller's report or the Russia investigation.