William Barr May Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee: Report

Marita Vlachou

Former Attorney General William Barr, who served in Donald Trump’s administration, may testify before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Barr “tentatively agreed to give sworn testimony behind closed doors,” according to sources cited by CNN. Axios reported the Jan. 6 committee is still undecided whether to invite Barr to the panel’s public hearings slated for June.

The former attorney general has previously cooperated with the House committee.

“To be honest with you, we’ve had conversations with the former attorney general already,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told CBS’ “Face the Nation,” in January, when asked about reports on a Trump draft executive order authorizing the Pentagon to seize voting machines from key battleground states.

Following Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, Barr told The Associated Press there was no proof to support claims of widespread fraud.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr said.

The statement enraged Trump, and a few weeks later, on Dec. 14, 2020, Trump tweeted that Barr had resigned.

Barr has been doing the media rounds in recent months promoting his tell-all book, “One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General.”

In March, he told NBC News that Trump was in part to blame for the insurrection, but maintained he doesn’t have evidence the former president was legally accountable.

“I do think he was responsible in the broad sense of that word in that it appears that part of the plan was to send this group up to the Hill,” Barr told NBC’s Lester Holt. “I think that the whole idea was to intimidate Congress, and I think that was wrong.”

Barr told CNN his former boss is “not my idea of a president,” but said he’d vote for him again in 2024 if he’s the GOP nominee.

The Jan. 6 committee said Thursday it is seeking the voluntary cooperation of Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) and said it had evidence Loudermilk led a tour of the U.S. Capitol the day before the riot.

The House committee earlier this month subpoenaed five Republican members of Congress, including House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who privately told Republicans Trump accepted some responsibility for the insurrection a few days after the violent attack.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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