William Barr Is Cowering at the Prospect of a Proper Cross-Examination

[babylonsister]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/william-barr-jerry-nadler-testimony-judiciary-committee.html

William Barr Is Cowering at the Prospect of a Proper Cross-Examination
By Frank Bowman
April 29, 2019
3:43 PM
This piece first appeared on the blog Impeachable Offenses.


This weekend brought a subtle, but important, bit of good news for those interested in effective congressional investigations of the Trump administration.

Attorney General William Barr is threatening to refuse the request of the House Judiciary Committee that he testify later this week. Reportedly, Barr is balking because the committee will deviate from the pattern of recent congressional hearings in which members do all the questioning and every member gets a paltry three to five minutes to ask questions of the witness, with no opportunity for follow-up. Instead, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler is delegating some of the questioning to committee lawyers who will have 30 minutes to pursue lines of questioning to their logical conclusions. There may also be a private session about any classified materials in the Mueller report.

The “get every Member on camera for five minutes” mode of proceeding has long had those of us who are trial lawyers tearing our hair and screaming at our TV sets (or computer screens). It is guaranteed to be ineffectual for three reasons: First, cross-examination, particularly of reluctant or hostile witnesses, is the single most difficult trial skill. To do it well takes training and years of practice. Perishingly few members of either the House or Senate have the professional background to have mastered it. For most of those few, the experience was years in the past, and they’ve lost their edge.

snip//

It is extraordinarily heartening to see that Nadler seems to have learned a lesson from history. Barr’s anguished cries at the prospect of a modest move back toward earlier and more productive modes of procedure should be seen as what they are—the vain protestations of a lawyer who knows the power of competent cross-examination and desperately wants to avoid having it directed at him.

That said, Nadler’s proposal is only a modest step in the right direction. The staff questioning will still be broken up into five-minute alternating chunks between majority and minority counsel, which is sadly reminiscent of the clumsy experiment by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority in the Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Nadler should do two things. He should stick to his guns in this confrontation with Barr. And in the future, he should move even more firmly in the direction of procedural rules that, in living memory, facilitated the discovery of truth. Committees of both the House and Senate who want facts should follow and build on his example.

[BigmanPigman]

1. Adler is not going to give in...good!

Subpoena the bastard the minute he is a no-show.

[Takket]

2. I don't care how they do it...

Just do SOMETHING. my patience for this is WORN OUT. for two years I kept hearing be patient, let mueller do his thing. Now it is be patient, let congress do its thing. It should not take an entire four year presidency to figure out if the president is a criminal or not.

Days keep stretching into weeks and weeks into months. You don’t want to impeach yet we’ll okay but show some kind of sense of urgency. LETS GO!!!

Get the show on the road!!!

[FakeNoose]

3. Come on Barr, let's see what ya got!

[Chin music]

8. Yeah...He's scared.

Buck up Bill. Show those newer Barr generation lawyers how to do it. Chicken shit.

[Tanuki]

4. Interesting tweet from Preet Bharara:

Link to tweet

[Glimmer of Hope]

6. But he does such stupid shit.

[Tanuki]

7. Or he does evil shit, when he knows better.

[Ligyron]

11. IOW, he's the smartest of their imbeciles so don't worry?

As AG though, he is "the most dangerous".

[Corgigal]

13. He couldn't be that smart

to personally jump on a grenade for Trump. Trump for god sakes.

[malaise]

5. One name

Christine Ford

[Amaryllis]

9. I remember Katie POrter saying recently on MSNBC that the purpose of hearings is for

the people to learn the truth, not for politicians to talk.

[watoos]

10. A subpoena and fines

Are a waste of time. There is no one to enforce them before the election.
Do what Neil Katchyal suggested. Cut off the funds to the A.G. and his department until he complies with the subpoena. The House controls the purse strings, use that power to force compliance

[Chin music]

12. That's the real deal, right there. Take a bite, outta crime.

1/2 me thinks he'll take a powder and beg off on the whole thing bc....lawyers. He's scared now. Needs to lose his law license.